The Inner Circle

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the award–winning author of The Tortilla Curtain comes “a fascinating, fictional rendering of what life might have been like doing research for infamous sex professor Alfred Kinsey” (Chicago Tribune). “A biting satire of emotional manipulation, sexual indiscretion, and scientific hubris.”—The Boston Globe   A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune   In 1940, John Milk, a virginal young man, accepts a job as an assistant to Dr. Alfred Kinsey, and extraordinarily charming professor of zoology at Indiana University who has just discovered his life’s true calling: sex.   As a member of Kinsey’s “inner circle” of researchers, Milk and his beautiful new wife are called on to participate in sexual experiments that become increasingly uninhibited—and problematic for his marriage. For in his later years, Kinsey, who behind closed doors is a sexual enthusiast of the first order, ever more recklessly pushed the boundaries both personally and professionally.   At heart a moving and compassionate look at sex, marriage, jealousy, and infidelity, The Inner Circle makes use of Alfred Kinsey’s controversial studies on human sexuality to create an irresistible tale about the interaction between our human and animal natures.

About the Author :
T. C. Boyle is a novelist and regular contributor to The New Yorker. His novels include World’s End and The Tortilla Curtain, and he has also published numerous collections of short stories. A Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California, he lives in Santa Barbara.

Review :
"Kinsey is in some ways a perfect subject for this sly and intrepid novelist…while Boyle is fascinated by the zealous energy of perfectionists like Kinsey, he is at bottom a defender of romance against the tyranny of reason.” —The New York Times Book Review“The Inner Circle may draw readers because of its sexy subject matter, but they will stay for the emotional punch of Boyle’s meditations on love, marriage, and jealousy.” —The San Francisco Chronicle “Terrific…Kinsey looms as one of the most wonderfully repellent figures in recent literature, but Circle’s hero is smart, commonsensical Iris, who understands that Kinsey’s mechanistic views of sex fails to account for love, jealousy, and human nature.” —Entertainment Weekly “The Inner Circle is a harrowing depiction of how questionable are some of the consequences of sexual liberation…that the novel is a page-turner, with lots of sex in it, only serves Boyle’s purpose all the better.” —The Washington Post “Compelling and subtly humorous…a biting satire of emotional manipulation, sexual indiscretion, and scientific hubris.” —The Boston Globe "The Inner Circle never lets you tear your eyes from the page." —The Washington Post Book World