Book Review: 50 Shades of Grey

By Rosa Schmidt, Oakland Public Library Director

Love it or hate it, 2011 novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” made author E. L. James more than just a household name it also fulfilled a childhood dream of being a writer of stories that readers would fall  in love with. And that they seem to have done, to the tune of $60 million.

E. L. (Erika Leonard) James novel is noted for its explicitly erotic scenes that feature numerous elements of sexual practices which involved sadism/masochism, bondage/discipline, and dominance/submission. When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own
terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success, —his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—, Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy (Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades
Freed) can obsess you, possess you, and stay with you or it may just leave you with the desire to go read a good book.