Former President Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump recently told Jessica Bennett that her project with E. Jen Carroll is “not softcore p***” and is a “no politics zone.”
Mary and Ms. Carroll — whom a jury says ex-President Donald Trump sexually abused — are partnering with Jen Taub on a serialized romance novel called The Italian Lesson. that’s being released on the Substack Backstory Serial.
The trio Zoomed with Bennett for her Wait, Really? Substack this week for an in-depth interview to promote the project, which the authors say is more sexy than erotic:
E. Jean, as a columnist who often delivered romantic advice, I have to imagine you have read your share of romance?
Carroll: I’ve read stacks, stacks. When I lived in Montana, this was during the heydey of romance writing in the 1970s, my husband would drive into Bozeman because we lived way out in Ennis, and he’d bring them back for me. He’d say, “Well, what titles do you want?” I always said, it doesn’t make any difference! If the guy on the cover is ripping her clothes off, bring me the book. That’s all. Whoever has less clothes on, just bring ’em to me.
Do you call what you’re writing erotica?
Trump: No, it’s not softcore p**n.
Taub: We don’t really want to write s*x scenes — no, that’s not our thing.
Trump: Look, I love Faulkner, and Toni Morrison, so… I prefer to think of them as sexy, as opposed to s*x.
Taub: There will be no “zipless fu***” in our book.
(She’s referring to the term coined in that Erica Jong novel, which soon entered the lexicon as a way to refer to anonymous, no-strings-attached s*x.)
The subject of Donald Trump did come up very briefly, although none of the participants uttered his name.
