Fifty shades of serious summer reading

It is said that there are only two stories: Boy Meets Girl or A Stranger Comes to Town. The runaway best-selling trilogy “Fifty Shades of Grey” is both of these and then some.

You don’t have to admit it. I know you’re reading, have read or will read one or more of this trio. In the interest of full disclosure, I read half of the first book, which was more than enough for me. Others can’t get enough of this erotic fantasy in which a young woman succumbs to the charms of a handsome, commanding stranger ironically named Christian. (The irony lies in his propensity for sinful behavior.)

There has been all kinds of moralizing and attempted censorship and intellectualizing about the immense popularity of the books. I say it’s same old, same old. If you’re old enough to have been entranced by “The Story of O” or the novels of Anais Nin, then you remember how enticing sexy books can be. What interests me is that “Fifty Shades” is most popular with young women. The girls who grew up strong and independent and headed for powerful jobs became women who find porn lit compelling.

Don’t ask me why. But you might ask my daughter the psychiatrist, who says that many young women are yearning for strong, commanding men who will take care of them. This yearning, she suggests, isn’t something they wish would play out in real life. It’s a fantasy, and that’s the appeal of the book — imagining a man who takes care of everything, from changing the light bulbs to lighting up your life.

Moving on to books you can admit to reading, No. 1 on your list must be “The Art of Fielding,” by Chad Harbach. Here, in the midst of baseball season, is a baseball story for the ages, a novel with real heart and depth that taught me more about playing first base than I ever thought I’d want to know.

Add to the summer reading list “The Submission,” by Amy Waldman, which has nothing to do with sex, despite the title. Waldman tells the fictional story of a memorial planned for ground zero and the ethical and political complications that ensue. Prophetic and elegantly written, her novel touches on all the real pathos that have surrounded the ongoing plans for the World Trade Center site.