Exactly How Many Shades of Grey?

by Kelly WeaverIf E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey was written 20 years ago, Fabio would have been on the cover; chest hair gleaming and locks a’ flowing, and the book would have sunk into the sea of the Harlequin section at Barnes & Noble. The tradition of the romance novel, which a friend and I lovingly referred to in our teens as the “crotch-novel,” sees nothing new in Fifty Shades. I know, I’ve read them.