Exactly how steamy is this story?
PG-13
There is sex in this novel, but you're not going to get any play-by-play descriptions, and in one case, the sexual act is downright depressing. Given that this is a book that spends a great deal of time about Joe's coming of age—and sexual experience is a big part of that (there's an entire chapter devoted to it)—we do hear about girlfriends, prostitutes, and a well-meaning-but-misguided nurse.
The sex in this novel isn't gratuitous. If anything is a full-body experience, it's sex, and so sex comes to symbolize a lot of what Joe has permanently lost. All this talk of sex makes us appreciate the horror of Joe's situation better and understand its many repercussions.