“Bad Sex: A Novel.” By Clancy Martin. Tyrant Books. 184 pages. $23

Among my favorite aspects of Clancy Martin’s second novel, “Bad Sex,” is that it is not about bad sex; in fact, the sex is relentless, passionate. Rather, it is about all the bad stuff sex – or sexual obsession – can make us do. Narrated by Brett, a recovering alcoholic who betrays her sobriety, and her marriage, for a yearlong affair with her husband’s banker Eduard, the book records the spiral, the ripple effect, of transgressive behavior, the way that once we slip the bounds of propriety, it can be ever more difficult to find a passage back.