T.C. Boyle's Fictional Kinsey

The late sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, whose researches into our mating habits, with his wife and a team of erotic explorers, caused a major stir nearly 50 years ago, plays a starring role in a new novel by T.C. Boyle, just bought by his regular Viking editor, Paul Slovak. It tells the story of an imaginary young researcher on Kinsey's team whose married life is upended by the goings-on at the Sex Research Institute; it's called The Inner Circle. Slovak bought North American rights from agent Georges Borchardt and will publish next fall.