Jake's Lost Masculinity

Constantly lurking somewhere uncomfortably under the surface of the action of the novel is Jake's cryptic injury he gained during his service in the war. Although never explicitly stated in the novel, I get resonances of some sort of injury to his genitals. Because we lack the grimy details necessary to understand their level of functionality, we are left with only speculation. I thought it would be an interesting explanation of Jake's character if he were rendered unable to have sex.

First of all, it would shed light on the puzzling relationship between Jake and Brett and it makes it understandable why they seem to have such a petrified relationship, hopelessly unable to actually get together. Jake seems extremely bitter about the fact that "there's not a damn thing [they] could do" about their mutual attraction to each other. Jake seems to have a rather cynical view of his injury, considering that injuries such as his can be for others "a subject of merriment while remaining quite serious for the person presenting them." Although I don't think the injury is any sort of joke for Brett; if Jake were unable to perform sexually it would likely be quite hard on her, seeing how much she seems emotionally invested in their semi-romantic relationship. 

So, like, yeah.