ferris_mx's review
5.0
Based on the title, I expected this book to be about adultery. I wouldn't say that is accurate at all. A fascinating look at the ongoing struggle between puritans and censors, and those who want free literary and sexual expression. We all know about the sexual liberation of the 60s, and the book is largely about that period. I did not know about the struggle for freedom going back to the early 1800s, at least - and often sponsored by religious renegades. Nor did I accurately recall the repressive boomerang of the Nixon years, and that actually gave me hope in this dark time.
But mainly, and critically, the freedom of speech we take for granted today has not existed since the Bill of Rights. Our fellow citizens have fought for our freedom of expression over the intervening centuries, tooth and claw, at personal expense including imprisonment. We can't afford to continue to take it for granted.
But mainly, and critically, the freedom of speech we take for granted today has not existed since the Bill of Rights. Our fellow citizens have fought for our freedom of expression over the intervening centuries, tooth and claw, at personal expense including imprisonment. We can't afford to continue to take it for granted.
apatrick's review against another edition
This is a tough book to pigeonhole. If you like Studs Terkel's Working, you'll probably like this, too. It's about the history of sexual mores in America and how they've changed over time, particularly pornography and the various utopian communities that had approaches to sex and marriage that were totally outside the norm. American attitudes about sex changed drastically between the 1950s and 1980s, prompting Talese to research the topic.
I would consider Gay Talese to be one of those classic non-fiction authors that everyone should know about, and you ought to read at least one of his books. This is a pretty interesting place to start, and this particular edition contains some updates made in 2008 addressing what happened to some of the people Talese writes about and also discussing how his research into this book caused a backlash in the press and affected his marriage. It's a pretty brave story.
I would consider Gay Talese to be one of those classic non-fiction authors that everyone should know about, and you ought to read at least one of his books. This is a pretty interesting place to start, and this particular edition contains some updates made in 2008 addressing what happened to some of the people Talese writes about and also discussing how his research into this book caused a backlash in the press and affected his marriage. It's a pretty brave story.
bethreadsandnaps's review
3.0
This is different than I expected. I learned about this author through the Netflix documentary Voyeur. He advertised this one heavily in that. It was an odd book, basically talking about “indecency” through the years. Most of the chapters seem like self-contained essays about specific people. There are several chapters about Hefner. Since this book was written in the 70s, this is Hefner the Early Years. He also talks about the main players who started Sandstone, which is basically a commune.
The book was billed as a journalist infiltrating a commune, but he really talks about the people involved. The last 10% of the book he interjects himself, referring to himself in third person (weird), but even that isn’t lascivious.
I found this somewhat boring, but I learned some interesting tidbits, like the Oneida silverware founders had a free love commune, so it wasn’t a waste.
The book was billed as a journalist infiltrating a commune, but he really talks about the people involved. The last 10% of the book he interjects himself, referring to himself in third person (weird), but even that isn’t lascivious.
I found this somewhat boring, but I learned some interesting tidbits, like the Oneida silverware founders had a free love commune, so it wasn’t a waste.
apatrick's review against another edition
This is a tough book to pigeonhole. If you like Studs Terkel's Working, you'll probably like this, too. It's about the history of sexual mores in America and how they've changed over time, particularly pornography and the various utopian communities that had approaches to sex and marriage that were totally outside the norm. American attitudes about sex changed drastically between the 1950s and 1980s, prompting Talese to research the topic.
I would consider Gay Talese to be one of those classic non-fiction authors that everyone should know about, and you ought to read at least one of his books. This is a pretty interesting place to start, and this particular edition contains some updates made in 2008 addressing what happened to some of the people Talese writes about and also discussing how his research into this book caused a backlash in the press and affected his marriage. It's a pretty brave story.
I would consider Gay Talese to be one of those classic non-fiction authors that everyone should know about, and you ought to read at least one of his books. This is a pretty interesting place to start, and this particular edition contains some updates made in 2008 addressing what happened to some of the people Talese writes about and also discussing how his research into this book caused a backlash in the press and affected his marriage. It's a pretty brave story.
coparda's review
4.0
A very engaging narrative exploration of the relationship between America and its definition of obscenity.
vulveeta's review against another edition
3.0
the intro from katie roiphe rly did not bode well for the subsequent text and yet i powered through close to 600 pages of it!! im very brave. this is *almost* a straightforward history of american sexual politics but also scream and barf every time he describes the quality of a woman's breasts or body??? i just dont think the content justified the length of the book like i get it these sexually repressed middle aged losers learned how to be horny, next! boring!!!!!!!!!
bibliocyclist's review against another edition
3.0
"The spirit is dead. The secular feast is ended."
Farther upstate was a farming community named Bryn Athyn that was inhabited by many Reich readers who believed that there was indeed a correlation between monogamy, possessiveness, jealousy, and war; but this agricultural community, like so many others that were populated by campus-bred radicals, would flounder financially because its members spent too much time reading quality paperbacks and pontificating around the fireplace and not enough time in the barn milking the cows.
Everywhere, cars that wouldn't run and pumps that wouldn't pump because everybody knew all about the occult history of tarot and nobody knew anything about mechanics. Everywhere, people who strove for self-sufficiency and freedom from the capitalist system but accepted food stamps and handouts from Daddy, a corporate sales VP. Sinks filled with dishes, cows wandering through gates left open, and no one to blame. Everywhere, instability, transiency. Somebody was always splitting, rolling up his bag, packing his guitar and kissing good-bye--off in search of the truly free, unhungup community.
"Murder is a crime. Describing murder is not. Sex is not a crime. Describing it is."
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