Customer Reviews

Broken on the Wheel of Sex - Signed: The Jerzy Livingston Years

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I am a Jack Ketchum fanatic. The man has a way with words. This particular book was a gem to find. Part Bukowski, part film noir, lots of balls to the wall, gritty writing. This is Jack Ketchum in a way you've never experienced him before. "Broken on the Wheel of Sex" is an unflinching collection of stories that feature pieces Jack did for various men's magazines. The sex is raw, the plot lines varied, and the character studies so brutally honest that you can't help but be drawn into each tale. Highlights for me were the stories involving Jack's recurring character Stroup (you actually see an evolution in the character's brash personality through the course of the stories) and the brilliant nonfiction pieces. I really didn't expect to dig the nonfiction, Jack has a way of making them read in such an entertaining fashion that you can't help going along for the ride. That is due primarily in the fact that he lives his nonfiction and brings his experiences to the printed page. Kudos to Jack Ketchum for bringing this glimpse of his early writing days to light for fans. This is a collection any Jack Ketchum fan should read.

A collection of Jack Ketchum's first short stories, originally published in men's mangazines. And they could have stayed there... Almost all the stories are pretty dull, with some ideas that would end up used in other novels (like She Wakes, a pretty dull novel as well, if you ask me) and have no more interest than seeing the begginnings of what would become a great writer.
They're not a great begginning, if truth be told, and Ketchum shows a strong influence of Charles Bukowski, and little of the writer's skills or hardcore sensibility he'll come to deliver later in his books.
So, buy it if you're a completist, skip it if you you're not a hardcore fan.
For a taste of the truly great Ketchum, you should go for The Girl Next Door, Off Season, or Red [RED] [Mass Market Paperback].
Thinking about it, there are some really good books by Ketchum out there, buy this one if you've read every other and you're still hungry of the Ketchum flavour. Although here you'll find it a little bit raw...