Diary of a Sex Addict [Paperback]

Scott Alexander Hess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2011

Witty, dark and explosively carnal, Diary of a Sex Addict chronicles a gay New Yorker’s month-long descent into a circus of anonymous hook-ups as he struggles to erase the pain of a failed romance and blot out the routine of a soul-numbing day job. Bizarre gang-bangs and fleeting attempts at celibacy are interspersed with visits to his wealthy and eccentric dowager aunt, visits which awaken lost memories of a chaotic youth.

Written in prose that is at once poetic and unabashedly lewd, Diary offers a glimpse into a forbidden fringe world of longing and debauchery that ultimately reveals the narrator’s fervent search for something to fill a profound emptiness.

Inspired by the transgressive works of the Marquis de Sade, Dennis Cooper and Bret Easton Ellis, Diary of a Sex Addict blends wry humor, elegant language and graphic sex to offer a novel that is “relentlessly erotic and divinely written” (Richard Labonte, Bookmarks).

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If Dennis Cooper and Chuck Palahniuk had a bastard love child, it would look like Scott Hess's Diary of a Sex Addict. It is bareback fiction: raw and dangerous, skin to skin and true.
The next morning, we almost regret it. Almost."
--Bryan Borland, author of My Life as Adam

"Relentlessly erotic and divinely written," Richard Labonte, Bookmarks

Scott Hess is one of the few writers who understand that erotic fiction is never about the description of hot sex, but entirely about motivations and the psychological tension of the moment. He has the literary talent to make his writing brutally honest and hugely energetic.

Marten Weber,
Author "Benedetto Casanova"
martenweber.com

IT LIST Hot Read,  Joe Thompson, Gay.Net "Opens with a bang!...feels like it's happening right in front of your eyes. What Hess has done is put you in the mind of a real sex addict, someone who is aware of what's going on and yet unable to stop himself." bit.ly/v0RdCz

About the Author

An award-winning writer, Scott's fiction has appeared in the Thema Literary Journal, and Omnia Revitas Review. Richard Labonte of Bookmarks calls Scott's gritty new novel Diary of a Sex Addict  "relentlessly erotic and divinely written." The short film based on the novel debuted this month on Vimeo. Scott's first novel, Bergdorf Boys was serialized in Ganymede Journal. He is working on his new novel The Jockey set in rural Arkansas and New York City circa 1918. His screenplay, Tom in America is being produced by Queens Pictures in 2012. Scott has a personal essay on intimacy appearing in editor Leslie Smith's collection this spring. Scott has been a contributor to various national magazines, including Genre, OutTraveler and Instinct. Scott is a MFA graduate of The New School.

Product Details

• Paperback: 166 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (August 31, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1466258861
• ISBN-13: 978-1466258860
• Product Dimensions: 0.4 x 5.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,350,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

An award-winning writer, Scott's fiction has appeared in the Thema Literary Journal, and Omnia Revitas Review. Richard Labonte of Bookmarks calls Scott's gritty new novel Diary of a Sex Addict "relentlessly erotic and divinely written." Scott's first novel, Bergdorf Boys was serialized in Ganymede Journal and will be published by JMS Books in 2012. He is working on his new novel The Jockey set in rural Arkansas and New York City circa 1918. His screenplay, Tom in America is being produced by Queens Pictures in 2012. Scott has been a contributor to various national magazines, including Genre, OutTraveler and Instinct. Scott is a MFA graduate of The New School. A short film based on Scott's novel Diary is on his website www.scottalexanderhess.com and on Vimeo.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars a novel? February 24, 2013

By robert

Format:Paperback

If you self-publish a book, and then get your friends to rave about it on amazon, does this make you an author? Does this offer anything in the way of clarity or humility? Or is this just another extension of shallow self obsession? If you slice meat at the local A&P, go home and write about slicing meat, and self publish it; are you now an author? Apparently so.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I cannot get enough! September 12, 2011

By Mya Dee.

Format:Paperback

The title says it all, yet this isn't your standard tale of addiction. The gay, unnamed narrator relates his day-to-day Grindr missions, break-time hookups, masturbation binges, raunchy orgies, and soul-crushing rituals (his personal "black hole") in a raw and sometimes gnarly manner, as if the readers have become the pages of his tell-all diary. In one part of the book, he does indeed revisit paper diaries he kept several years prior, which tell of a time when he felt truly in love; a love he had to abandon. The narrator's past, revealed in vivid glimpses, helps explain his dangerous and uncomfortable behavior.

While addiction --- even of the NYC-centered gay sex variety --- is universal, this novel is so highly specific that one has to wonder if the author has based his fearlessly detailed portrait on personal experience. Whether fact or fiction, the vibe here is wholly authentic and NOT just for shock. And although dark, the writing is steeped in humor, particularly when the narrator meets new partners with strange and completely ridiculous fetishes. Between a guy who's obsessed with jock straps to blind Sally at the clinic where he works to the homeless men he meets in the park to the celibate photographer who piques his interest and unintentionally convinces him to try going sex-free, there is simply a never a dull moment. The writing is dripping with luscious prose and bluntly erotic overtones, as well as undertones, as the narrator ducks in and out of risque escapades and that nasty, ever-persistent black hole.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour-de-force September 11, 2011

By dwadefoley

Format:Paperback

"Diary of a Sex Addict" might sound like ordinary erotica, but don't be fooled. Anything but arousing, the narrator's descent into a disturbing, ever more destructive vortex of sex and violence is at the same time horrifying and impossible to put down. Using prose that is by always vivid and imaginative, by turns exquisite and brutal, Hess skillfully weaves into a tapestry of soul-killing sexual escapades the narrator's nostalgic yearning the one truly intimate relationship he ever enjoyed. In the tradition of Bret Easton Ellis, this is a tour-de-force not to be missed, except perhaps by the faint of heart.