Customer Reviews

Dorothy From Kansas Meets the Wizard of X

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First of all, the book starts off with a very cleverly-coined and certainly attention-drawing title. However, I just wish the author would have helped the reader know Eric Edwards at a broader and more erotic level. There must be interesting details early in his porn life that could be touched upon. He must have a fascinating life than the way it was portrayed in the book. Those are done with everal people in the porn industry. The writer could have synthesized the information from the various interviews and put it in her own words, instead of quoting them verbatim. The focus of the book is on one of the legendary male porn stars named Eric Edwards. At some points, the book loses the focus. I even think the book doesn't do him a service. I expected to know more about his past and present life and career than about the porn industry. It is a pity that she didn't make the best of her opportunity to meet with or interview Eric. For someone who want to know about the inside of the porn industry, this book is an ok read. The Jack Wrangler book is way more fun to read, though.

Like the author, I was brought up a good, little Catholic girl. And like Dorothy, the alter ego of the author, I was even brought up in Kansas. The author indicates in her forward that interviewing and writing about people who act in [adult] films was a journey she needed to take for a number of reasons. She reports that as a result she came out of the experience as a better person and with a new friend, the Wizard of X, aka Rob Everett, aka Eric Edwards. Since I respect Ms. Alexander as a person, as an editor, and as a writer, I felt that I wanted to take this journey along with her, albeit vicariously, through reading her book.

The author interviewed many of the actors and actresses involved in the world of [adult] films, but it was Rob Everett, who appears under the screen name Eric Edwards, with whom she spent most of her time while researching this non-fiction book. It is Rob/Eric whose life the reader follows from his early days to the present. To the author's surprise and relief, she found that Rob and others who make their living by having sex on screen, are for the most part ordinary, everyday people, who for various reasons wandered into a world most of us have never entered. Through reading Ms. Alexander's fascinating account of this world, you'll gain a better understanding of this industry and the people who make it up. And, hopefully like me, you'll find the trip well worth it.

After reading Ms. Alexander's book, I was surprised to find out the different ways I perceived people in the porno industry vs. those not involved. I really was biased and had no concept of why people were even involved in this industry. Not only is this book informative, I found it easy to read and not something I wanted to put down without a fight. I read the entire book in three days! Thanks for enlightening this reader!

Overall I was dissapointed to not learn more about the great love of Eric's life, Arcadia Lake. This talented raven-haired beauty supposedly died of a drug overdose in 1990, but their are no published obituaries or places of burial listed anyplace. Eric is not too kind to this great love of his, blaming her for his own addiction to cocaine. It's only his story we read every place. Where is her story? Who knows, like Bambi Woods or Hypathia Lee, she might still be alive today! Alexander's book seems to be contracted for approval by Mr. Edwards since all the sympathy lies in his burnt-out corner. A lot of the book covers a day in the life of shooting porn--or a week--oh heck, without Arcadia he's all washed up now, anyway. The AIDS scare is also covered as well as interviews from some of porn's most well-known stars and supporters.