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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hey, I really did buy it for the articles!!!, February 5, 2007
This review is from: Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine (Paperback)
Is it possible to write a book where the main character is yourself and you are the hero only because everyone else is insane, a sleazebag or just generally unpleasant? The author, MacDonell, at least, proves that you can. I kept thinking, "Boy, this guy's a jerk," at the same time I feverishly sped through his 20 year memoir of working at Hustler magazine. The stories he tells are at times shocking, sad, hilarious, occasionally boring (but these bits pass quickly), titillating and raucous (hey, kind of like Hustler magazine itself!). One can't help but feel for the guy at the same time one might not want anything to do with him.
The first half of the book is probably the toughest on his character (and interestingly he doesn't spare himself much). He was abusing drugs, women and himself, paranoid that he would be fired on a daily basis, and basically existing hand to mouth on his low wages (dating a girl at one time because she owned a VCR!). At a certain point time (after a particularly scaring DUI incident) he gets cleaned up and doesn't even drink. It's somewhat downplayed, but his success at the magazine soars at this point.
While he bashes almost everyone, (name dropping Dennis Hopper, Frank Zappa, who at times were friends of Flynt or connected to the magazine, and he cares for neither), he is particularly nasty to his fellow inmates at the asylum and of course hardest on his pyscho boss, Larry Flynt. (Once again these people probably deserve even worse criticism), but it would be nice to hear a more good tales (he admits at one point that his staff - when he rises to power - was actually a good one).
Comparison's have been made to Hunter S. Thompson, and while I think these are somewhat accurate as far as characters and subject matter, that should not indicate that the writing (and or editing) is nearly in that league. The book feels a little flabby (and repetitive near the end), and probably could have been 50 pages shorter.
Another complaint is no photos - it would be nice to know what some of these people looked like. The great cover art is by Daniel Clowes but there are no further illustrations (that would have been better than photos!)
Besides all the juicy gossip about the mag there is also some poltical stuff that is very fascinating (as they destroy one Republican senator's career, defend Clinton and try to trash Bush (Jr.). If you've ever read the magazine this book will be of interest to you. Even better on the porn industry itself is "The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral Histroy of the Porn Film Industry" by Legs McNeil (also reviewed by yours truly).
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny! Scary! Wild! Moving! And (somehow) more ..., April 13, 2006
This review is from: Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine (Paperback)
Before I picked up this memoir, I was only passingly familiar with this author's work . Now I am bent on reading anything and everything that Mr. MacDonell has ever concocted.
Mostly, I knew MacDonell from his mind-ripping confession/explosion regarding the inner life of an X-rated movie critic in the 1987 landmark underground compendium APOCALYPSE CULTURE. Allan wrote that piece under the pen name "Christian Shapiro," so I always kept my eyes peeled for that byline.
Fortunately or unfortunately, most of MacDonell's writing efforts were confined to numerous Larry Flynt Publications over the two decades since AP, where he cultivated an eruptive, hyperkinetic, brawlingly muscular comic voice. And now, very fortunately, he has emerged into the world of books with this exiliarating account of his "20 Years in the Hole."
This is the story of a drunken dope fiend who goes from working for the legendary L.A. punk zine SLASH to getting clean and rising up the ranks at HUSTLER and then, horribly amusingly, losing that lofty perch at a moment when, indeed, he has a lot to lose.
At various points, MacDonell tells of being unable to get "lucky" in a whorehouse, witnessing a videotape purported to depict a media billionaire and his movie star wife up to some hilarious kinks and ultimately unseating members of Congress in the wake of the Clinton impeachment.
Looming ever overhead is the gold-plated wheelchair of his Sta-Puft Pornographer boss, who makes mint after mint by selling himself as a Man of the Yokels while grotesquely underpaying his own employees and actually charging them a monthly fee to park in the Beverly Hills office building that he owns!
PRISONER OF X is a one-of-a-kind autobiograpy rife with moments of gut-busting uproariousness and eye-bulging revelations of a world we have all just previously had to wonder about.
Wonder no more. Buy this book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious, Crazy Book!!, December 22, 2006
This review is from: Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine (Paperback)
Although the prose is a little self consciously rich at times, this is the most laugh out loud funny book I have read since Howard Stern's Private Parts memoir.The most inside look at not only Flynt and Hustler but the entire porn scene from the 80's and 90's. His description of porn legend Tori Welles on page 118 is uncanny-"Complexion the color of cinnamon or bourbon, brunette mane of body and bounce, flaunting the defiant cheekbones and chin of an urchin empress, the sublime Ms. Welles stepped with the self-assurance of the lifelong stone fox." (See what I mean about the prose?) When he's done describing her, you will know exactly what she looked like and what her sexual magnetism was all about even if you have never seen her. Hilarious, insightful, sarcastic. Would make a great movie.
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