Customer Reviews

Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine

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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).

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.

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.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wish that once in a while you had actually read some of the articles. This book is as hilarious as Hustler often was during Allan's tenure. A common misconception about this book is that it is about Larry Flynt. This book is not about Larry Flynt--it is about Allan MacDonell. If you want to learn more about Larry Flynt, you should probably visit his website. If you want to learn more about what it is REALLY like to oversee the day-to-day operations of America's most notorious stroke rag--penile scabs and all--then this is the book for you! My only complaint about Prisoner of X is that Allan has not yet recorded an audio-book version, but that's coming up next, right Mr. MacDonell?

I've known the author for over 30 years, 27 of which I thought he was dead. As college students at the dawning of the punk rock era, we were involved in hijinks ranging from the rerouting of public transportation to social criticism using jumbo markers. We ended up losing touch after someone had told me that Allan was dead. Easy enough to believe after personally witnessing him nearly lose half his body while trying to bulldog a moving cable car and knowing of his great fondness for self-induced catatonic states.

Forward 27 years, I'm sick at home listening to Howard Stern and Allan is a guest promoting his book. What a second, Allan is alive and he worked at Hustler for the better portion of his adult life. This is a book I have to buy immediately.

The book is darn funny. His nearly two decade journey from being a punk rock proofreader during the early days of the Reagan administration to help saving the 42nd President's rear makes for a great read. Thank God that Allan lived to bring us this special gem through his Canadian/SoCal/Punk Rock eyes.

Buy it today, so you can eventually say the book was so much funnier than the movie (wonder if Woody will reprise his role?)

The subtitle of this book, 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine, is what initially drew me in. I anticipated a book filled with insider information on the porn industry that would reveal Larry Flynt's dark, dirty secrets and the inner politics involved in the business of selling sex. But as I read I found that the book was much more than this. I found myself more interested in MacDonell himself than Larry Flynt, laughing out loud at the dark humored retellings of his trials and tribulations. This book is not just an expose on the porn industry, it is memoir at the top of it's game.

This book will sneak up on you. The topic seems like an easy enough of a sell; how could a memoir about 20 years working up to the top of the editorial ladder at Hustler not be entertaining? But this isn't a I'm-a-good-writer-and-I-worked-in-the-porn-industry-and-so-I-know-there's an-audience-and-so-publish-me memoir; no banal "I'm better than the porn industry," or "I love the porn industry" or "I hate the porn industry" overtones. Any cheap shots are enjoyed, not taken. The writing is excellent, the insights unfliching and fresh. Engaging perspective into situtations that many others probably haven't been (or wouldn't be) in or wouldn't admit to. Can't recommend this book highly enough; if you like John Fante, Mark Twain, Hunter Thompson and that sort of thing, you will most certainly want to read this.

Alan McDonnel rules! I never knew porn could be so interesting. It has dirty parts, but mostly it's about what happened to Alan. That movie about Larry Flynt is just the beginning, cos this is what really happened. I ordered it and read it, from beginning to end in two sittings.

I would recommend this to my friends or anybody who likes a good read. (I am 31).

I wasn't quite sure what this book would include for obvious reasons. I was pleasantly surprised. What a great insight to the inner workings of a very popular magazine.With great humor it told his rise from the very bottom of the ladder to the top. Great stories about all different famous and not so famous people and of course about Larry Flynt. A great story.

I found the book hilarious, entertaining, educational, and a real gas to read. Hustler magazine apparently didn't feel the same because they have labelled McDonnell the "A**hole of the Month" in their current issue (pretty ironic considering that McDonnell wrote that column for over a decade!). They accuse him of being a drug addict who drove the magazine into the ground (even though he explicitly explains in the book that he stopped all drug and alcohol abuse following a near-fatal DUI incident). If you've read even one issue of Hustler, you'll enjoy the heck out of this book. The stories of grotesque celebrity videos, Larry Flint's shockingly explicit activities and racist sense of humor, and having to put up with arrogant sleazeball child rapist Dwaine Tinsley (of "Chester the Molester" fame) will keep your eyes glued to the page. In short, another winner for Feral House.