Customer Reviews

Thousand and One Night Stands: The Life of Jon Vincent

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. . . and like a train wreck it's horrible, it's awful, you wish you'd never seen it-- and you can't look away.
The book is made up almost entirely of transcriptions of Jeffrey Vickers' (AKA Jon Vincent) taped statements and don't seem to be edited much. It is very 'stream of consciousness' and at times difficult to follow, even though the editor laid it out (as much as he could) in chronological order. Jeff is brutally honest at times, and at other times (at least self-) deceptive, but through it all, he hammers home his one message: stay away from drugs.
The casual tone in which he describes incredible debaucheries (the description of one of his copraphiliac 'clients' will make most readers phsyically ill) actually heightens the horrors of his drug addiction. Here was a man blessed with looks, an incredible physique, athletic ability, charm, and intelligence (not the kind of intelligence that could have sent rockets into space or composed a symphony, but certainly he was no dummy) and he squandered it all, quite literally, all of it.
The censoring of genitalia in the photos actually seems unnecessary and in some ways makes the photos even seedier.
Personally I would have liked a bit more input from those who knew Jeffrey (and his alter-ego Jon) and more of an epilogue-- what happened to Jeffrey after death? Was he mourned by anyone? Where was he laid to rest? What became of his only son? On the other hand, the stark and austere finale of the book resonates very powerfully-- Jon is living, talking to us, exhorting us, begging us, and then suddenly-- he's gone. Someone who might have been a star athlete, who might have inspired others as athletes can do, must instead, at BEST, hope for 'cautionary example' status in death. Jeff Vickers is no hero. But maybe his story might keep some other disaffected young and confused gay man from selling his beauty and seeking escape from the pain of his own personal hell on earth through drugs and parties.

A truly excellent biography.
Jon Vincent was handsome, driven and talented. He was extremely charming and seductive -- a man who could persuade nearly anyone to do nearly anything. He had the talent to succeed in major league baseball, perhaps the looks and talent to succeed in Hollywood, and was phenomenally successful as an actor in gay/bisexual adult films.
Vincent was a thrill junkie: a compulsive seeker of sexual adventure, physical danger, steroids, alcohol, cocaine and finally heroin. Heroin was stronger than he was; it took over his life and finally killed him.
H.A. Carson recounts Vincent's life. The book is a narrative: the judgements expressed are those made by Vincent himself. It is seems lurid in places, but only because certain aspects of Vincent's life were lurid. The book has photos of Vincent in his prime, which will appeal to his fans.
Heroin addiction is a cliche in our culture. Few readers will be surprised at the downward spiral of poverty, prostitution, deception, theft, arrest, futile detoxification efforts, near-fatal drug overdoses, delusion, paranoia, despair, homelessness and eventual death -- although the details are often startling and chilling.
However, there is much in this book that the average reader is not likely to know. I was unaware, for example, that a detoxifying junkie (going cold turkey) can experience 30 or more days of near-absolute insomnia. The book reveals aspects of junkie life that are odd (the Geographical theory of
sobriety), disturbing (the link between pornography, prostitution and drug addiction; the tendency for heroin addiction to spread among friends like a common cold) and very disturbing (the devastation that addicts inflict on those who love them and want to help them).
The book shows how heroin addiction is a day-by-day, night-by-night battle to stay alive. Jon Vincent was victorious in many of his daily battles; but eventually, there was always defeat and readdiction.
The book is a damned good read, a powerful anti-drug message, and also a perfect place to start for anyone curious or concerned about pornography, prostitution, drug addiction or addictive personalities in general. One bad point: it is available as a paperback only, not in hardcover (I have checked).

Just as "Wonder Bread ..." detailed the rapid rise and just as rapid fatal fall of gay porn icon Joey Stefano, so it goes here with H.A. Carson's treatment of Jon Vincent, another gay porn actor who also crossed over into bisexual films. Endowed with the handsomeness that only billboards are made for and a body to match, Vincent used both to wrangle his way to fortune and fame (no pun). Once there, however, according to Carson, Vincent, like so many others in the apparent cut-throat adult film business, obviously found fame, money and envy either unfulling or too much to handle. Either way, heroin became Vincent's comfort, and his business of sex became nothing more than a mechanical, emotionless state of being with the hope for love being so elusive as not even to be dreamable. With the heroin, Vincent went the only way that an addiction goes if not arrested: downward, in all its poverty, isolation, maybe well-intentioned but half-hearted attempts at sobriety and, sometimes mercifully, death. In the end, Vincent lost his battle to heroin, and his story in this book comes across more as one of decline and fall in a public profession and the torment of heroin addiction and less a psyco-biography to explain the reason for Vincent's (and others') self-destruction. Is it the nature of the adult business that directs its performers to drug dependency, or is it an already-present void in the souls of its performers who seek fulfillment in a physically intimate profession? We don't get the answers here, but Carson's book remains an important warning that the demons of a soul in torment will almost always unleash their lethal poison from which few emerge. It is a disturbing but important read, and it might be warning us to pay heed to the caution in the wind.

If someone is going to write an auto biography, they should at least have the decency to attempt to write fact and not fiction (this is not "A Million Little Pieces").

I knew "Jon Vincent," albeit not very well. This book isn't about Jon Vincent. It is about who Jon Vincent imagined himself to be.

Within a couple of paragraphs of each other, he makes contradictory statements. His parents weren't involved.....then all of a sudden they were dutiful and supportive.

Vincent says he saw the book as part of his twelve step program, but the problem with his twelve step program was that he continued to lie to himself.

The writing in the book is very stream of consciousness - which, I'll admit has its place, and it may have its place here. The problem is that the writing is juvenile - not childish - but juvenile. This is the self agrandizing high school jock we all knew and if not for his musculature, we would have tried to knock some sense into him.

Pompous is a good word. Braggadocious is another. It's not the stories he relays in the book that warrant my contempt, it's the way in which they are delivered. He seems to want to impress us with both his manliness and hetero-esque thinking and behavior. It's as if he's trying to prove to all those who knew him and who read about him that he was NOT the homo that appeared in dozens of gay porn films. While this is what makes this book a NON autobiography, it is also possibly what raises it to a different level. If the reader is able to see the self-denial and overt conceit in the writing, then possibly it is a great insight to Jon's psychological nature. But it is a very poor autobiography.

Jon died after this book was written - he overdosed. Should we feel sorry for his death? Yes. However, I don't feel the same pity for him as I do for the deaths of others who had put their lives to good use. Jon had a self destructive nature that he did not keep in check and that led to his demise.

It's unfortunate that jon seemed to have no one in his life to at least attempt to help him. I couldn't help feeling sorry for him. why was he never able to make the connection to his self-destructive behavior and his abuse as a child? perhaps because he was unable to stay clean and sober for only a few weeks at a time. reading this book, it was difficult to separate truth from fiction, he rambles on, full of self-delusion, fooling no one. I had heard of his death before I saw him on an erotic awards show video, obviously drunk, I listened as this doomed and damaged muscle-man stumbled through his presentation. so painful to watch, such a sad ending to a life. the book was also in desperate need of an editor.

ASPD is deadly at high levels. The patients can't function in any sphere. This book is one of the better accounts of a subject who clearly has the disorder - back into childhood - and has no insight as to why his life is a wreck from the bassinet to death. It seems pretty clear that Jon Vincent would probably score high enough on the index for a designation of Psychopath. The bio is facinating because it gives you a first hand discussion of the lifestyle. He finally died a premature death but should have been dead over and over before then. And when he finally turned up dead you can understand the relief everybody who was dealing with him must have felt.

Vincent blames his adult misery on heroin but it's clear in reading his story that the substance abuse is secondary to his ASPD behavior. His heartlessness, callousness and irresponsibility is clearly defined in his Bio back into childhood. Getting loaded on anything he could get his hands on was something extra. Stone Cold Sober he hurt anyone and anything he brushed up against from day one. Intoxication was for fun. He had little insight to how he was born with a dead conscience - he never had emotional attachments to persons, places or things. And you wonder about his family because the disorder shows signs of being present in both natal parents from his story.

His sexuality is part and parcel of the ASPD. he describes himself as gay for pay but since adolescence he uses sex as a weapon to get close to people to steal and cheat - and everyone he gets involved with gets hurt. As the screening questions go, he requires constant stimulation, is promiscuious, deceitful, criminally oriented and trecherous since puberty. Few such personalities leave a Bio behind.

This book is a must read for anyone studying abnormal psychology. And interesting question is whether it was ever possible to stop such a person from killing themselves over a relatively short time and taking anybody they can with them. After reading this you have a better understanding of the intensity of ASPD and how deadly it is. Nothing could have stopped Vincent from dying the way he did.

Most people with behavior this severe would have been institutionalized and diagnosed in prison or a state hospital or County Mental Health Outpatient Agency from Court referrals. Vincent was involved since adolescence in drug dealing but managed to avoid entanglement with the courts that might have forced him into institutionalization. His porn and prostitution career was lucrative enough to allow him to make bursts of money even when down and out - which in turn allowed him to keep lurching from rehab to acute addiction to victimizing "new" friends. There is no indication that Vincent ever was evaluated by Psychologists while alive.

The most important thing I can say in this review is that the harrowing story in this book is not about the addiction. It's the underlying personality disorder that was either congenital or acquired. It made treating the adiction impossible short of a very long institutionalization. How many other porn stars have undiagnosed and untreated mental illless? Bios like this should be useful in documenting this whether the writers realize the significance of their stories or not.

I loved this book and could not put it down once I started it. I knew of Jon/Jeff for many years through his films and was surprised to find out that he was gay for pay. But still he remains a complete gay icon known for his "verbal action scenes".
He was honest in this book and revealed all the crap that he pulled and the struggles that he was having trying to get off of drugs. The only downside to this book were of the photos (including the cover) being censored. I came away from the book feeling sad about his life, but it will never stain the image I have of him the first time I saw him on video.

Baseball. Porn. Prostitution. Bodybuilding. Our hero destroyed a chance at reaching the peak in all of these. This story is about addiction, with asides in varying depths in each topic. Read it if you are or know someone in that world, or if you want a view of someone who crashed each potential career short of what it might have been. (Whether you consider baseball a legitimate career compared to the others or not, the story holds. ;8). The questionable order of its unfolding, repetitive themes, and frustrating choices are right from the junkie's mind. Nobody said this was pretty.

Just started reading this book yesterday and already I am disappointed. It feels like it was written by a fifth grader or somebody who just got off the short yellow bus.

This book was a difficult read. It was like wanting to stare at a car accident...No matter how depressing this was and how I disliked Jon more and more I had to finish reading it, though at times was tempted to just give up.

The writting is chaotic and Jon is so un-likable there was nothing in this book that I could feel for....