Pagan Kennedy's latest collection profiles people who have made it their life work to radically change deeply entrenched mores. Actually that is a very dry introduction to a review of a collection of sparkling often funny and sometimes touching profiles of people operating on the fringes of society.

Predictably enough, Kennedy's prose is as sharp as ever. Highly recommended. ( )

I recommend this book — if only because the title will freak out your fellow travelers on the bus. Heh.

http://superdps.wordpress.com/2009/01...

An enjoyable, funny book of essays about a wide range of topics. These are what could be called "human interest" stories, but Kennedy has a sense of joy about, and respect for, her subjects that lifts that makes them much more than that. Well worth the read. Highly recommended. ( )

I wasn't very impressed by this collection of mediocre magazine articles, all of which appear to have been written ages ago (i.e. pre-2004? I can't tell for sure, because none of the articles are dated!)
I have nothing against reading old journalism, which can often, through the power of its prose style, stand the tests of time and overwhelm us with its universality. An example of this can be found in the writings of Joan Didion, for example.
Sadly, Pagan Kennedy is no Didion, and her at times sloppy prose (particularly in the title story) couldn't compensate for the irrelevance of most of her articles. ( )

Pagan Kennedy writes in her introduction of long ago wanting to create a 'spell out of words', and that is what she has done in this book. The 'hum' of truth, as she describes it, can be heard as you read these essays, from an intelligent distillation of Alex Comfort and his sexy hopes that were ultimately thwarted, to any manner of eccentrics, to scorpions. There is the hum of humour, of whimsy, of loss.

The Dangerous Joy of Dr Sex, the title essay, shows us an unprepossessing man, dedicated to his work: he was a medical doctor and a biologist, a leading authority on snails, and wrote a large number of books, including poetry and science, novels and sociology. When he met the woman who was to become his mistress, his interest in sex, and the study of it which became The Joy of Sex, exploded. But it became, as Kennedy explains, the albatross around his neck.

There are fourteen other essays, covering a wide range of people. A female weightlifter from a family of strong confident women, an inventor of useful things for poor countries, Alex the parrot, the 'new Bob Dylan'. And three stories about her own experiences, including her involvement in a 'Boston marriage'.

The essays vary in length, but all contain one true essence of the subject. Occasionally I wanted more from the story, but overall I was drawn into the magic of Pagan Kennedy's creations. ( )