Sign in/joinLanguage: English [ others ]
Over forty million books on members' bookshelves.
Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories by Pagan Kennedy
Loading...

The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories

by Pagan Kennedy

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
5625102,329 (3.74)21
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

Showing 1-5 of 25 (next | show all)
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. ( )
jasfaulkner | Jul 10, 2009 |  
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...
savethegreyhounds | Apr 1, 2009 |  
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. ( )
zwoolard | Feb 19, 2009 |  
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. ( )
citizenkelly | Feb 3, 2009 |  
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. ( )
thewordygecko | Jan 4, 2009 |  
Showing 1-5 of 25 (next | show all)
0.052 seconds to build listing
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
I learned about secret doorways when I was a kid.
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0977679934, Paperback)

Nonfiction is the new black comedy in this hilarious collection of award-winning literary essays written by the infamous Pagan Kennedy. In the title piece, Alex Comfort, author of The Joy of Sex, reinvents himself as a sex guru in California and hatches a plan to destroy monogamy forever. In the stories that follow, a retired chemist finds a way to turn a wasteland into paradise, an aspiring tyrant tries to become the emperor of America, and an artist rigs himself up to a "brain machine" made from parts he bought at Radio Shack. All of the essays—most of which have appeared in The New York Times Magazine and The Boston Globe Magazine—document the stories of visionaries bent on remaking the world, for better or for worse.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:52 -0400)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Popular covers

LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alumn

The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories by Pagan Kennedy was made available through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Sign up to possibly get pre-publication copies of books.

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 41,225,953 books!