What Do Authors Scott Spencer, John Irving and Gay Talese have in Common? Sexual Crapulence!
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Oh, no. Not again. Another aging author uses writing a book as an excuse to enter the world of the sex-trade and pornography. Gay Talese did at age 49 in 1981 when he wrote the nonfiction book Honor Thy Neighbor’s Wife, and proceeded to spend nine, count ‘em, years researching massage parlors, strip clubs, and sex shows, sometimes with his clothes on. I remember reading the book and wondering what his wife was thinking at the time.
John Irving did it at age 56 in 1998 when he had to research Amsterdam’s Red Light District, with its tattoo parlors, window parlors, brothels and sex shops, all of course in support of the main character in Widow for a Year, Ruth Cole, who is doing research on prostitutes in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. She finds herself hiding in a closet and witnessing the murder of a prostitute by the prostitute’s client.
