Jim Goad's Gigantic Book of Sex
After his release from prison (he was in for assaulting his lover), literary provocateur Goad (Answer Me!, The Redneck Manifesto) returned to Portland, Ore., and found a job writing for a free weekly devoted to the city's sex industry. That experience provided grist for this book, a self-help miscellany with a hyperactive design that veers from The Onion-style parody ("Man Uses Photoshop to Give Himself Bigger Penis," "Pug Porn," etc.) to confessional essays ("Pleasuring Myself in Prison") to product tests (Viagra, porn) to anatomy lessons ("In search of...the Prostate Gland"). Goad's savage wit is matched only by his enthusiasm, both of which are a bit of an acquired taste; sensitive readers may find themselves repeatedly and unapologetically offended. Though he's been criticized as a misogynist, Goad is just as critical of himself as he is of the opposite sex, if not more so, detailing his pitiful attempts to photograph his privates ("it looked like a shriveled pink egg roll") and warning female readers, "You'll be very, very disappointed the first time you have sex with me." This self-effacing humor gives the book depth and makes Goad more likable; his decidedly un-P.C. take on all things sexual brings a welcome bit of pointed, occasionally venomous satire to the sex manual genre.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.