The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories

by Pagan Kennedy

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780977679935
Publisher:	Santa Fe Writer's Project
Publication date:	09/01/2008
Series:	Pagan Kennedy Project
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pagan Kennedy is the author of 10 books in a variety of genres, including The Exes, The First Man-Made Man, Spinsters, Stripping, and Confessions of a Memory Eater,which was featured in Entertainment Weekly as an "EW pick." She is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe, and has published articles in The New York Times. She also has been the recipient of a Barnes and Noble Discover Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and a Smithsonian Fellowship for science writing. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction     xi
Visionaries
The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex     1
Genius on Two Dollars a Day     53
Bird Brain     69
The Strongest Woman in the World     77
Battery-Powered Brain     91
Vermin Supreme Wants to Be Your Tyrant     111
The Chemist in the Desert     123
One Room, Three-Thousand Brains     135
The Mystic Mechanic     149
The Ballad of Conor Oberst     157
How to Make (Almost) Anything     173
What We Mean By Freedom     189
First Person: Stories from My Own Life
Boston Marriage     209
The Encyclopedia of Scorpions     223
Off Season     243

What People are Saying About This

John Sedgwick

Kennedy prowls the shadowy, creepy, eye-popping limits of the culture where other writers fear to tread. (John Sedgwick, author, The Dark House and The Education of Mrs. Bemis)

From the Publisher

"Kennedy prowls the shadowy, creepy, eye-popping limits of the culture where other writers fear to tread."  —John Sedgwick, author, The Dark House and The Education of Mrs. Bemis

"A dangerous joy of literary pleasure—a compelling, spellbinding reading experience. In this book, Pagan Kennedy writes with clarity, honesty and impeccable grace."  —Lee Gutkind, author, Almost Human: Making Robots Think

"Complicated, cool, and vulnerable at the same time . . . you can't help falling for Pagan Kennedy's characters."  —The New York Times

Lee Gutkind

A dangerous joy of literary pleasure-a compelling, spellbinding reading experience. In this book, Pagan Kennedy writes with clarity, honesty and impeccable grace. (Lee Gutkind, author, Almost Human: Making Robots Think)

Editorial Reviews

"Kennedy prowls the shadowy, creepy, eye-popping limits of the culture where other writers fear to tread."  —John Sedgwick, author, The Dark House and The Education of Mrs. Bemis

"A dangerous joy of literary pleasure—a compelling, spellbinding reading experience. In this book, Pagan Kennedy writes with clarity, honesty and impeccable grace." —Lee Gutkind, author, Almost Human: Making Robots Think



"Complicated, cool, and vulnerable at the same time . . . you can't help falling for Pagan Kennedy's characters." —The New York Times

From the Publisher