PRO CONNECT
Tyler Stoddard Smith’s writing has appeared in: UTNE Reader, McSweeney’s, Esquire, The Best American Fantasy, The Beautiful Anthology, Tin House, The Morning News, and The Nervous Breakdown, among others. He is also an associate editor of The Big Jewel. His first book, Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World’s Oldest Profession was named to Kirkus Reviews' Best of 2012. He has just completed a dark comic novel set in Houston, TX, for which he is seeking representation.
“Riotous....Smith’s caustic wit and bawdy exuberance will keep readers amused. Loads of good, dirty fun.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Everything—and everyone—seems to be for sale in these riotous biographical sketches of famous and infamous prostitutes.
Like his subjects, humorist and The Nervous Breakdown contributor Smith wants to offer a good time. In these nuggets of smarmy gossip, he rambles across the whole history of whoredom, from the Roman empress Messalina, who was said to have gone to work in a brothel for kicks, to latter-day strumpets Heidi Fleiss and Jeff Gannon, the online escort who moonlighted in the White House press corps. He toasts brainy 17th-century courtesans, like the Chinese poetess Liu Rushi and the French philosophe Ninon de L’Enclos, and modernist littérateur Jean Genet, who peddled himself to British sailors for sardines and bread. His favorite category of prostitute is the kind you’d never imagine, among whom he numbers Malcolm X, Hollywood he-men Steve McQueen and Clark Gable, and The Brady Bunch’s adorable Maureen McCormick. Smith wouldn’t be caught dead drawing sociological insights from any of this data; he’s strictly out to regale readers with lurid anecdotes, chortling color commentary—“Hell hath no fury like a whore cheated out of her opera tickets”—and miscellaneous zingers. For instance, Bob Dylan’s dubious claim to have sold his body in his salad days makes the author wonder why anyone would pay for sex with “a jaundiced gnu.” Despite his assertion of a nonjudgmental stance, Smith is furiously judgmental toward anyone who cops a moralistic attitude: Televangelist (and secret john) Jimmy Swaggart is “a loathsome pig too tainted even for the abattoir,” and Nancy Reagan is a “hypocritical charlatan.” There’s nothing too edifying between these covers—even the digressions on Diogenes and Hegel are lightweight—but Smith’s caustic wit and bawdy exuberance will keep readers amused.
Loads of good, dirty fun.
Pub Date: July 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-1440536052
Page count: 256pp
Publisher: Adams Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
Day job
The salt mine.
Favorite author
Edith Wharton, John Steinbeck, Jennifer Egan, Charles Portis, Michael Ondaatje...
Favorite book
Blood Meridian, Catch-22, House of Mirth, Coming Through Slaughter, A Visit From the Good Squad
Favorite line from a book
"All right, then, I'll go to hell."
Favorite word
albondigas (meatballs in Spanish)
Hometown
Austin, TX
Passion in life
To run only when chased.
Unexpected skill or talent
I can fold a napkin to resemble a Marian apparition, or a swan.
WHORE STORIES: A REVEALING HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION: Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books, 2012
WHORE STORIES: A REVEALING HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION: Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.