Anything but subtle.
With an impressive roster of strippers, swingers, porn stars and prostitutes, Sheehan explores the very adult side of Vegas entertainment.
Journalist Sheehan, who moved to Vegas when he was in his early 20s, is as close to a local as one can get in a town of transplants. As such, he knew where to look when it was time to expose the city's seamier side—although the various activities he discusses are so widely accepted in Las Vegas and, indeed, crucial to the city's municipal coffers, that they hardly qualify as illicit. In general, the author presents a decidedly sunny portrait of the sex industry. The strippers that Sheehan interviews find that they've never felt so strong and liberated as when they're onstage with their clothes off, and his porn-star sources love sex and are pleased to be getting paid to engage in it onscreen (sex is “the funnest thing there is to do,” one explains). Prostitutes are delighted by how much they can rake in from just a few hours of work, and swingers are amazed by their ability to find nightly parties where they can be as randy as they please. Yes, Sheehan elaborates on prejudices within the culture: Strippers would never get in bed with a man for money, while some prostitutes find it demeaning to dance in front of a room full of strangers. He gives a nod to pimps who exploit hookers, to deadbeat boyfriends who sponge off stripper girlfriends, and he points out that every once in a while, a working girl will be a bit introspective or depressed. But for the most part, this is a valentine to the industry. Bonus for those with plans to visit: Sheehan provides a number of sidebars with explicit instructions on how to behave in the underworld. If you’d like to know more about massage parlors and gentlemen's clubs, or learn the “etiquette of mate swapping,” here’s one for you.
Anything but subtle.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-083879-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
A rather odd assortment of old and new thoughts by Harvard's most articulate feminist biologist. Versions of these commentaries by Hubbard have been published previously or are soon to be published in a variety of books and journals. There's even an op-ed piece from the New York Times and a book review from the Village Voice. Hubbard has tried to impose order on this collection by grouping the selections into three parts and prefacing each with a brief explanation of how the individual pieces in it came to be written. In the first and most cohesive part, ``The Link Between Genes, Illness, and Behavior,'' she continues her campaign against genetic research detailed in Exploding the Gene Myth (1993). Such research, she asserts, not only fosters unwelcome dependence on questionable predictions and brings huge profits to makers of genetic tests, but it also takes time, attention, and resources away from broader problems. Indeed, she questions whether society should be focusing on high-tech solutions to any health problems while illness and death are often due to such preventable causes as malnutrition, poor sanitation, and poverty. Parts two, ``Women, Science, and Power,'' and three, ``Toward a Political Understanding of Science,'' continue the theme of The Politics of Women's Biology (1990). From a feminist stance, she examines how prominent scientists reinforce opinions that oppress women, and she takes a critical look at the interplay between scientific work and cultural and political ideologies. Hubbard's message- -that science must be shaped by the needs of ordinary people, not by the profit motives of a few—is persuasive, and though not likely to halt the human genome project, the book does provide interesting material for discussion in science and women's studies courses. Taken individually, the pieces are invariably clear and sometimes even compelling, but the book as a whole lacks cohesion and seems to be unsure of its purpose.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56751-041-8
Page Count: 150
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A sure sign that Lasch's latest (and, sadly, last) book deserves wide acclaim is that it will infuriate those who cling to conventional notions of left and right. Lasch remains as relentless a critic of liberal progressivism as he is of unfettered capitalism. In many ways, this sharp and penetrating study culminates his career as a social critic of the highest order. It's an articulate challenge to the anti-democratic notions of both market and statist liberals: Both, in Lasch's view, share an exalted sense of the professional and managerial class, thereby diminishing a vital middle class in this country. Throughout his many books, Lasch (The True and Only Heaven, 1991) notes, from his early work on liberals and the Russian Revolution through his biting analysis of self- styled radical intellectuals, he has always concerned himself with one overarching question: Does democracy have a future? More so than his earlier, often naysaying books, this wonderfully vigorous and urgent set of essays makes explicit Lasch's hope for a renewal of our best democratic values: the civil arts of public discourse and debate; an educational system that stresses commonality, not difference; and, quite simply, religion—one of the best disciplines against professional arrogance. For Lasch, to accept our inability to master a God-given world is the first step to a more realistic vision for humanity. The course of our century, as he argues with great historical nuance, has steered us from a sense of the ``common good.'' Our public spaces continue to dwindle, and the language of politics, journalism, and the academy no longer invites the average person into the argument, as democracy once promised. The ``democratic habits'' of ``self-reliance, responsibility, and initiative'' have degraded into a mad rush for social mobility. The common wellsprings for a civil society- -families, neighborhoods, traditions—are now seen as impediments to financial success or as oppressive representatives of sexism and racism. This brave piece of social criticism answers Lasch's critics with a message so simple and obvious, it's sublime. (First serial to Harper's)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-393-03699-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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