The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories by Pagan Kennedy

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Synopsis

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.

Publishers Weekly

In this engaging mélange of personal essays, previously published profiles and reports from the forefront of scientific and technological research, Kennedy (The First Man-Made Man) takes readers on a "safari" where the awesome sights to behold are ordinary citizens blessed with outlandish ambitions to transform the world into a "kinder, sexier, smarter, funnier, or more compassionate place." The book spotlights such visionaries as world-renowned neurologists, a precocious parrot, rabble-rouser Vermin Supreme (self-professed "Emperor of the New Millennium"), inventor Amy Smith (who received a MacArthur "genius" award after Kennedy's profile first appeared) and occasionally the author herself, who experiments with alternate fuel sources and normative definitions of marriage and intimacy. Kennedy excels at making the complex compelling and in identifying the personal motivations driving these innovators. Although there are a few limp essays in the collection (notably on singer Conor Oberst), the eponymous essay on Alex Comfort (The Joy of Sex)-is a stylish and wholly original triumph. Written in a form inspired by the seminal book, the piece is a moving elegy to the elusive author who was alternately reviled and celebrated-without ever being fully understood. (Sept.)

Biography

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.