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dannafs's review
3.0
My Father, the Pornographer read part memoir, part biography as Chris Offutt examines his father's life and the impact it had on his own. The book reads almost like short stories as Offutt moves from one memory or observation to another, with no clear chronology. Most of the chapters are short; bite-sized pieces serve as glimpses of Andy or Chris Offutt.
I expected the book to be funnier. The title begs wit, which this book has, but no crisp hilarity. There are no laugh-out-loud moments. In fact, much of the book is sad, bordering on heavy. Chris admires, fears, and loathes his father throughout the course of his lifetime, and is resigned and appalled at how similar he has grown to be.
Andrew J. Offutt is a remarkable man to read about. He was an extraordinarily prolific author, with some 1800 pounds of writing to sort through upon his death. The bulk of the writing was porn, but he was also a notorious sci-fi author, and dabbled in fantasy and comics. Learning about his tactics for speed-writing was incredible--he could write a full novel in three days. His personality, odd in the way of extreme genius, was equally intriguing. From his dedicated attendance to sci-fi "cons" (conventions), to his fierce commitment to his marriage, to his volatile moods and arrogance, and his myriad pseudonyms with attendant personalities, Andy was certainly a character.
As Chris learns more about his father's life, he learns more about himself and his reactions to the world. His dealing with his father's inheritance--the thousands of pages of written letters, stories, comics--is everything from bureaucratic to emotional to debilitating. The fact that he finished the reading, sorting, and reviewing required to put together this short tome is a feat in itself.
It's good, not great. Short, interesting. Worth a read for sure, but nothing to rush out and wait for.
Favorite quotes:
I so identify with Chris's voracious appetite for literature as a young boy, as well as the lack of censor enforced by adults in his life for what he did read:
"I was reading over my head but didn't know it because no one told me so. I didn't discriminate or evaluate... As I gained information about the world, I realized I'd never be able to read everything and would eventually be compelled to pick and choose. Until then, I merely absorbed narrative and idea, finishing Shakespeare and picking up Heinlein, dipping into Machiavelli and then Tolkien. I was like a blind man trying to stay warm in winter, grabbing the nearest piece of wood, unable to discern hardwood or soft, concerned only with maintaining the hot steady fire that consumed everything in reach."
Wondering why we never hear this argument amongst all the hullabaloo around birth control and the Catholic Church:
"The letter was a reply to a recent article by Monsignor Kelly of New York, who'd denounced the widespread use of birth control pills.
"Dad began his letter by referring to himself as a fertile Catholic with three unplanned children, proving the ineffectiveness of the rhythm method. He quotes the monsignor's statement that 'The sex organs were made by God to reproduce the human race.' Dad responds:
"It follows that not using the sex organs to reproduce the race is a man-made sin. It therefore follows that Msgr Kelly is guilt of a great and deliberate sin; he is not using his."
I expected the book to be funnier. The title begs wit, which this book has, but no crisp hilarity. There are no laugh-out-loud moments. In fact, much of the book is sad, bordering on heavy. Chris admires, fears, and loathes his father throughout the course of his lifetime, and is resigned and appalled at how similar he has grown to be.
Andrew J. Offutt is a remarkable man to read about. He was an extraordinarily prolific author, with some 1800 pounds of writing to sort through upon his death. The bulk of the writing was porn, but he was also a notorious sci-fi author, and dabbled in fantasy and comics. Learning about his tactics for speed-writing was incredible--he could write a full novel in three days. His personality, odd in the way of extreme genius, was equally intriguing. From his dedicated attendance to sci-fi "cons" (conventions), to his fierce commitment to his marriage, to his volatile moods and arrogance, and his myriad pseudonyms with attendant personalities, Andy was certainly a character.
As Chris learns more about his father's life, he learns more about himself and his reactions to the world. His dealing with his father's inheritance--the thousands of pages of written letters, stories, comics--is everything from bureaucratic to emotional to debilitating. The fact that he finished the reading, sorting, and reviewing required to put together this short tome is a feat in itself.
It's good, not great. Short, interesting. Worth a read for sure, but nothing to rush out and wait for.
Favorite quotes:
I so identify with Chris's voracious appetite for literature as a young boy, as well as the lack of censor enforced by adults in his life for what he did read:
"I was reading over my head but didn't know it because no one told me so. I didn't discriminate or evaluate... As I gained information about the world, I realized I'd never be able to read everything and would eventually be compelled to pick and choose. Until then, I merely absorbed narrative and idea, finishing Shakespeare and picking up Heinlein, dipping into Machiavelli and then Tolkien. I was like a blind man trying to stay warm in winter, grabbing the nearest piece of wood, unable to discern hardwood or soft, concerned only with maintaining the hot steady fire that consumed everything in reach."
Wondering why we never hear this argument amongst all the hullabaloo around birth control and the Catholic Church:
"The letter was a reply to a recent article by Monsignor Kelly of New York, who'd denounced the widespread use of birth control pills.
"Dad began his letter by referring to himself as a fertile Catholic with three unplanned children, proving the ineffectiveness of the rhythm method. He quotes the monsignor's statement that 'The sex organs were made by God to reproduce the human race.' Dad responds:
"It follows that not using the sex organs to reproduce the race is a man-made sin. It therefore follows that Msgr Kelly is guilt of a great and deliberate sin; he is not using his."
sdbecque's review
4.0
I know this got some great reviews, but honestly I'm not really quite sure what motivated me to pick it up from the library. I think it's because I was on hold for some other things, and I needed something to fill the gap. I'm not familiar with Chris Offset's other work, but man is this a whopper. This isn't a memoir about someone's father who happened to write porn, but was also a nice guy and a family man, this is about a guy who was something of a tyrant, who also sustained another world through porn and writing, a world that Chris now tries to understand. Anyway, I really recommend it, it's written like a punch to the gut, a searing examination of family and childhood, and well worth your time.
christinel's review
3.0
Chris Offutt's father was a prolific writer of pulp porn novels. After his father died, Offutt took an inventory, and tried to reflect back on their difficult father-son relationship and his father's generally difficult personality. Though well-written, this story is filled with pain and doesn't really have a resolution. Chris Offutt does at least realize that there is nothing he could have done to change anything, but ultimately his father was driven towards sex and violent iconography in a way that caused suffering to both himself and those he loved. There is some pretty graphic content in here, though Chris Offutt is trying hard to be straightforward and not sensational about it.
dannewton's review
3.0
In truth I'd add another half star to this were it possible. I quite enjoy Offutt's work, and this had to be a hell of a project to undertake. I can only hope it was cathartic or helpful in some way.
fncll's review
5.0
Where to begin with Chris Offutt’s memoir My Father, the Pornographer? My simple advice: get the book and read it. You won’t be disappointed. I became a fan of Offutt’s work with his first book of short stories, [b:Kentucky Straight: Stories|18334|Kentucky Straight Stories|Chris Offutt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403166223s/18334.jpg|19775], which I reviewed online leading to a short email correspondence and a failed attempt to get him to Alaska for a writer’s conference (our fault, not his)…so I expected the writing would be great. But the story is also fascinating: named his father’s executor, Chris inherits a ton (literally) of his papers and manuscripts and, as he goes through them, untangles the story of the mercurial, neurotic, talented and bitter man with whom he’d had such a difficult relationship while also learning more—maybe too much—about himself.
Chris’s father Andrew Offutt was a well-known science fiction writer, a fixture at sci-fi cons and president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was also a pornography writing machine who published more than 400 porn novels under more than a dozen pen names. Offutt recalls a relatively happy childhood until his father decided to quit the insurance business and become a full-time writer. Some combination of personality and pressure transformed his father into a tyrannical presence with practically split personalities—Offutt recounts how his father’s personae as Cleve, the pornographer, became more real at times than his father’s own person—who became more and more disconnected from the human, familial world of his wife and children.
Offutt does a wonderful job telling many parallel stories: his father’s life as a writer—the sheer mechanics of which are fascinating, including a kind of paper database of phrases, descriptions, scenes and individual actions such as “tongue,” “kiss” and orgasm" that allowed him to, when pressed, write a book in three days, his and his family’s life in and around that vortex and finally his own life as a writer of stories, novels and television screenplays. Like all biographical stories, those of both of the Offutts are necessarily incomplete: his father’s story, in many ways, began with his death rather than ending there; Offutt’s own story is just getting started.
Chris’s father Andrew Offutt was a well-known science fiction writer, a fixture at sci-fi cons and president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was also a pornography writing machine who published more than 400 porn novels under more than a dozen pen names. Offutt recalls a relatively happy childhood until his father decided to quit the insurance business and become a full-time writer. Some combination of personality and pressure transformed his father into a tyrannical presence with practically split personalities—Offutt recounts how his father’s personae as Cleve, the pornographer, became more real at times than his father’s own person—who became more and more disconnected from the human, familial world of his wife and children.
Offutt does a wonderful job telling many parallel stories: his father’s life as a writer—the sheer mechanics of which are fascinating, including a kind of paper database of phrases, descriptions, scenes and individual actions such as “tongue,” “kiss” and orgasm" that allowed him to, when pressed, write a book in three days, his and his family’s life in and around that vortex and finally his own life as a writer of stories, novels and television screenplays. Like all biographical stories, those of both of the Offutts are necessarily incomplete: his father’s story, in many ways, began with his death rather than ending there; Offutt’s own story is just getting started.
lesserjoke's review
4.0
Probably the worst thing about this memoir of a Baby Boomer childhood in rural Kentucky is its sensationalized title. Andrew J. Offutt didn't work in the porn industry; he was a prolific author who happened to write erotic fiction (among many other genres). His children were not particularly exposed to his mature output, nor is that career his defining trait within these pages.
No, what's most striking about the elder Offutt is not his 'pornography,' but rather his apparent nature as a volatile and spiteful narcissist: "controlling, pretentious, cruel, and overbearing," in his son's own words. Although beloved by fans for his work, Andy Offutt terrorized his family as a petty tyrant at home, and this book finds his oldest child grappling with all shades of his legacy and how it tinged their otherwise bucolic Appalachian life. It's a fascinating nonfiction character portrait, but also a bit of a stressful read, even for someone with a much healthier home life.
[Trigger warning for sexual assault and some brief descriptions of torture fetishes in the father's books, as well as the aforementioned emotional abuse.]
No, what's most striking about the elder Offutt is not his 'pornography,' but rather his apparent nature as a volatile and spiteful narcissist: "controlling, pretentious, cruel, and overbearing," in his son's own words. Although beloved by fans for his work, Andy Offutt terrorized his family as a petty tyrant at home, and this book finds his oldest child grappling with all shades of his legacy and how it tinged their otherwise bucolic Appalachian life. It's a fascinating nonfiction character portrait, but also a bit of a stressful read, even for someone with a much healthier home life.
[Trigger warning for sexual assault and some brief descriptions of torture fetishes in the father's books, as well as the aforementioned emotional abuse.]
rebeccahussey's review
4.0
Review available here: https://ofbooksandbikes.wordpress.com/2016/02/20/chris-offutts-my-father-the-pornographer-a-memoir/
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