via Feminist Review by Feminist Review on 10/10/09
By Paul KrassnerCleis Press
This is the first of two books Paul Krassner put out this year and, in my opinion, the better one. What makes In Praise Of Indecency better than Who's to Say What's Obscene? is that it is better organized and its sections are shorter, which seems to help Krassner focus his attention on the subject matter, allow his jokes to be funnier, and help the reader to not get lost.
My one problem with this book, however, is that while Krassner brings up a lot of what appear to be facts, he never cites anything, which caused me to doubt his credibility. This is especially true in instances where the reader is able to find blatant mistakes, such as Krassner's reference to Ashley Dupré, the sex worker who brought down Eliot Spitzer, as "Karen". This type of slip-up caused me to doubt the rest of the facts Krassner brought up to mock, and put a damper on my enjoyment of the book.
Nonetheless, In Praise Of Indecency is funny—with the exception of a shocking and unintentionally depressing section involving a website called crackwhoreconfessions.com. Here, Krassner discusses the content of the site: confessions and videos from actual "crackheads", who all just happen to be women, detailing all of the degrading things they have done for paltry sums of money simply to survive. I had hoped Krassner was joking or even outright making the site up, but after typing the URL into my web browser, I was able to find it. One needed to actually join the site to view anything, so I had to take Krassner's word for the content.
Krassner seems to find nothing in the book indecent, and by the end, I came out feeling like a prude. This is not a book for those with delicate sensibilities, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Review by Jen Klee
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