Sexplosion

Starred review from October 21, 2013
Variety senior editor Hofler (Party Animals) weaves an engaging, informative picture of the sex-charged, boundaries-pushing era from 1968 to 1973, when artists across various media changed the face of the entertainment world, shattering long-held taboos regarding sexuality and content. In a lively, unapologetically profane narrative, Hofler looks at how “a number of very talented, risk-taking rebels challenged the world’s prevailing attitudes towards sex, and in the process, changed pop culture forever.” Covering landmark plays and movies such as Myra Breckinridge, Hair, Last Tango in Paris, Deep Throat, and Midnight Cowboy, he shows how these productions, and the people involved, went against the grain like never before, redefining the entertainment landscape. From the genesis of Blaxploitation films to the rising profile of pornography, the complex, paradoxically mature “Sexplosion” era is covered in loving detail. Hofler covers pop-culture figures and their creations with an expert’s depth of knowledge and a passion for the lurid details, of which there are plenty, resulting in a delightful journey through a short-lived but influential period—a crazy time in which anything seemed possible and nothing was forbidden. Agent: Eric Myers, the Spieler Agency

December 1, 2013
Fun, fascinating examination of the moment when American and British culture seemed to lose all inhibitions. In the middle of the 20th century, the walls of censorship were battered by courtroom decisions favoring what officials had called "indecent" literature--e.g., James Joyce's Ulysses, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer and Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Variety senior editor Hofler (Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr, 2010, etc.) focuses on the period from 1966 to 1973, when those walls seemed to come tumbling down, not only in books, but also in film, theater and TV. Suddenly, authors, directors and producers set their sights quite frankly (albeit often satirically) on formerly taboo subjects like transsexualism (Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge), masturbation (Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint), male prostitution (Midnight Cowboy) and rape (Straw Dogs). Language and subject matter became more explicit in works like the 1966 film of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and the smash-hit TV series All in the Family. Actors of both sexes began appearing fully nude on the popular stage in Hair and Oh! Calcutta! and in films like Andy Warhol's Trash and Ken Russell's Women in Love. Hofler's deep research reveals the personal (and personnel) connections among many of these projects. Most astonishing, however, are the author's chronicles of the reactionary attitudes these revolutionary works provoked in mainstream media. Readers will marvel over the ideological distance traveled since those years, particularly by the New York Times, which in 1964 fretted about "overt homosexuality" in Greenwich Village and in whose Sunday magazine in 1973 feminist Anne Roiphe clucked her tongue over "evil flower" Lance Loud, the oldest and openly gay scion of the pioneering reality show An American Family. Sparkling history of an artistically spirited age.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2013

Owing to a convergence of politics, pop music, drugs, and the antiwar movement, there was an eruption, or pop culture "sexplosion," in the United States in the years between 1968 and 1973. This book examines the forces and personalities that titillated and outraged the public during that period, in ways both profound and trivial. Hofler, a former entertainment editor at Penthouse, covers the porn scene (Deep Throat), artist Andy Warhol's Factory of "superstars," the new frankness in fiction (Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint; John Updike's Couples), Doors lead singer Jim Morrison's obscenity charges, the Stonewall riots and gay themes on stage and in films (The Boys in the Band; Sunday, Bloody Sunday), and even early reality TV (An American Family, the PBS series profiling the Louds, which featured a son's coming out). As the author notes, the revolution declined when "repetition and exploitation diluted the creative pool." However, the era's aftershocks are still felt to this day. VERDICT With personalities such as Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Oh! Calcutta! playwright Kenneth Tynan, the "sexplosion" seems more fueled by runaway egos than creative ferment. More background about the 1950s and early 1960s culture that the artists were trying to overturn would have been helpful. However, the volume is a readable review for those who lived through the madness and those who came later.--Stephen Rees, formerly with Levittown Lib., PA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2013
The author, senior editor at Variety and former entertainment editor at Penthouse, sets out to show how a number of very talented, risk-taking rebels challenged the world's prevailing attitudes toward sex and, in the process, changed pop culture forever. Thus, we have a compendium of period sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, much of it familiar, but which, in aggregate, demonstrates Hofler's thesis abundantly. Focusing on the brief period of 196873, the text presents a deluge of barrier-breaking books, films, and theater that is dizzying in its magnitude and impact. Hofler's appropriately breezy style allows his journalistic strengths to shine; it all rings true. Arranged chronologically, beginning with Hair and the movies of Andy Warhol and quickly taking in Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, John Schlesinger's film Midnight Cowboy, Kenneth Tynan's Oh! Calcutta! (the title explained), Mart Crowley's gay-themed The Boys in the Band, and much more, with convincingly detailed context, Hofler describes in often strong language and with considerable wit what was unmistakably a new cultural reality and moral perspective in America and Britain. Although his epilogue seems superfluous, he otherwise makes his case compellingly. This is readable and enjoyable popular history for younger adult readers and deeply resonant nostalgia for the boomers who came of age during this heady half decade.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)