From Publishers Weekly
Cultural icons of San Francisco in the 1960s, pornographers Jim and Artie Mitchell became millionaires in their 20s with their movie Behind the Green Door . The tough, cunning brothers, who endured hundreds of porn-related arrests, were frequently in court to protect their right to be purveyors of live sex shows and flesh flicks. Both brothers used cocaine, and in 1991 Jim, described here as a loving father, snapped and fatally shot Artie, an obnoxious, dangerous drunk and sex addict who physically and emotionally abused a network of worshipful women competing to give him master-slave sex. Convicted of manslaughter instead of the prosecutor's charge of first-degree murder, he could spend less than three years in prison. McCumber, a former editor of the San Francisco Examiner , takes readers on a depressing trip through a psychosexual swamp featuring a cameo appearance by Hunter Thompson and interviews with strippers, dancers, actors, ex-wives and lovers in the Mitchells' orbit. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Library Journal
In 1991, the killing of Artie Mitchell by his older brother Jim stunned San Francisco. After all, the city's famous, or rather infamous, citizens had been innovative pornographers whose classic Behind the Green Door transformed the adult film industry and whose O'Farrell Theatre was the "Carnegie Hall of Public Sex." What led these colorful, unpredictable brothers to their tragically violent end? Journalist McCumber attempts to find the answers, but his book is an awkward mishmash of two separate stories. On the personal level, it is a classic Cain and Abel tale of the responsible older brother tired of taking care of an abusive sibling addicted to sex, drugs, and alcohol. On a broader front, the Mitchells' story symbolizes the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Because McCumber tries to cram in so much material, parts of his book has a rushed, sketchy feel , while other sections (especially the chapter discussing Artie's relationship with women) bore the reader with excessive details. McCumber's occasional Hunter Thompson-type prose is distracting and weakens his book. Still, as the Mitchells knew, sex sells, so there probably will be demand.
- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
