 "A Parable for Our Gay Times" | 2006-11-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A38A4HHHPSHSK1 |
| With the explosion of porn distribution on the net and the constant rise and fall of "stars" being basically anyone paid to be naked for an orgasm in front of a camera at any time in their lives, the story of Joey Stefano is a cautionary tale that many ought heed. This entertainingly written and fairly well researched biography is a brief but revealing text. Perhaps Stefano's life could not carry a longer book, either. In any event, the reader will join him on a fast down escalator into self-destruction that shows the reality of low self-esteem, emotional insecurity, and short life span (in the marketplace or, like Stefano, literally) that often marks the human fabric of this industry. Well worth the investment of time and money, not least because a number of the people in the book, like Chi Chi LaRue, continue as active presences in the business of the meat market. |
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 "Sad story. Not a tragedy..." | 2006-01-05 |
| - Reviewed By bishonen9001 |
What I got out of this was a portrait of a beautiful, self-involved, rather self-indulgent young man who gave in to his weaknesses and lack of motivation or ability to do anything aside from relying on his looks and sexual prowess. As such stories usually go, this mindset led Stefano down a road of self-destruction and eventually death. It's certainly a fascinating portrait of a time and place very specific in Gay pop culture and adult-film history; this is a must-read for any porn aficianado for the very colorful events and characters that pop up in Joey Stefano's story. The author does a good job of outllining the events of his life and contextualizing them in the gay-porn scene of the late '80s to early '90s when gay video really came of age.
However, i must again disagree with those who characterize this story as a "tragedy". A tragedy implies that the participants had no choice or fought valiantly against the forces which eventually overwhelmed them. Joey Stefano made his own choices and was clearly not willing to own up to them---yes he was gorgeous and had great sexual mystique but he was all too willing to squander his gifts in a morass of drugs and self-degradation which he enthusiastically participated in. Clearly he was too willing to buy into the myth that you are only worth as much as your beauty allows (a too-prevalent attitude in the gay world) and his unfortunate lack of self-awareness was his ultimate undoing.
Compare and contrast him with the story of his mentor, Chi Chi LaRue---a large, homely man who became one the most successful business people in the porn world. LaRue had enough character and self-awareness to realize that looks would not get him along in the world---hard work, character, and a willingness to confront harsh realities are all necessary qualities for anyone but especially to those not gifted with dazzling good looks. LaRue becomes the de facto hero of "Wonder Bread and Ecstasy", especially considering that although Stefano barely gave him the time of day during their friendship/collaboration LaRue stood by him through anything and everything. That Stefano perished at an early age, burnt out and used, and LaRue emerged successful and thriving to this day, says much about the vagaries of vanity, empty self-gratification and excessive worship of beauty in the gay mainstream media. |
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 "A Tragic Life Revealed." | 2005-08-06 |
| - Reviewed By keygo69 |
The first time I saw Joey Stefano in film I was overwhelmed by his beauty, his body, his sexual appetite, and his vulnerability. I think that vulnerability; that good boy/bad boy persona that was able to reach out beyond the screen is what made him into the "star" he became. Those who saw him fantasized being with him, and in the process, perhaps to protect him from all those things that could and would hurt him. His meteoric rise to fame, and his tragic demise are recounted in this sad tale about a man who became a legend in his own time.
One thinks of stars who's greatness was cut short...Kurt Cobain, Judy Garland, Carole Lombard, among others...and then there too was Joey Stefano. |
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| "You sir are no Norma Jean." | 2005-03-11 |
| - Reviewed By chorizo7467 |
| I'll cut some slack for this being Isherwoods first book but alas ther is nothing to see here. His Norma Jean approach to Nick Iaconna life is cliche' at best. To Isherwoods credit he does include morsels of what was going on in gay culture at the time of the early nineties which are genuinely intresting observations. Isherwoods took the E! true hollywood story approach to this bio and quite frankly been there done that.There are no new insights or revelations about the porn industry or gay culture. |
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| "Not a Biography You'll See on A&E" | 2004-11-03 |
| - Reviewed By kdailey1971 |
The reason I got this book was that it was a biography of a performer who's movies I was once thrilled to watch. Joey Stafano wasn't particularly intelligent but he loved sex and, from this Isherwood biography, wanted to be a porn star from a very early age.
Isherwood has a very fluent and visual writing style that makes for easy reading, but there really isn't much to read about. As one reviewer pointed out the author makes it a point to tell the audience that Stefano was private and didn't discuss his youth, so instead of investigating and researching and interviewing those who were a part of his pre-L.A. history, he tells us stories from those Stefano had told stories to. So, to fill in the pages we get miniature biographies of Chi Chi LaRue and various roommates and porn stars and drag queens who were, in some way of another, connected to Stefano.
So, three stars...because Isherwood is a very talented writer, but not talented enough to overcome a thin story. |
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 "Give me a break!" | 2004-06-29 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I can only wonder why Isherwood chose to write a book about a gay porn star. Did this book ever become a bestseller? I doubt so. I have to agree with some of the people who have reviewed the book before me. No one is to blame for Nick's own lack of intelligence and prudence. It's kind of ironic that such beautiful prose (I liked Isherwood's writing style)should be dedicated to someone who was indeed drugged-out, irresponsible, clueless, and COCKY! He wanted sex? He got it! Instead of being viewed as a gay icon, Nick should be viewed as what he was in reality - a scumbag. What message did he send out to the gay public? (..) |
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| "The Beautiful and the Doomed" | 2004-02-19 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Charles Isherwood certainly doesn't have a dull subject on his hands, and this book is a decadent page-turner. Titillation is part of the reason, and so is camp. As one reviewer correctly points out, in its gravitas, this book reads like the biography of an accomplished artist or senator, and the serious lengthy discussion of Stefano as opening the "top"-dominated gay porn world to the possibilities of a superstar "bottom," drive the camp quotient up that much higher. Most of us are both attracted to and repelled by pornography. Sex is a shortcut to everything, and the world of flesh and juices created in X-rated films is one most males and a few females are drawn to at certain times. As I found out in life, the unlikeliest people have collections of porn so ample they almost need the Dewey Decimal System to organize it. As Camille Paglia has said, "A day without pornography is like a day without sunshine." I knew picking this book up that I'd be reading a tragic life. Joey's physical flaws were few (a flattened nose, a slight doughiness) and his physical attributes were many (a stunning Tom Cruise face and an arse that should be cast in platinum and displayed in the Prado) but psychologically this young man was a mess. Author Isherwood is a good reporter and gathers most of the important facts about his subject's life. His psychological theses are on shakier ground. The most important thing to know about Nick Iacona/Joey Stefano was that he was an addictive personality. Addictive personalities are usually not confined to one addiction, because this personality type is really a mode of response to any pleasure, one which is compulsive and unrelenting. When Nick/Joey wasn't doing porn films, he was going to orgiastic parties, and when these two allowed him any spare time, he was calling up sex lines, cruising parking lots, or soliciting other hustlers! Now this, my friends, is a sex addiction if any doubt lingers. Ecsape through drugs, frightening and blissful, was another of Nick/Joey's obsessions, and everything from heroin to morphine to cocaine to ketamine found itself in his system. Spending money compulsively and completely rounded out Nick/Joey's trio of addictions. A well-paid erotic film star, he never had a dime to his name, and couldn't even save up for a used car. With his good looks, Nick/Joey didn't lack for sugar daddies, and some of these transcended the role and became genuinely fatherly; alas, it was too late, and the porn star's problems were too weighty and too many. Lacking a human lover in his life, Nick/Joey courted death; his twin obsessions with sex and drugs dealt him a dual death sentence: HIV and an overdose. People with addictive personalities are also quite productive, since their work often becomes an addiction as well. Nick/Joey made 17 erotic films, and became one of a small group of icons in gay pornography. This may seem a dubious accomplishment, but it's well out of the reach of most of us. "The privileges of beauty are enormous" as Jean Cocteau said, and green-eyed Joey Stefano was clearly beautiful. But he was the kind of guy who could win the lottery and run through the money in a year. Tortured soul, his problems were a spooky and endless chasm, and we end up agreeing with his biographer with a chill and a sigh that at least death brings peace. |
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| "Give him a break...he's dead for christ sake." | 2000-09-25 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Just spent a sad 5 mins reading the reviews about the life of Joey Stefano. Christ the guy is dead. tragic. Always hear the same sad old queens harping on about porn and the drugs industry. Yes Joey was responsible for his life and choices. He was rewarded handsomely for his roles. He didn't deserve to die. Strange how the very guys who berate porn stars have book shelves filled with porn. If it get to you that much don't buy the stuff and don't buy excellent books which light the arena of gay porn. Plain scared people are the worst. They never have to worry about the industry because their chances of attaining any porn career have been hampered by mother nature at birth. Shut up and let the rest of us star in and buy what we enjoy. |
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 "Ho-Hum" | 1999-07-13 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Although it's no fault of the author, I simply could not feel sorry for Mr. Stefano. The book spends a lot of time trying to build a case that the porn industry did Stefano in; but I didn't buy it. He was basically a drug addicted prostitute and chose his own lifestyle. When we lose an artist in the music field (like Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix, etc) or the entertainment field (like River Phoenix, Judy Garland, etc) from an overdose, there is a real void in our culture because these people brought something to our arts and culture. I'm sorry, the loss of Joey Stefano certainly doesn't bring any kind of loss to society. It's too bad a young man died the way he did, but his "talents" are not irreplaceable or to be mourned for. |
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| "Remembrance of Porn Stars Past" | 1999-07-02 |
| - Reviewed By buddy_x |
| If Mr. Isherwood can--preposterously--introduce his little book with an epigraph taken from Dr. Johnson, then I get to begin my mini-review with a quote from Alexander Pope: "What dire offense from am'rous causes springs,/What mighty contests rise from trivial things." This book is clearly the object of spirited debate, and indeed, it's hard for gay men not to have opinions about even a badly written little book featuring gay sex, gay drugs, and gay videos and their stars like the late Joey Stefano. The ferocity with which some of the book's critics attack it makes me suspect these people still harbor fantasies for Stefano that motivate them to preserve and revere his memory--as if they knew him in the first place! The real insight about gay men and their values is in the Amazon.com reviews of this book, and not the book itself. What most of these commentators seem not to notice, however, is that this is one of the most unintentionally funny books ever written for gay men. What a hoot! Isherwood--whoever he is--writes about a dead, drug-addicted, illiterate porn star with all the gravitas usually reserved for heads of state. Methinks the author had, and has, a crush on his subject. At his worst--and funniest--Isherwood tries to carry out a line of Freudian interpretation and to execute some kind of half-assed theory about "the real" Stefano (Nick Iacona--Stefano's real name) versus the gay cause celebre who had become Stefano the porn star. It's as if Mike Meyers got trapped in the body of Austin Powers and couldn't get out--so to speak. To those who slammed this book I say: "Get a life." Those who didn't slam it, on the other hand, and therefore would seem to be moved or elucidated or both by this book, probably need some secondary education and, well, a life. Gay men are supposed to be good at detecting camp--what happened to the camp-o-meters of this book's readers and reviewers? Oh, behave! |
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