Jenna Jameson
How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale (2004)
Author: Jenna Jameson (with Neil Strauss)
Genre (and subgenre): Nonfiction (Autobiography/Celebrity Memoir)
Book Summary:
Adult film star Jenna Jameson relates her lascivious life story in copious detail, beginning with her leaving home at 17 to move in with a tattoo artist and work in a Las Vegas strip club, and concluding with her ascent to the throne of “Queen of Porn” as she retires from film perfomance to start her own production company with her husband. In the middle, we get details of her numerous on and off-screen trysts with men and women, dirt on the sexual predilections of her various celebrity conquests, and seemingly out of left-field gossip tidbits (for instance, Nicolas Cage smelled like “the distilled sweat of homeless people” when he was a regular at her strip club in the 1990s). She also fights and wins addictions to methamphetamines and abusive boyfriends, hence the “cautionary tale” bit.
Geographical Setting: Mostly Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami
Time Period: Mostly 1990s, with occasional flashbacks to her childhood
Series: None yet, but her flair for self-branding is too great not to pursue follow-ups if this one sells well.
Appeal Characteristics:
The aforementioned copious and lascivious detail is probably the big draw for most readers, as well as the photos of the author in various states of undress that are liberally sprinkled throughout. There is some interesting information about the practical workings of the adult film industry, and I suppose people who enjoy narratives about people overcoming addictions and other bad situations to succeed in their chosen goals may enjoy it as well.
Read-alikes: Adult film stars Traci Lords and Christy Canyon have also written autobiographies. Virtually every mainstream celebrity eventually (ghost) writes a book if celebrity memoir is the draw.
Red Flags: Obviously, there is an enormous amount of sex, hetero- and homosexual, conventional and unconventional, described in great detail. Additionally, she describes her methamphetamine use at some length, and there are a few violent scenes, particularly two rapes that occurred when she was younger.
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