Book Report

I bought this novel for a buck and after reading it, it's well worth ten times that.

It's a story about a aimless well meaning guy in the late 1950's/early 1960's who gets drawn into taking nude photos of women for some shady characters which then progresses into him shooting porn films for some even shadier characters. Along the way he gets sucked into the periphery of the sex Profumo sex scandal which has negative consequences for him and some of his friends and acquaintances. (There is a vey good film about the Profumo sex scandal. It was made in 1989 and it's entitled Scandal. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.)

This book oozes atmosphere and it gives you a great sense of what London was like in the early swingin' '60's. The author does a hell of a job evoking what that era and place were all about. And for the most part, he does a hell of a job with the story.

My only quibble with the book is that it took so long to take off and then he kind of let things go downhill at the very end. Frankly, the book could do with out all the stuff about the protagonist's early home life and it could do with out the last part all together. The novel is strongest when it focuses on the main characters and the main story of Tim Purdom and his connections to the characters involved in the Profumo scandal.

I recommend it despite the quibbles I have with it. It's an enjoyable read.