Read Pure Filth over the last twelve hours and loved it enormously. Great careful sequencing in the pieces, clever and cruel 'confusion' over the screenshots and what chapters they are juxtaposed with. Mr Sotos' introduction is honest, revealing and shows that he can put together a thoroughly coherent sentence when he wants. Mr Gillis's introductions are endearing, funny and accessible. Excellent quality of printing and presentation as previously noted here.
The On The Prowl segments which begin the book are mischievously innocuous and dull, with ignorant empty porn stars coupled with tedious sex addicts in the male roles - with the exception of the intriguingly perverse masochistic 'Sam' maybe. A sudden and terrifying shift into Walking Toilet Bowl - I've been around mental illness my whole life, it's a hobby and a career for me, and quite honestly Carol and Jamie (in the transcript at least, which comes over worse than the actual film) sound each a week away from a locked nut ward at this low point in their lives. In Brown on Ebony he sounds like a real creep, but she seems utterly pathetic too: the bickering over a few dollars is a particularly bleak point in a grim book. After some pretty vanilla sounding 'bad girls' (Tiki, Taj and Jojo) there are some sinister suggestions about what might have become of Heidi after her humiliation. The interview with Africa was for me the highpoint of the book. She seemed head-and-shoulders above the other actresses in terms of intelligence and insight and she gets an amazing conversation with Mr Gillis about childhood abuse, D/S, racial issues and their potential sexualization and whatever the fuck sex is all about anyway. Psychologically revealing and intense and took me back to my own confusion and dissatisfaction with teenage romantic and mainstream sexual experiences. Book ends with a 'private film' (which Sotos suspects wasn't really commissioned but done for fun by Gillis) in which Eve pretty much matches Jamie in cynicism and cold-eyed approach.
Absolutely phenomenal collection, a perfect meeting of minds, cannot recommend it highly enough. And kudos to all the amazing women in there, some of whom will be surely checking out these reviews with interest.
