How to Baby-sit a Porn Star

David Pratt is an exceptional writer. I was the moderator of the Stonewall Book Discussion Group (the book club at the Stonewall National Museum and Archives in Fort Lauderdale) for almost three years. This has been a premier book discussion group that I have been a member of for at least seven years. Monthly, we chose a book that was either a Lammie winner or a book known to be popular in the gay community for other reasons. I was first exposed to David's writing when we read Bob the Book, an amazing novel based on the life experiences of a gay book. What an outrageous idea?! Well, David outdid that one by coming up with the idea of Calvin's favorite porn star, Joey, popping out of the screen to enter Calvin's life or rather, first, Calvin popping into the screen to enter Joey's life then bringing Joey out with him kind of like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz clicking her heals three times.

Think about what your favorite porn star's life is like, four or five sex experiences in a row; one, the neighbor comes to borrow a "tool"; two, the pool boy shows up; three, he orders pizza after doing the lawn... You get the idea. He also never needs money, lives in a beautiful apartment, drives a Beemer, and never experiences sleep or nighttime, AND he never works unless it is to wear a suit to , (You guessed it.), have sex in. Such is the life of Joey.

Then, Joey enters Calvin's world. Calvin works, eats foods other than pizza, has a budget, and doesn't have sex ten times a day. When Joey enters his world Calvin or, rather Calvin and Peachy, Calvin's best friend, become baby-sitters, protecting him from unsuspecting straight women and men who don't want to have sex with him and bank-rolling his pizza diet, clothing needs, and unemployed status. Now, you can begin to imagine how much more there is to "looking after Joey".

Somewhere, I saw in a Pratt bio that he attended The New School in New York City. If this is the imagination and creativity you get there in your education, sign me up. Needless to say, I LOVED this book. It is hilarious, satirical, and, on another level, echoes the mentoring that many older, more sophisticated, wealthier gay men do with younger less sophisticated guys that don't know the ropes yet. The sense of humor and quality of writing are five-star. I would highly recommend it and look forward to David Pratt's next book.