STRIP ALLEY - Orrie Hitt

 In the seedy part of town there's a series of strip clubs. For a girl like Lola Champ, with a perfect female body and one who enjoys being naked, stripping seems like the perfect job. But Lola's never been on stage, stripping for scores of men leering at her.

But not even a dame like Lola can just walk into a strip club and get a job. There's plenty of girls to go around. But at one of the seediest and lowest of the clubs, the owner gets a look at Lola and knows there's real potential.  He takes her on (in more ways than one) and connects her with one of the other strippers to show her the ropes. Soon enough, this dive strip club is seeing a big increase in business as word gets out about Lola's, er, charms.

But this is a cut-throat business.  The others girls are jealous of the attention Lola is getting, and the other strip clubs want her to appear on their stages. She's going to need to watch her back as closely as the men are watching her front!

As I first started exploring this world of 'sleaze' - sometimes called 'adult novels' or in today's parlance, erotica - of the 1950's and 60's, the author Orrie Hitt was one of the first names that popped up again and again.  Hitt wrote often (nearly 100 books?!) of strong women and the darkest, grittiest side of life. This was no exception.

It's still sleaze, meaning there's lots and lots of sex, described in great detail, with the barest of plots as an excuse to get from one sex scene to the other. But the plot at least feels real - there's motivation for the characters beyond just trying to get laid.

I think this quote from the book sums up the characters and the period mores nicely:

"Do you know how long a moth lives? The kind you see at night?"
"Not very long."
"No, but to the moth it’s a lifetime. Short, when we look at it. So is the life of the majority of strippers. Short. You have to grab the cash while it’s flying by you."

There's definitely a very dated feel to this, and the men are all macho and the women, even the strong ones, are still not much more than sex toys.

I look forward to trying a few more books by Orrie Hitt.

4 Guilty Pleasure stars.

THE ATOMIC EIGHT INCHES - M. L. Ginger

Dr. Wilhelm Schnatz has created/invented a fully-functional penis prosthetic that is powered by a nuclear battery.  Once word leaks out about the device the race is on from governments and secret agencies around the world to get their hands on the penis.  Schnatz knows he needs to sneak his nuclear penis past authorities and out of desperation he kidnaps the pretty New jersey housewife, Gina Gianni and surgically attaches the penis between her legs - in essence, making her a trans woman.

Navigating the world with a penis is not Gina's only challenge - now she has scores or government agents and terrorists who want to get inside her panties and get ahold of her cock and they don't care who they have to kill to get their way.

Enter the dashing former British secret agent, Simon Scarlet, who will look after Gina and work to keep her safe.  But Gina finds herself more and more attracted to Simon. But even if she would want to get physical with Simon, what could she do now that she sports an erection? Surely they'll find a way.  But things get even more complicated with Gina's husband, Vinnie, joins them on the run.

I've been enjoying reading the 50's and 60's books that are classified as "sleaze" and I've wondered if anyone's still writing in this vein so I was pretty delighted to find this book.  

The general concept is right on target with what I was looking for ... a bit of action/adventure, some secret agent/spy work, all surrounding a whole lot of sex with a great deal of humor ("Malik hoisted the floppy, rubber penis above his head. "Here it is!" he roared. "The instrument that will rain fire and destruction down on the American infidels."") It is classic sleaze with a modern story. However ....

The book really needs some significant editing.

This book is 739 pages (according to Goodreads) and 129 chapters.  129 chapters! 'Sleaze' needs to be fast and furious. The book drags on with just a few too many subplots and twists thrown in. One chapter, for instance, seemed to be included solely for the spit-take ... literally!  It ends with "A snort of pilsner sprayed across the bar, (sic) as Vinnie snorted his mouthful through his nose." Nothing about the chapter added anything to the story.

While I enjoyed this, in general, it took way too long to read.  At half the length (half the plots), it still might have been a bit too long for this genre of fiction, but definitely a little easier to read.  I struggle to decide whether I want to read the next book in the Simon Scarlet series or not. I enjoy the genre, but not the dedication needed to read something that will take this much time to read.

 3-1/2 Guilty Pleasure stars