THE PURITAN JUNGLE

by Sara Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 1969

This is little more than a guide to ""America's Sexual Underground,"" a degenerate, decentralized zone composed of whores, hustlers, homosexuals, pornographic photographers, posers and peddlers and their clientele--sadists, masochists, transvestites and wife swappers. Miss Harris does have a knack for getting her interviewees to tell all (her approach is sympathetic) and here are some amazing scenes: the head of a crime commission who takes a great pleasure in personal investigation; Mann Harvey at work choreographing positions for his stage films; the chief of a Miami citizen's committee who wants homosexuals locked up until they are suitably and safely unattractive; a spokesman for the Mattachine Society complaining about the lack of support from the people he's supposed to help and probably the most shocking -- the wife-swappers who make very distasteful exchanges. However Miss Harris does find support for her thesis that America suffers less from overt immorality than from latent hypocrisy. Unfortunately it's a view not a study.

Pub Date: March 7, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION