I heard about this book years ago and wouldn't have read it except that a friend of mine wanted to know what I thought of it. This has to be one of the most compelling memoirs even written. In a recent article in Poets and Writers by the son of Mike McGrady (the writer who helped Lovelace with the book), he described how terribly his father and Linda were treated after the publication of the book See, http://www.pw.org/content/the_porn_st.... It wasn't until feminists such as Gloria Steinem and others spoke up in support of Linda Lovelace that people began to have compassion.

Many people, even now, do not believe Linda's story of abuse and virtual slavery at the hands of her husband/manager, Chuck Trainer. The reaction to the book, even among people I know, is a testament to the power of this woman's story and what our interpretation of it says about how we view sex and autonomy.

After "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy was published around 1891, people used to debate about whether or not Tess deserved what happened to her. The attitude being that if a woman is raped it is because she "asked for it." Dinner parties at the time would nearly explode in arguments and as one woman said at the time, "Any person who believes Tess to be a harlot rather than a victim is a person I don't want to know."

I feel the same way about Linda. If you think she enjoyed deep throating, ever, you are nuts.