Book Review: Confessions of a Paper Pimp

“Confessions of a Paper Pimp,” by Sam Bauman. Slalom Press, 2011. Hard copy available at Amazon, $18.95; Kindle version, $10.

By Guy W. Farmer
You can learn a lot about journalism and the magazine business by reading my friend Sam Bauman’s latest novel, “Confessions of a Paper Pimp.” While some prudish readers might call it a “dirty book,” I think it’s a slice of gritty reality, adult reading for sure.

Sam, a veteran journalist, writer and editor, has lived an interesting, globe-trotting life as a foreign correspondent in Europe and the Far East, and as a newspaper and magazine journalist in the U.S., including a productive stint as the entertainment editor of the Nevada Appeal, where he wrote popular hiking and skiing columns.

Sam’s formerly free-wheeling lifestyle is reflected in the pages of “Confessions.” Although Sam denies it, I think his new book is semi-autobiographical. The protagonist, Jake Gelbach, starts out, as Sam did, as a small town boy from Ohio working part-time at the local newspaper and the story follows Jake through fun-filled university years and an exciting tour of duty as an Air Force pilot in Japan, where he even flies a few high- altitude U-2 reconnaissance missions.

A plane crash grounds Jake and he returns to journalism as a New York Herald - Tribune correspondent in Tokyo, where he meets Yoko, a lovely fashion model. They enjoy a lusty romance with lots of graphic sex before Jake moves to Hong Kong as an AP staffer. There he meets Ho, a Chinese beauty who works at the American Consulate. They eventually travel through Europe eating at fancy restaurants and drinking fine wines. Jake is able to live the high life because his widowed mother, a very successful New York stockbroker, manages his investment portfolio.

Inevitably, he and the beautiful Ho must part and Jake returns to the States to work on “Gentlemen,” a classy men’s magazine that looks a lot like “Playboy,” where the author worked when he lived in Chicago. However, after a dalliance with the publisher’s oversexed girlfriend, Jake is exiled to a sleazy men’s magazine, “Streets,” which bears
a striking resemblance to “Hustler.” As it turns out, “Streets” publisher Homer Thatcher could be the twin brother of much-maligned “Hustler” publisher Larry Flynt, who bills himself as a fervent defender of First Amendment press freedom, as are Sam and his alter-ego, Jake.

Like Flynt, Thatcher and his staff, including Jake, are charged with publishing pornography and a lively and colorful trial ensues. Who wins? -- the determined local prosecutor or the hateful Homer Thatcher and his equally repulsive (and frequently naked) wife, Rheba Mae? You’ll have to read the book to find out. Along the way Jake meets and falls in love with young Alma Milovitch, an intrepid and sexy newspaper reporter. But do they get together and live happily ever after? Again, read the book.

While I enjoyed Sam’s international story, I do have a couple of nits to pick: First, the book is way too long at more than 500 pages. An experienced book editor with a sharp red pencil could have cut 200 pages without damaging the flow of the story. And finally, I think the book contains too much gratuitous sex and filthy language. But that’s probably because I’m an old fuddy-duddy in contrast to my youthful friend Sam, who’s still skiing and hiking as he moves into his 80s. You go, Sam!

Guy W. Farmer, a retired diplomat, is the Appeal’s longtime Sunday political columnist.