What do you think?
Rate this book
In the Flesh: Undressing for Success
Pages clean and unmarked. Slight wear from time on shelf like you would see on a major chain. Immediate shipping
249 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 10, 2025
Another lame gay memoir that's all about the author's boring sexual conquests as he sells his body while claiming to be in love with almost every hairy-chested non-john he meets in a disco club. It's funny because the guy is supposedly a well-published "poet" who tries to come up with clever phrases, but he's very surface in relating any relationship and doesn't really tell stories as much as give notes like you'd see on the side of a prostitute's little black book.
As much as Dillard wants to present himself as a serious actor and writer, he's just another lazy Hollywood dreamer that wants to live rich, not work a real job (his short time doing gay porn proved too taxing for him!), take money for sex with any guy he's not attracted to, and cheat on his boyfriends.
I was shocked how shallow this guy is, but many in the lgbt community seem to be attracted to shallow minds with great bodies. And what makes it worse is that he teases encounters with all sorts of famous people that could have made for a great book. He name-drops spending time with some celebrities but then tells nothing about what they did together or talked about. He uses fake names for the well-known male show biz stars and studio heads that he has sex with and shows no concern about them having wives or girlfriends. Cheating, lying, even a little stealing is treated as normal in the life of a self-centered gay sex worker.
Eventually he gets into the "spirit world" (which isn't the same as being involved in true spirituality) and his large consumption of illegal drugs leads him to all sorts of wacky people, including a self-proclaimed medium who channels "one of the Ascended Masters." The author makes the ridiculous statement that a "full body channel is someone who actually dies for the duration of the channeling process." Right. LSD can certainly deaden a supposedly brilliant man's mind.
At one point Dillard writes, "Rules are created by small minds and followed by smaller minds." He ignores the fact that nature and the universe and science are all bound by rules, and a civil society is not possible without agreed-up rules. This guy doesn't truly think about the betterment of others and society--he's a socialist/activist/anarchist, which is no surprise since he spends most of his life mooching off of others. He considers himself a "revolutionary" that rebels at the thought of humbling himself to follow the wishes of others. Namely, he's a self-centered leftist jerk that uses his quasi-good looks to not have to be responsible to the consideration of others.
There are also a few disturbing rapes scenes where he both gives and receives non-consensual sex, but they are treated like just another form of typical cruising homosexual behavior. That should cause readers to pause, as should his never-fulfilled libido that only focuses on a man's physical appearance with no interest in true emotional or intellectual or spiritual connections.
This perspective of being responsible for your actions that may cause harm to others are too "Republican" to him--he slams anything conservative and his father's political party (odd since he says he loves his dad). But the guy stereotypes, is an intolerant hypocrite, and doesn't even understand what he's ranting about--at one point scoffing at the high sex payments he's receiving that he says are inflated "due to Republican reasoning." That makes zero sense, as do many of his one-liners.
It just seems like a brag book, where he isn't getting beyond the surface of how someone topped him or paid him just to talk while naked. And he's the only gay hooker I've read about that refuses to give blow jobs. This is only interesting if there are stories and psychological self-analysis accompanying the gigantic ego that he gets from walking down the street and being picked up by random strangers, but Dillard fails to provide anything more than a chapter-by-chapter name-by-name list of conquests or drug pals that are repetitive and dull.
Namely, despite what the title says, his life story is not fleshed out and the way he writes about his undressing is not a success.
As much as Dillard wants to present himself as a serious actor and writer, he's just another lazy Hollywood dreamer that wants to live rich, not work a real job (his short time doing gay porn proved too taxing for him!), take money for sex with any guy he's not attracted to, and cheat on his boyfriends.
I was shocked how shallow this guy is, but many in the lgbt community seem to be attracted to shallow minds with great bodies. And what makes it worse is that he teases encounters with all sorts of famous people that could have made for a great book. He name-drops spending time with some celebrities but then tells nothing about what they did together or talked about. He uses fake names for the well-known male show biz stars and studio heads that he has sex with and shows no concern about them having wives or girlfriends. Cheating, lying, even a little stealing is treated as normal in the life of a self-centered gay sex worker.
Eventually he gets into the "spirit world" (which isn't the same as being involved in true spirituality) and his large consumption of illegal drugs leads him to all sorts of wacky people, including a self-proclaimed medium who channels "one of the Ascended Masters." The author makes the ridiculous statement that a "full body channel is someone who actually dies for the duration of the channeling process." Right. LSD can certainly deaden a supposedly brilliant man's mind.
At one point Dillard writes, "Rules are created by small minds and followed by smaller minds." He ignores the fact that nature and the universe and science are all bound by rules, and a civil society is not possible without agreed-up rules. This guy doesn't truly think about the betterment of others and society--he's a socialist/activist/anarchist, which is no surprise since he spends most of his life mooching off of others. He considers himself a "revolutionary" that rebels at the thought of humbling himself to follow the wishes of others. Namely, he's a self-centered leftist jerk that uses his quasi-good looks to not have to be responsible to the consideration of others.
There are also a few disturbing rapes scenes where he both gives and receives non-consensual sex, but they are treated like just another form of typical cruising homosexual behavior. That should cause readers to pause, as should his never-fulfilled libido that only focuses on a man's physical appearance with no interest in true emotional or intellectual or spiritual connections.
This perspective of being responsible for your actions that may cause harm to others are too "Republican" to him--he slams anything conservative and his father's political party (odd since he says he loves his dad). But the guy stereotypes, is an intolerant hypocrite, and doesn't even understand what he's ranting about--at one point scoffing at the high sex payments he's receiving that he says are inflated "due to Republican reasoning." That makes zero sense, as do many of his one-liners.
It just seems like a brag book, where he isn't getting beyond the surface of how someone topped him or paid him just to talk while naked. And he's the only gay hooker I've read about that refuses to give blow jobs. This is only interesting if there are stories and psychological self-analysis accompanying the gigantic ego that he gets from walking down the street and being picked up by random strangers, but Dillard fails to provide anything more than a chapter-by-chapter name-by-name list of conquests or drug pals that are repetitive and dull.
Namely, despite what the title says, his life story is not fleshed out and the way he writes about his undressing is not a success.
Displaying 1 of 1 review