My Father, the Pornographer

by Chris Offutt

When Andrew Offutt died, his son, Chris, inherited a desk, a rifle, and eighteen hundred pounds of pornographic fiction. Andrew had been considered the king of twentieth-century smut, with a writing career that began as a strategy to pay for his son's orthodontic needs and soon took on a life of its own, peaking during the 1970s when the commercial popularity of the erotic novel reached its height.

With his dutiful wife serving as typist, Andrew wrote from their home in the Kentucky hills, locked away in an office no one dared intrude upon. In this fashion he wrote more than four hundred novels, including pirate porn, ghost porn, zombie porn, and secret agent porn. The more he wrote, the more intense his ambition became and the more difficult it was for his children to be part of his world.

Over the long summer of 2013, Chris returned to his hometown to help his widowed mother move out of his childhood home. As he began to examine his father's manuscripts and memorabilia, journals, and letters, he realized he finally had an opportunity to gain insight into the difficult, mercurial, sometimes cruel man he'd loved and feared in equal measure. Only in his father's absence could he truly make sense of the man and his legacy.

In My Father, the Pornographer, Offutt takes us on the journey with him, reading his father s prodigious literary output as both a critic and as a son seeking answers. This is a book about the life of a working writer who supports his family solely by the output of his typewriter; it's about the awful psychic burdens one generation unthinkingly passes along to the next; and it's about growing up in the Appalachian hills with a pack of fearless boys riding bicycles through the woods, happy and free."

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Books About Books, Autobiography, Audiobook

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 9, 2016

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

My father grew up in a log cabin near Taylorsville, Kentucky. The house had twelve-inch walls with gun ports to defend against attackers, first Indians, then soldiers during the Civil War. At age twelve, Dad wrote a novel of the Old West. He taught himself to type with the Columbus method—find it and land on it—using one finger on his left hand and two fingers on his right. Dad typed swiftly and with great passion. He eventually wrote and published more than four hundred books under eighteen different names. His novels included six science fiction, twenty-four fantasy, and one thriller. The rest was pornography.

A kind if melancholic memorial to Andrew Jefferson Offutt V. He was a difficult man to live with and to love. Moody and quirky, never violent but given tirades of verbal abuse. Deflect and keep quiet to avoid his wrath. Writing it was probably therapeutic grieving for his son, Chris Offutt, as sorts his memories and the bequest of his father’s papers. The book is about the father, not pornography, but the porn is disturbing with a heavy emphasis on torture and abuse of women.

In the course of his fifty-year career as a writer, my father explored every sexual permutation except pedophilia. At the end of his life, still seeking a frontier, he wrote an intricate portrayal of cannibalism. His sole foray into bestiality was combined with the medical cloning of goats.

Fighting disgust, Chris dutifully continues reading and sorting. Before his father’s death, he believed his father “occasionally wrote porn to supplement his income.” The sheer volume is stunning. Chilling as some of the content is, he wants a better understanding. So he reads his father’s most personal work.

By the time I reached the telling of Andrew’s feud with Harlan Ellison. I was beginning to have a sense of his personality. Did Ellison even know that there was a feud? Nope, in a telephone call, Ellison insisted that it never happened.

The conversation shocked me, and I thought about it for a long time. Ellison had put forth a degree of effort to track me down at a hotel and make a call. He was known to be rude and irascible, a street fighter in his youth, litigious, a provocateur, and short-tempered. I couldn’t summon a reason for him to lie about the feud or about his sincere regard for my father. In short, I believed him. That meant the decades-long conflict was one-sided on my father’s part

I agree with Chris’ take on this one. His father needed adversaries.

Offutt’s mother, Jodie, and Andrew were married over fifty years. She typed all of his final manuscripts for submission and worked the SF conventions with her husband while he changed clothes and name tags. Persona, John Cleve had a separate wardrobe. And, it was John Cleve, who had sixteen pseudonyms. Andrew insisted that he did not use multiple pen names. So, Sci-Fi writer, Andrew J. Offutt slips out of his open-necked shirt with giant collar, flared pants, wide belt and zipper boots, and becomes John Cleve in a long djellaba.

My mother’s seamless veneer of politesse was unusual among fans, whose interpersonal skills were on a par with those of chess players and degenerate gamblers. Fans revered my father as royalty, granting him constant attention. They gave him swords and daggers, homemade chain mail, whips and leather cuffs, bottle after bottle of bourdon, plaques, statutes, and original art. Dad was charismatic and funny until someone failed to grant the proper respect, usually by having the audacity to speak. Dad then subjected that person to a public humiliation that made others uncomfortable, an interaction that enhanced my father’s notoriety. I learned to avoid Dad, who gave me dirty looks and deliberately turned his back if I didn’t vacate the area quickly. It was similar to our home life, except the hotel offered an alternative to the woods as refuge.

Her take on their business is practical and matter of fact. Andrew quit a successful job selling insurance to write full-time. This way, they could afford for Chris to have braces.

She told me about taking a box of pornography to science fiction conventions and selling the books to fans.
“They bought them,” she said. “They bought everything. I don’t know why. The books were pretty much all the same. Different settings and people’s names, but the same. People just like them, I guess.”
It’s like Agatha Christie novels. Or TV shows. A satisfying formula.
“With sex,” she said, and laughed.

[Alex ☣ Deranged KittyCat ☣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

After finishing My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir (some 30 minutes ago), I went to my husband to tell him a little about the book. "What an asshole!" is what we both kept saying from time to time. And at some point I had to stop because my eyes were stinging. What an asshole!

This book is good, extremely good! Having a weird, twisted, kind of f*cked up relationship with my own parents, I related to Chris Offutt in a way I did not expect. I started reading this book on a whim, after seeing it around GR, and I'm happy I did.

My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir is about the author, his father (Andrew J. Offutt - a writer himself) and their relationship. His father's passion had been erotic novels full of BDSM, psychological and physical humiliation. He even had a secret comic book he had been working on with the worst, most horrific kind of sexual activities. And not to mention torture! Offutt Sr. sure had an interest in torture.

As I see it, he was an awful father, with zero understanding for his children or of what being a parent is all about. And he always had to be the important one. After deciding to be a full-time writer, all of his wife's attention had to be directed at him. Otherwise he saw it as treachery. Jeez! I simply despise him.

Another thing that touched me deeply, was the fatman episode. I'm very sensitive to child abuse. I hope the fatman got what he deserved, that somebody brought him to justice, that he suffered in one way or another. One thing is for sure: this world is full of real, flesh and blood monsters.

This book is amazing and Chris Offutt is honest and direct. He doesn't romanticize anything and analyzes everything from every possible angle. My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir has become very dear to me and is one of my all-time favourites. I highly recommend it!

*I thank Chris Offutt, Atria Books, and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Chris Offutt's Country Dark (which was criminally underappreciated in this year's award circuit) so much that I just had to read his memoir. Here, Offutt re-constructs the life of his father Andrew who supported his family writing science fiction and more than 400 pornographic novels and stories.

Coming from a humble background and living in rural Kentucky with his wife (they were married for over 50 years when he died!), Andrew Offutt was a complex character: An alcoholic obsessed with his craft, with a fragile ego trying to fit in with the writers from the big cities, emotionally abusive towards his children and caught up in his own self-righteousness. But his son did not write this book to take revenge, and he also didn't write it to excuse his father's behavior. Rather, it seems like he is trying to make sense of what drove his late father, who was apparently very lonely due to his addiction and his difficulties to connect with other people. And of course, this is also a book about the author, how he experienced his childhood and how his father shaped him and his attitude towards his craft.

This is a fascinating book about how our parents shape us, and a document that contemplates how hard it is to really know the people closest to us, especially if they are battling particularly powerful demons. Now I need to read more Chris Offutt.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine this, your father passes away and you inherit his more than 400 books of porn he had written during his lifetime. 1800 pounds of porn.

That father was the prolific science fiction/fantasy/porn author Andrew J. Offutt. Having made a name in the sci-fi community, he started writing adult literature to get his kids through college, writing under several pseudonyms.
After his death, his son Chris acts as the curator for the whole archive, while at the same time assessing the difficult father-son relationship they have had. "Now that he was dead, I could give him the attention he always craved."

"Women are inherently inferior to men. Caucasians are superior to the other races. Dad is superior to all Caucasian men. Asians possess wisdom."

Offutt senior was a difficult and biased man. He was not the easiest to live with and was particularly hard on Chris, the eldest. "He seemed to regard every word I uttered as a challenge to him. Perhaps it was. No one else stood up to Dad. I protected my siblings, but nobody protected me. I was on my own and I knew it". And "I was angry at being raised by a maniacal father, a passive mother..."

While we get a glimpse of Chris' life, we also meet the man, and many more inside, Andrew J. Offutt. A fascinating man.
Offutt junior's writing is honest. At times, self-deprecating. But most of all, heartfelt.


word gems
columbarium : a room or building with niches for funeral urns to be stored.
corflu : other than the science fiction fanzine convention, the "correction fluid" used in mimeograph printing of fanzines


Review copy supplied by publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a rating and/or review.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have known narcissists, worked with a few, know that that personality disorder is rampant in Hollywood and politics, but I don't believe I've ever known anyone who writes porn. Chris Offutt's father devoted his life to it to the exclusion of anything else, including family. He made his living from it, supported a family of 6, and was well regarded in that area of publishing. When he died Chris inherited all of his work, as his 3 siblings wanted nothing to do with it. Their advice was to burn it and anything else having to do with their father.

Chris was the oldest and always wanted his father's approval, though he rarely got it. He went through all of his work after he died in an attempt to understand him. What he eventually realized was that his father was a sick and deeply flawed man who defied understanding. I think he needed to write this book to be able to truly bury his father.

We also get the story of Chris's childhood, which made me even more of a fan. He is one of my favorite contemporary authors, and this book is brutally honest about both his father and himself. It's remarkable that he turned into the talented artist he is, given his primary role model.

As for myself, I agree with his siblings. I'd have burned every last page. Some people defy understanding, and don't deserve the effort.

[Lee Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

About 10 years ago the author was my teacher and now I know why he's so effed up (kidding!). One warm summer night on a back porch in Iowa City after dinner he told me a bit about his dad, who'd written something like 400 porn novels. I was totally engaged by the story (semi-incredulous too). After reading this article in the NYT about a year ago, I preordered the book as soon as I heard word of its existence. Just got around to it and am glad I did. Beyond the subject matter, there are so many great Offutt-y moments, like walking through snow on a frozen creek, or his son saying there's not a sky in the clouds, and a general stability to the prose contrasting the jagged emotional terrain it conveys. The father is a larger-than-life presence -- a megalomaniacally obsessed big shot in the small ponds of '70s sci-fi, textual porn, Kentucky. Surprisingly interesting when about the early Sci-Fi subculture conferences and the literary porn industry of the era. A nice if not totally representative sentence: "His sole foray into bestiality was combined with the medical cloning of goats." It was great to get to know Chris Offutt better after all these years -- he doesn't talk all that much about himself but I appreciated the bits about writing, like how he falls into depression when not working on a larger project, and the overall attempt to try to sort through his messy inheritance -- the thousand-plus pound archive of pornographic writing and the emotional/psychological impact of living under the same roof with such a man, let alone sharing his DNA.

[Kansas · Rating 4 out of 5]

"El éxito comercial de las novelas pornográficas estadounidenses tocó techo durante los años setenta, coincidiendo con el periodo más prolífico y más activo de mi padre. Solo en 1972 publicó dieciocho novelas. Papá escribió porno de piratas, porno de fantasmas, porno de ciencia ficción, porno de vampiros, porno histórico, porno de viajes en el tiempo, porno de espías, porno de intriga, porno de zombies y porno de la Atlánida. Una novela del oeste inédita abre con sexo en un granero con la participación de un pistolero llamado Sosegado Smith, sin lugar a dudas, el mejor nombre de un personaje creado por papá. A finales de aquella década, papa afirmaba que había incrementado la calidad de la pornografía estadounidense sin ayuda de nadie. Según sus papeles personales, creía que los futuros estudiosos se referirían a él como ´-el rey de la pornografía escrita del siglo XX.”

Cuando comencé estas memorias nunca pensé que me fueran a emocionar, divertir y sorprenderme tanto algunos momentos que nos describe y presenta Chris Offutt porque no solo nos habla de su padre y de la relación que tuvo con él, conflictiva, de continuo tira y afloja, sino que además estas memorias son una oportunidad perfecta para que el autor, su hijo, se desnudara emocionalmente en muchos aspectos y se enfrentara a esos demonios que llevaba toda una vida intentando expulsar: en Mi Padre El Pornógrafo, no solo conoceremos a Andrew Offutt, sino que también llegaremos a conocer más a Chris Offutt.

"La mayoría de los estadounidenses se criaban en ciudades y suburbios, y le tenían miedo al bosque. Las películas de terror explotaban ese miedo: una persona sola en el bosque, los sonidos de animales nocturnos que no se conocen, el simple pánico a perderse de noche. Mi infancia fue todo lo contrario. La casa me daba miedo, pero el bosque era una fuente de soledad y paz. Vagando por el bosque a solas, aprendí a ver..."

Cuando su padre muere, Chris Offutt de alguna forma hereda y se hace responsable de la obra de su padre, 800 kgs de una obra pornográfica y de ciencia ficción además de cartas y ensayos, porque a eso es a lo que se había estado dedicando Andrew Offutt durante décadas, a escribir porno como un poseso, con la colaboración de su sumisa esposa que la ayudaba a mecanografiar sus escritos. En un hogar donde el padre estaba prácticamente desaparecido recluido en su despacho escribiendo, un lugar sagrado al que nadie se le estaba permitido entrar, Chris Offut y sus tres hermanos aprendieron todo un código de conducta para no molestarle, motivo por el cual, Chris Offutt se liberaba deambulando por los bosques de Kentucky. Durante estas memorias hay momentos a flor de piel cuando el autor cuenta escenas familiares, en un hogar donde sus padres estaban prácticamente ausentes y él como mayor de sus hermanos ya había adquirido la responsabilidad de tener que cuidarles durante largas temporadas en las que sus padres asistían a Convenciones.

“Para ahorrar dinero mis padres dejaron de contratar a gente que se quedara con nosotros. A los doce años me dejaban al mando cada vez que iban a congresos. Mi hermano tenía nueve años, y mis hermanas, ocho y siete. Las instrucciones eran sencillas: dar de comer al perro, no correr dentro de casa y sobre todo, no decir a nadie que mamá y papá no estaban. Por la noche, preparaba la cena y acostaba a mis hermanos asegurándoles que todo iba bien. Cuando se quedaban dormidos, me sentaba a solas en la casa y me inquietaba. Tenía miedo de que mis padres no regresaran nunca. Me preocupaba como ibamos a conseguir comida y que sucedería si la electricidad se iba durante una tormenta. Me asustaba perder a mis hermanos, ser incapaz de cuidar de ellos.”

Chris Offut imagino que debía saber que para los lectores iba a ser difícil empatizar con Andrew Offutt, no solo por su personalidad egocéntrica y cruel en muchos aspectos, y porque se hacía patente que en sus escritos las mujeres no salían muy bien paradas, y sin embargo, se las arregla de maravilla para entenderle en la medida de sus posibilidades y para que el lector no acabara odiando al pornógrafo, todo lo contrario. El retrato que hace el hijo de su padre, ambos escritores, con todo lo que esto conlleva, convierten estas memorias en algo mucho más complejo de lo que parece a simple vista porque a través de su padre, es hoy Chris Offutt quién es. Andrew Offutt fue una personalidad muy compleja y sin embargo, su hijo consigue que podamos acercarnos a él y respetarle. Maravilla. La traducción es de Ce Santiago.

"A pesar de mi repulsión, sentía una compasión horrorizada por cualquiera que viviera con semejante imaginería como actividad diaria. Que se tratara de mi propio padre lo empeoraba. No coleccionaba aquellos libros: los hacía. Allí estaba el libro que llevaba dentro a todas horas, lleno de dolor y sufrimiento. Yo no tenía ni idea de lo desgraciado que había sido en realidad."

https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2022...

[Franco Santos · Rating 2 out of 5]

El problema con las memorias es que son tan personales que es difícil que el lector sienta el valor y la importancia que les da su escritor. Las buenas memorias son aquellas que pueden, por alguna razón, provocar en alguien completamente ajeno un sentimiento de pertenencia.

Offutt no llegó a generar nada en mí. Es un simple libro de un hijo tratando de entender a un padre distante amante del porno. Sin embargo, no me voy a rendir con este autor puesto que me gustó mucho cómo escribe, así que voy a intentarlo con sus obras de ficción.

[Jessica J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I set a goal for myself in 2026, that I'd acquire copies of the twelve books that have been sitting on my Goodreads TBR shelf the longest and read one each month. If I felt the urge to skip one, I'd delete it from this account and let myself forget about it.

That’s how I ended up reading this 2016 memoir about the author inheriting the 1,800-pound collection of pornographic material that his father authored. I don't remember how I came across this title ten years ago, but something about the novelty of "a literal ton of porn" kept it on my list.

I expected a book that would lean heavily on that strangeness; what I got instead was something quieter, more introspective, and ultimately much more about fathers and sons than about porn.

I knew that Offut wrote this book in part to reckon with a difficult relationship with his father, and that was something I immediately connected to. My own father shares more than a few personality traits with Papa Offut — though, thankfully, without the industrial-scale porn habit (or so I hope). Weirdly, I think that is ultimately what kept me so invested in the story being told here.

Contrary to what I initially assumed, Offut had long been aware of his father's career as the author of many works of erotic fiction. What came as a surprise was the sheer volume and scope of the work, which forces him to confront the full weight of a man he never really understood. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the book ends up being much more about the father than the porn. That isn’t really a complaint; it’s just not what I expected going in.

As a memoir, it’s thoughtful and emotionally honest, tracing Offut’s childhood under a domineering, volatile parent who fits the stereotype of a man raised in 1930s Appalachia. He is stoic, rigid, and largely incapable of emotional self-reflection. As Chris grows up, he oscillates between craving his father’s approval and desperately wanting to escape his shadow. As an adult, the only boundary he’s able to establish with a man who can’t imagine another person’s inner life is distance and it's clear that this has caused Chris tremendous pain.

One of the more unexpected aspects of the book is how, after the father’s death, the rest of the family seems to grow closer. I found myself wishing this thread had been explored more deeply. I understand why Offut may have hesitated — writing about siblings can risk harming those relationships, or violating boundaries they didn’t consent to cross — but it felt like a missed opportunity. I found myslf wanting some more exploration of how the pornography itself ultimately affected Chris. That impact is there, but only in flashes. Offut briefly discusses, for example, how consuming so much porn shaped his sex life. What he touches on less is how this discovery reshaped his understanding of his father or even of himself. The book is far more interested in the logistics and history of his father’s career than in fully plumbing the emotional fallout of inheriting it. Given the premise, that felt like the one place where the memoir held back when I wanted it to go deeper.

Still, the book contains moments of striking clarity. A line that his me particularly hard: “I don’t miss my father, but without his shackles to strain against, the world is terrifying and vast.”

That sentence captures so much of what this memoir is really about: the strange comfort of resistance, the way even a painful relationship can give shape to a life, and the disorientation that comes when that force disappears. It reminded me of some of the shit I've been working through myself.

Overall, I liked this one quite a bit. Offut is introspective and self-aware, which is exactly what you want from a memoirist, and his examination of a difficult parent feels honest rather than performative. I just wished he’d turned that same depth of inquiry just a bit more fully onto the central oddity of the book’s premise. The porn is there, looming in the background, but its deepest emotional consequences remain slightly out of reach.

Content warning: the porn discussed here isn't usually done so in a graphic way but it's sometimes rather kinky or even violent. Near the end, there are descriptions of comic-book art depicting torture, and there is brief mention of sexual assault involving a teenager.

[Nood-Lesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mio padre..

Non date troppo peso al pornografo che compare nel titolo: è vero nella narrazione c’è un pornografo, ma avrebbe potuto essere un avvocato o un carpentiere, non avrebbe fatto differenza; ciò che conta davvero è il nome comune preceduto dall’aggettivo possessivo. Chris Offutt è uno scrittore che alla morte del padre eredita una tonnellata di carta, tutto ciò che il genitore, scrittore a sua volta, ha prodotto. Chris la riunisce in decine di scatoloni e poi la porta a casa propria decidendo di analizzarla e catalogarla. Il padre ha iniziato a scrivere fantascienza negli anni ’50 per poi alternare fantascienza e pornografia dai ’60 agli ’80. È inevitabile che l’immersione nei libri paterni segni prima il ritorno alla propria infanzia e poi inneschi una serie di riflessioni sul condizionamento che quel padre burbero e autoritario ha avuto su di lui. La cosa più sorprendente a cui si trova di fronte Chris è la mole di romanzi pornografici in rapporto al totale. Il padre ha trasferito buona parte delle perversioni e delle deviazioni sessuali note, in numerosi contesti, scrivendo un numero impressionante di romanzi qualitativamente sempre più scarsi. Essere di fronte alle fantasie sessuali di un essere umano non è una cosa abituale, immaginiamo cosa possa essere trovarsi di fronte alle fantasie del proprio genitore defunto. Chris nell’estremo tentativo di assolverlo, afferma di aver trovato di tutto nei suoi scritti, ma non la pedofilia. Lo ripete in un paio di passaggi, quasi volesse rassicurarsi più che rassicurare i lettori. C’è un punto in cui la tonnellata di carta è sul punto di schiacciare Chris ed è quando scrive:
Dopo una vita di lotte per non sentirmi troppo male con me stesso, non mi ero mai sentito peggio. Il futuro si annunciava tetro. Ero un fallimento, su tutti i fronti
La prima parte del memoir è sicuramente più interessante del seguito, leggendo mi è venuto naturale il confronto con l’unico libro di Knausgård che ho letto “La morte del padre” ed ho pensato alla netta differenza stilistica. Per Offutt è spendibile l’aggettivo “sobrio” che proprio non si addice al collega norvegese. Nel seguito vengono analizzate le opere del padre, le lettere che ha scambiato con i colleghi, pur non venendo meno la continua analisi del rapporto padre/figlio, alcune parti sono lente e come accade inevitabilmente in qualsiasi memoir, interessanti solo per chi le ha scritte.
Ho una passione dichiarata per le liste e questa fantozziana stilata da Chris per catalogare le opere del padre, l’ho trovata la cosa più divertente del libro:

pornografia agricola
pornografia western
pornografia hollywoodiana
scambio di partner, di vari generi
stupro, individuale o di gruppo
sesso tra uomini giovani e donne anziane
sesso tra uomini anziani e donne giovani
sesso con animali
sesso gay, etero, bisex e transgender
rapporti incestuosi
rapporti anali e orali
pratiche di femdom: trampling, pegging, femminilizzazione
satanismo e stregoneria
sesso con/tra suore e frati
inquisizione spagnola e tortura
bondage: corde, strisce di cuoio, metallo e gomma
sesso con/tra medici e infermiere
sesso con/tra insegnanti e studenti
sesso tra commessi viaggiatori/venditori ambulanti e casalinghe
divorziate affamate di sesso e studentesse ingenue
sculacciate, flagellazioni, bastonate, fruste e frustini
castità forzata
«pony training» e schiavizzazione
sesso a tre, a quattro, a sei, orge
sesso interraziale (asiatici e afroamericani)
sesso in contesti storici vs moderni
sesso con babysitter e domestiche
sesso in ambiente urbano vs rurale
sesso e ricorrenze: la moglie di Babbo Natale e gli elfi
casi immaginari descritti da finti psichiatri

È l’unico momento in cui ci si diverte, il resto, se si è orfani, è la riproposizione di un dolore per il quale non esistono analgesici.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know the saying don’t judge a book by its cover, in the case of this book, don’t judge it by its title. If this mom and wife living in the center of the Bible Belt can pick this title up, then anyone can and should. This is offutt’s memoir of growing up in Kentucky with a narcissist for a dad. The dad also happened to write hundreds of pornography books. This is a reflection of his childhood and how his environment influenced him. I think anytime an author is truthful and is willing to share their experiences, it is very courageous.

[Lori Keeton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The day he died, I drove home a final time. The highway unfurled before me as if the car were a time capsule bent on depositing me in the past. I didn’t like how I felt because I didn’t feel anything. I hadn’t cried. I was aware solely of the burden of responsibility—firstborn, eldest son, head of the family.

Chris Offutt grew up in a very rural area of Kentucky in Appalachia with 3 other siblings and an emotionally terrorizing dad. The normal life of an insurance salesman and a family man wasn’t cutting it for Andrew Offutt. He had dreams of being a famous science fiction writer, so he quit his job and came home to write. He made a name for himself in sci-fi and fantasy and regularly attended conventions or cons which fed his ego and gave him the taste for fame. His fans gave him the adoration that he sought after. On the other hand, he was a home body type who never left home. His home was his domain and he ruled it with emotional distress and fear over his family. Chris and his siblings lived with criticism, bullying, and anger for making any sound in the house. There were rules about this and they were not to be broken.

The only correct perception of any situation was his. Disagreement sparked emotional combat and verbal abuse. It was incumbent upon his family to listen to him, agree with him, admire him, and give him attention bordering on awe…Any disagreement was perceived as a terrible threat…He never struck us or our mother, but we feared his anger, belittling comments and inflictions of guilt.

Two situations occurred that dramatically changed future of the Offutt family. After reading a pornographic novel he’d ordered my mail, Andrew threw it across the room exclaiming he could do much better. And then when Chris needed orthodontic treatment desperately, his dad refused to pay until his mom took a stand and insisted on getting a job to finance the treatment. This was the formula that launched Andrew’s pornography writing career. His prolific writing career produced 400+ books: 2 sci-fi, 24 fantasy written under his own name and the rest were porn written using 17 pseudonyms.

When his dad died in 2013, Chris was given the whole lot of his dad’s papers and the contents of his office where he had banned his family from entering. Chris’ siblings wanted nothing to do with it and urged him to burn it all. Chris wound up spending months if not years, sorting everything and learning about the troubled man his father really was. There was a lot of disturbing, dark and dirty material. He learned things about his father that scared him. The process he went through was cathartic and revealing and I think helped to make sense of the irrational and mentally unstable man his father had been.

Chris Offutt is one of my favorite contemporary southern literature writers. His Kentucky Straight short story collection is realistic to the hills where he grew up. His Country Dark is one of the best novels to illustrate this way of life he knows so well. He gives us a sense of himself as a child growing up with a difficult father and reveals some very dark and harsh experiences of his own. The chapters that revealed Chris Offutt were the ones I enjoyed most. I really could have cared less about the details he went into about his father’s work. The 4 stars are for Chris and had this been mostly about his dad, I’d have only given this 3 stars.

[Charlie Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi padre, el pornógrafo

«Mi padre era un hombre brillante, un auténtico iconoclasta, de una autosuficiencia feroz, un genio oscuro, cruel, egoísta y de un optimismo eterno. En los inicios de su carrera en ventas, uno de sus jefes lo llamó «hijo de puta independiente», algo que papá se tomó como el mayor cumplido que le habían hecho jamás. Quería que yo fuese como él.»

Un libro de memorias escrito por Chris Offutt luego de la muerte de su padre. En él relata las relaciones familiares con una persona adicta al trabajo.

La narración de Offutt es directa y sin tapujos. Él comparte detalles íntimos de su vida familiar y su experiencia en una comunidad rural de Kentucky. A pesar del tema controvertido del libro, Offutt trata a su padre con compasión y empatía. Al mismo tiempo, también aborda temas más amplios como la identidad, el trabajo y la paternidad.

La familia Offutt con sus cuatro hijos se mudaron a un pueblo de apenas 200 habitantes. Al poco, el padre de Chris decidió dejar su trabajo de vendedor de seguros para dedicarse por entero a escribir sus novelas. En la casa no se podía hacer ningún tipo de ruido, lo que significaba que los niños no podían jugar ni moverse libremente. Mientras el padre escribía, la madre mecanografiaba a limpio los borradores. No se apreciaban las visitas ni nada parecido, el tipo de libros que escribían era un secreto, les daba vergüenza que alguien se enterase.

Lo primero que hicieron los hijos al morir su padre, es armar un tremendo ruido en la casa, una forma de desquitarse. Los cuatro hijos consiguieron una carrera universitaria. Chris, es el mayor de los hermanos y heredó todo lo de su padre, 800 kilos de documentos, entre libros, cómics y demás.
En este libro hace las paces con su padre, al fin lo comprendió.

«Papá escribía a máquina muy deprisa y con mucha pasión. Acabó escribiendo y publicando más de cuatrocientos libros con dieciocho pseudónimos distintos. Entre sus novelas figuraban seis de ciencia ficción, veinticuatro de fantasía y un thriller. El resto era pornografía.»

El libro de apenas 200 páginas está bien, lo he leído más que nada por curiosidad, para ver como le podía haber influido su padre en sus libros. Si se busca algo de morbo por la temática que trata, no hay nada de eso. Lo único que hay es un hombre obsesionado con lo que hacía y que solo pensaba en él, aparentemente.

Chris Offutt ha escrito varios libros de relatos y novelas ambientadas en el Kentucky rural, además de hacer guiones para las series True Blood, Weeds y Treme.

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

there are times in people's lives when a significant event occurs and they're not aware of it—the last time you pick up a son before he's too heavy, the final kiss of a marriage gone bad, the view of a beloved landscape you'll never see again. weeks later, i realized those were dad's last words to me.

chris offutt, author of kentucky straight and the same river twice (amongst others), was the son of noted and prolific science fiction/fantasy/porn/erotica author (and one time president of science fiction writers of america [sfwa]) andrew j. offutt. my father, the pornographer is a father-son memoir that finds its author searching for clarity and insight following the 2013 loss of his dad. raised in rural kentucky, chris was forever seeking the attention, affection, and approval of his father, all the while fearing the former insurance salesman who left his business behind to stake his claim to authorial immortality. verbally abusive and "maniacal," the greater the elder offutt's reputation grew, the more distant he became to his family.

my father, the pornographer is as much chris's story as it is andrew's. as chris waded through the leftover belongings of his late father, he sought (or had thrust upon him) a more revealing glimpse into the man who penned over 400 books (most under various pseudonyms) perhaps at the expense of normal, more conciliatory family relations. while andrew's biography is itself compelling, the true beauty of chris's memoir is witnessing his development as both individual and author—attempting to transcend his upbringing while forever being bound by it.

offutt's memoir, moving and expertly written, is the tale of a single family, but the unhappiness endured, however singular, may well resound for anyone with a less than savory upbringing of their own. my father, the pornographer, telling the tale of both a literal and metaphorical cleaning out, is a raw, candid, and striving work that offers as much about its progenitor as it does its complicated subject.

i returned home and began sifting through my father's work once more. at the time of his careful filing, he wouldn't have known that a son would search it for clues and information. the essential dna of my father lay arrayed on pages before me. this undertaking hasn't brought me closer to him. if anything, it's a constant reminder that no matter who i think i am, i will always be my father's son. i don't know if i'm a writer because of him or in spite of him. if my life has been motivated by rebellion against my father, what have i gained through the liberty of his demise? a newfound sense of life? no. the intrinsic joy in little things? no.

i don't miss my father, but without his shackles to strain against, the world is terrifying and vast. i have lost a kind of purpose, a reason to prove myself.

[momo.casiopea · Rating 4 out of 5]

800 kilos de porno. Esta es la herencia que recibió Chris Offutt cuando su padre murió. “Mi padre, el pornógrafo” es un libro tan distinto a todo, tan inesperado que no puede dejar indiferente a nadie. A mí me ha encantado la forma de narrar esta redención familiar. Porque sí sabremos cosas de la industria de los libros porno, y sus mil sinónimos para cada parte del cuerpo, pero en el fondo no es más que una historia familiar. El papel de la madre pasando a limpio los manuscritos, la ortodoncia de Chris que se pagó con el primer libro porno o los hermanos pequeños, pequeñas figuras con las que jugar en las convenciones de frikies.

Esta novela es, por lo tanto, una manera directa y en forma de recuerdos que trata de hacer las paces entre un padre ausente y seco y un hijo que, sin quererlo, sigue alguno de sus pasos. En esta obra nos situamos en 2013, cuando se traslada a la casa familiar a ordenar todos los papel y cartas del difunto. Es entonces, cuando verdaderamente conoce(mos) al que fue uno de los más populares escritores -primero de ciencia ficción y luego de porno- del siglo xx. ¡Os lo recomiendo! Ahora, ya os lo avanzo, quiero leer todo lo de Chris Offutt.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Offutt’s memoir/biography hybrid first piqued my interest after catching a few minutes of his conversation with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, where they discussed the unorthodox—and rather ingenious—habit his father developed as a kind of aid to his prodigious writing schedule (which eventually resulted in nearly 400 books published under a variety of pseudonyms):

TG: “After your father died and you went through his books, you found that he had a cataloging system for writing pornography - that he had whole sections ready to go into, like, kind of cut-and-paste in the appropriate book. So it had pages with, like, 150 synonyms for pain. There were sections for descriptions of the mouth, for descriptions of the tongue, the face, the legs, for kisses, spanking, distress. So it sounds like he cataloged all of this and had it all ready to paste into the appropriate book, and then he'd kind of "X" it out of the catalog so he wouldn't use it a second time.”

CO: “[…] He would watch television at night with a big clipboard and write longhand, and we would all be sitting there watching television… He wasn't writing a novel or a short story, but he was just inventing descriptions while watching television. He liked to watch TV and write.”

As someone utterly fascinated by creative process, I immediately made a request for the book at my local library, curious if there were any other such tidbits to be found.

To my disappointment there ended up not being a whole lot, which I suppose isn’t all that surprising considering how secretive the elder Offutt was (which in turn made the sections, mostly contained near the end of the book, of unexpected discoveries made in the archive particularly exciting).

Despite the title, My Father, the Pornographer ended up being more about Offutt himself, a personal memoir about wrestling with the legacy of a father who sounds both impossible to live and interact with but whose professional accomplishments also can’t help but elicit admiration. Offutt fils has an agreeably spare, wry way of rendering knotty situations and complicated emotions, and a knack for capturing the unconventional rhythms of rural childhoods. So even if I ended up not quite getting what I was hoping for from from this read—and I would be interested in a bona fide biography about Andrew Offutt, if one was ever written—I nonetheless found myself generally engrossed by this complex dual portrait, captivated right up to the end.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book cover and an interesting family dynamic.

[Carlos Catena Cózar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leí este libro porque me interesaba el tema y me fio ciegamente de Malastierras, pero me daba bastante pereza que fueran unas memorias. El caso es que esa pereza se diluyó a las pocas páginas porque la realidad importa bien poco en este libro. Es un relato tan original como conmovedor sobre la búsqueda de la validación y el interés paterno, en muchos puntos devastador, escrito tan bien que no parece ajustarse a la vida, sino más bien al contrario. Sobre qué hacer con todas esas cosas de nuestros padres que preferimos no saber, o con nuestra vida cuando ya no hay padres cuyo favor buscar. No consigo que nada de lo que digo le haga justicia. Me ha encantado. El final un poco flojo en comparación a lo mejor no sé tampoco me atrevería a afirmarlo.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was like watching a car crash: harsh and fascinating at the same time. I suspect that should you have a troubled relationship with your father, it reads even harsher. Well written and paced, pretty much a one sitting affair. Although the unpleasant (to say the least) family dynamics get tougher to stomach chapter after chapter, they also offer glimpses into a writer's ridiculous amount of output, an interesting writing process, the late 60s – early 70s scifi scene, and, of course, pornography in written form.

[Graham P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts autobiography alongside analysis of a curdmudgeon/closet-sadist father, this is also a story about a family under the rule of a professional 'hack' writer and immature patriarch. At times, the book suffers from a lack of eloquence and a misdirection of structure, but how can one truly write about a father who was imprisoned by his own adolescence, turning out books with the rituals of an assembly line, all to fill the family's fridge while fulfilling his sadistic hungers (big breasted alien cyborgs with a penchant for torturous bondage). Andrew Offutt was a legend in two facets: output of smut and sword & sorcery, and a SF convention personality. But with all the promise of a sleazy timescape of what it means to be a "lowly" paperback writer, what we are left with is a sadness that even author Chris Offutt can't fully define. It seems that mystery pervades this book, but it resolves itself like a first-draft of a much more fascinating book. I'm lukewarm on this one, but how I look forward to find an Andrew Offutt paperback out in the wild, his pseudonyms on the cracked spines like some faded and forgotten tombstone.

[Mauro Barea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se tiene que ser sumamente valiente para hacer lo que hizo Chris aquí con su padre, que hay que decir, es todo un personaje y que al final este libro es llevado por el autor como un ejercicio para tratar de entender por qué Andy Offutt era como era, por qué su padre fue así. La respuesta, como ya imaginamos, oscura, pantanosa, va surgiendo a través de las páginas de esta, podemos decir, biografía, semiautobiografía, y al final, llegamos al fondo de ese pozo oscuro, lo que es tener, a final de cuentas, a un padre pornógrafo.

La narrativa de Offutt, amena y honesta, hace que no dejes el libro, independientemente de que se trate de una historia familiar. De lo mejorcito en no ficción (aunque no lo parece) que he leído este año.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very highly recommended memoir, that falls into the world of "you can't make this stuff up." I was very impressed by Chris Offutt's prose style (and would be interested in reading some of his fiction) and I also gained a lot of respect for him as a person based on this memoir. My only criticism was that I had a number of moments when I felt like certain issues were wrapped up abruptly. Inside my head, I kept thinking: "but then what happened?" Or: "but HOW can you reconcile those ideas/things/facts?" (I'd love to sit down and have a drink with Chris Offutt, but the follow-up questions I'd want to ask would be WAAAY too personal and awkward.) That said, when I finished the book I asked myself if I would have wanted it to be longer and decided that I liked the length as-is. Much of the book is disturbing, and I think I would have struggled having to deal with the internal life of Andrew Offutt (Chris's father) for much longer. This is a fascinating read and a wonderful contribution to contemporary memoirs. Chris Offutt is a great writer. And, seriously, I would definitely buy him a drink.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't quite was I was expecting.

I went into this looking for a biography of Andrew Offutt, but it's really an autobiography of Chris Offutt that references his dad every now and then. This really isn't Chris' fault because Andrew was apparently a very closed-off individual and, as it says in the book's blurb, Chris is simply going through his dad's old papers, trying to understand him better.

I would like to read a biography about Andrew from someone else's point of view, because I hope there was more to him than just "He was a crazy asshole. The end". It makes me wonder if Chris isn't a bit harsh because of a lot of resentment and anger that, now that Andrew is dead, will never get resolved.

On the other hand, my dad was a LOT like how Andrew Offutt is portrayed here (a control freak with a hair-trigger temper and the emotional maturity of a 10 year old. They are so eerily similar that they even shared a weird sensitivity to any kind of noise in the house and a revulsion at letting people in their homes), and if I wrote a book about him I probably wouldn't have anything nice to say, either.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

One reviewer wrote, “ Seemed more like a catharsis for the author rather than a bio of the father.” Another reviewer wrote, “ This turned into a psychiatric session for the writer.” They’re right. In fact, the most interesting thing about this book was the title.

[Song · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a reader like me from the Confucius culture background, it's stunning to read the bravery and honesty in this book. The author disclosed the deepest and darkest secrets from his father and himself, directly and frankly to every reader. It's just so much courageous. Maybe the true inner peace and the truce with the unbearable past will not be achieved by avoiding or runaway, it must be through the narrow and cruel trial of entirely sincere to the real retrospect without any hiding or dodging. At least, this is what the author did in the memoir.

The author's writing skills are very good. The book is fluent to read and highly enjoyable. The real life and people in the rural Bible Belt of American Appalachia are vivid depicted by the living words and narratives in the book.

After thoroughly checking his father's stuffs and histories after the father's decease, I believe the author has made the final forgiveness with his father, he now has understood him, and also has made the final rebellion against his father after the life-long fear, he now exposed all his secrets in front of the whole world.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author knew his father was an incredibly prolific writer, pounding out a stunning amount of Sci-Fi and fantasy through the author's childhood and well into his adulthood. What he did not realize, was the fact that his father also wrote porn and a lot of it, 400-plus books, under different pseudonyms.
I had read a few good reviews of this memoir but I was not prepared for how deep this story goes and how prickly, domineering and unpleasant his relationship with his father went. After his father died, Offutt began to examine his father's archives, trying to understand this talented and very complex man. This led him down some very dark paths, nearly causing him to have a breakdown.

I had not heard of Offutt, but he is an author of several books, including other memoirs and story collections, so his writing chops are solid. I highly recommend this one but beware: there are many unsettling moments, along with some disturbing child abuse, that the author was subjected to.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does your understanding of your father change when you learn that he wrote more than 400 books in his lifetime -- most of them pornography? Upon his father's death, Chris Offutt (author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Kentucky Straight) is left to sort through his father's office, which is filled with books, manuscripts, correspondence, comics, graphic novels, etc. Offutt's memoir is spare and incisive -- and occasionally heartbreaking -- as he seeks to understand his father's life and his own memories of growing up.

My thanks to the publisher for providing this review copy.

[Brad Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great memoir by Offutt, who had to confront some awful secrets and demons from within and without in order to write this ultimately chilling and very moving book. Should have received even more attention than it did. Should have won major prizes. Maybe it didn't because it takes the hard road, no easy way out, no pabulum about triumphant epiphany. The truths he confronts here are painful, and the catharsis bittersweet. The triumph is that Offutt hung in there and finished what must have been a very hard book to write. Deserves every bit of the high praise it's received, and more.

[britt_brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The only correct perception of any situation was his. Disagreement sparked emotional combat and verbal abuse. It was incumbent upon his family to listen to him, agree with him, admire him, and give him attention bordering on awe.”

It’s always refreshing to read a memoir by an established author. I know you all know what I mean. His writing is fine-tuned, articulate, and entertaining. This is largely about Offutt’s strained relationship with his dad, but does delve into his father’s prolific porn-writing career, even cataloguing his novels, short stories, and comics.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 2 out of 5]

(I mark it as "read," but I admittedly skimmed my way around the last third or so.)

I so wanted to enjoy this book, and the conceit promises quite an interesting tale, but ultimately I just found Offutt's unremarkable language and leaden pacing lending to the overall feeling that what's being explored in the text—essentially: how well do we or do we not know our parents—is in fact rather banal, even though the circumstances here seemed loaded for something more.