Linda Lovelace: Out of Bondage

by Linda Lovelace, Mike McGrady, Gloria Steinem (Introduction)

The former actress in pornographic movies describes her struggle to start a new life and discusses her fight against pornography

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Autobiography, Biography

223 pages, Hardcover

First published May 28, 1986

About the author

Linda Susan Boreman, better known by her stage name Linda Lovelace, became famous after starring in the 1972 hardcore porn film Deep Throat. She later became a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.

Deep Throat was notable for beginning a brief fad of porn chic; it was also the inspiration for Bob Woodward's name of his secret Watergate source, W. Mark Felt. Boreman later stated that she regretted her pornographic career and was coerced into pornography by her then-husband, Chuck Traynor.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I should have read Ordeal, Linda Lovelace's first book, rather than this one. Out of Bondage tells the story of how she came to tell the story she told in Ordeal. Out of Bondage kept my interest and everything, but I just had the sense that Lovelace was rehashing material she had already been through.

Caveat lector: I'm about to rant a little...

I also found myself getting really irritated with Lovelace's apparent refusal to take ANY responsibility for her actions. Yes, your mother was severe and controlling; yes, your family background set you up to have some problems; yes, Chuck Traynor was a really bad guy who treated you terribly and introduced you to a life of squalor. But...you were also AN ADULT when all this happened. No matter how low your self-esteem was, you can't blame other people for everything that happened. You made some really, really bad choices. It really bothers me when people act like everything bad that ever happens to them is someone else's fault. If you are alive and walking around, you ALWAYS have some kind of choice. Why is it so hard to say, "I have done some things in my life that I'm not proud of and that hurt me, and I regret them. I was really fucked up back then"? There is no shame in that.

[Bookfanatic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the Gloria Steinem intro to the book. This book is good if you are a fan of Linda's first book Ordeal. I have nothing bad to say about this book. A little repetitive, but thats okay. I love how I learned about her life after Ordeal, her romance/marriage, and everything about feminism. Great read!

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's impossible to say I "enjoyed" a book this grisly. Recaps the terrible years the author spent being forced into prostitution and porno films by an abuse partner. Charts how she got out and how she decompressed afterwards. Not as powerful as her first book on the same subject, the contents being almost identical, but I support her having written it -- the reasons are explained in the book.

[James Lundy · Rating 1 out of 5]

You do end up feeling sorry for the former Linda Lovelace, now deceased. Exploited in the porn world and exploited in the world of tell-all exposees. Aparently she wrote another book before this one (I didn't read it) and didn't have much to say again a year or so later when they made her write another one. This one tells about the outpouring of support she got after the first book was published. Maybe she then wrote a third book to tell about her mail bag after the second book was published. Yawn...

[Katie Wilks · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I watched Lovelace with Amanda Seyfried my curiosity in regards to Linda Lovelace's story opened up again.

A little background, I first learned about Linda Lovelace during my pursue of my undergraduate degree. We've all heard the stories, but why?

Why did Deep Throat make millions of dollars yet Linda was left poor. Why did she perform those acts for the camera? Why would she stay if she was abused by Chuck?

If you were hoping to read about the nasty, wrong book. But if you want to know how Linda picked herself up, fought a fight against human rights and equal rights then this is the book for you.

[Downward dog · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an emotional, intense and heartbreaking story.

[frogfairie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Douglas Fugate · Rating 4 out of 5]

40 years ago, well before the current #metoo movement, Linda Marchiano set out "to set the record straight" about pornography and those forced into performing. Her "play by play" account can be found in her book ORDEAL.
This volume is the story of her difficult life AFTER she escaped. To paraphrase Gloria Steinem's comments in the introduction, "Don't make any decisions until you have read the complete work."
I found this volume to be Linda's struggle to overcome Emotional Bondage from the memories that others would ridicule, belittle, or blatantly contradict.
This is not an easy read, but it is a necessary one, in order to understand the pornography business of the 1960s and 1970s.
The mistreatment of women occurred to often in the past, and unfortunately, occurs too often in the present.

[devilioxa · Rating 3 out of 5]

الخروج من عبودية (Out of Bondage)، وهي مذكرات ليندا لوفليس اللتي تركز على حياتها بعد عام 1974. قالت فيه لو شاهدت فيلم حلق عميق، فأنت تشاهدني أتعرض للاغتصاب. أنها جريمة ان هذا الفيلم لايزال يعرض؛ كان هناك مسدسا مصوبا إلى رأسي طوال الوقت "، وألقت محاضرات في الجامعات، لتشجب ما وصفته بالممارسات الوحشية واستغلالية في صناعة الإباحية.

ليندا لوفليس كانت ممثلة إباحية أمريكية. أدانت بعد ذلك عملها في الإباحية، وقالت أن زوجها الأول السادي هو من أجبرها على ذلك، وأصبحت فيما بعد متحدثة باسم الحركة المضادة للإباحية.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't rate it higher than 2 stars because I skipped an entire chapter (28 I think) which I found boring and irrelevant to Linda's story. I'd like to rate it higher because some parts were good, but I got pretty sick of hearing how great her evidently violent new husband was (even without knowing they split later because he was abusive, a man who Linda admits in the book must "resent" her should not be as much of a hero in this book as he is made out to be). I was also hoping for a bit more about how Linda recovered from abuse but there wasn't much of that.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a pleasant read, and yet it was worth reading. It is the story of one woman who escaped from slavery and worked hard to build A good life for herself. It is also the eye opening account and a reminder of the fact that many women do not go into pornography or prostitution by choice. They are threatened both physically and psychologically, and they may be imprisoned as well. I didn't enjoy reading about the sexual degradation in this book. However, I probably needed that to push me into awareness that this situation could be going on in my city, in my neighborhood.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to ORDEAL. Lovelace writes about life after porn movies. The problem I had with OUT OF BONDAGE was that she kept rehashing about the events in the first book...too much. It started to get boring towards the end. But it did have some good stuff about her anti-porn crusade.

[Jen Goddeeris · Rating 3 out of 5]

wow - the writing wasn't fantastic but the story was good. it is very depressing that she had to go through something like this. that is was such a struggle for her to make people believe her is so sad. i haven't read Ordeal but probably will.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, hard to digest. Much respect for her breaking away and choosing to fight back against a morally bankrupt industry that thrives on exploitation, abuse and depravity.

[Ale Canales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta mucho mejor Ordeal, pero sigue siendo MUY bueno