American Gangbang

American Gangbang?heralds the arrival of a profound and gifted new voice in?narrative nonfiction. In 1999, after four years of studying at Brown University, Sam Benjamin heads?to California in a twenty-year-old Volvo, dead set on turning himself into an?artist, despite his complete lack of talent. There, stoned, he has an epiphany—he will make progressive porn.?And so begins his turbulent journey. . . .

In whip-smart, lyrical prose, Benjamin traces his three-year?immersion into the world of Hollywood’s bleak, screen glow–lit doppelganger: the southern California sex?industry. His rapid ascent from the dingy storefront rental of a starving artist to the multimillion-dollar Malibu villa of a full-fledged porn producer confronts him with the uncomfortably alluring realities of America's strangest industry: gun-toting?actors, high on terrible, drug-induced potency; giggling actresses battling internal demons in wobbly heels and?pink fishnets; the insatiable consumer demands to sink ever lower, more exploitative,?nastier. The result is the titillating,?dramatic chronicle of a young man who invites the deepest, most troubling parts?of himself to rise to the surface in order to get a good look at them—only to find that what he sees makes his world seem suddenly very small.

A provocative, universal coming-of-age story,?American Gangbang?explores with unflinching honesty the darkly rich junction of sex and self-discovery.