Reviews

Broken on the Wheel of Sex by Jack Ketchum

mikekaz's review

4.0

While not as high quality or gripping as other novels or collections by Ketchum, this book was still entertaining. It collects stories that Ketchum wrote mostly from 1976 to 1981 while he was doing other stuff. The stories were sold mostly to men's magazines like Swank, Genesis and High Society, amongst others. Knowing this provides a much more logical reason for the title of the collection. It also helped to explain when my mother-in-law gave me a raised eyebrow upon seeing the title. While each story did include sexual elements, there really was not as much sex as you would expect. It was really pretty amazing to consider that these stories were published in some hardcore men's magazines. For the most part, almost none of them would end up in any men's magazines in today's society. Things have definitely changed in the last thirty years. To that end, it was also pretty cool to receive an insight into what the 70s and 80s were like to a young man in New York City. And then there are the stories. Many include Stroup, a man that you want to like but who was also pretty much a jerk. It was still entertaining to watch his life unfold in small chapters. All those elements combine to make the book an interesting and enjoyable read. I've listed off some of my favorite stories below.

"Skin Game" - Stroup invents a board game in order to get lucky but doesn't quite expect the results he gets.
"The Christmas Caller" - An obscene phone call sparks a relationship.
"East Side Story" - A relationship based on one lies reveals another.
"Sheep Meadow Story" - The same story from the novel TRIAGE but still just as hard boiled and gripping.