This is a brand-new release from Stark House Press who is doing the Lord’s(?) work by republishing these Orrie Hitt books. It is available right here.
This Wild Desire was originally published as The Passion Hunters in 1966
Sex Pros was the second to last book he ever wrote and was published in 1969 as a Softcover Library double with Mel Johnson’s Love Doll.
Written review below. Video review here:
First off, Sex Pros is a terrible title that has nothing to do with the story contained within. No character in this story is a working pro, although our leading man does visit one. It should have been called Carnival Stripper or Naked Desperation or something a bit more on topic.
Our hunky hero is Eddie. He recently graduated college with a degree in business but instead of being back home to share his bright future with his high school sweetheart Cindy he is working at the traveling carnival boxing random locals for five bucks a pop.
You are probably asking, but how did this happen?
A woman. Duh. This is a sleaze book man! The genre is rife with good natured folks on the path to middle class mediocre contentment who get sidelined either with well-meaning feelings of love to a person intent on self-destruction or to a straight and narrow guy succumbing to his most basic sexual instincts like a junkie who can’t help poking his arms with holes.
For devastating reasons revealed later on, Cindy, Eddie’s sweetheart, the once housewife to be, has taken a left turn, run away from her cozy upper middle-class family and is now jiggling her goods for money in the girlie show at the carnival. Eddie is confounded by this strange turn of events. All the way up until the last months of college they had loving communication and plans for the future. How could wholesome virgin Cindy go from chastity belt to G-string in just a few months?
In order to be near her he joins the carnival as the resident unbeatable tough man. It never states how Eddie is such a good boxer but it is mentioned that he grew up extremely poor so I guess we can fill in the gaps with street fights.
At the carnival Cindy wants nothing to do with Eddie, most of the time. We spend a lot of time in Eddie’s head and the big question is, what is she doing?
The Cindy character appears for short snippets at a time in the beginning but is mostly just a blur on the other side of the carnival or an idea of what Eddie thinks of her. Though he is madly in love and walks around with a broken heart he does take a break to bang Linda, one of the other carnival strippers and Cindy’s roommate, after they have an incredibly written conversation about love and life.
This book is despair incarnate. A reflection of people whose lives didn’t turn out to be what they were expecting. It hits a nerve in the psychological department of anyone who has been down on the bottom for a moment in their lives. It’s very raw and unfiltered with some of the characters essentially being expired food that is only fit for the trashcan.
This does have some of the unfortunate pitfalls of the softcore genre which is now properly labeled Sleaze. Eddie is absolutely disgusted by women taking their clothes off for money and prostitution, right? But during one scene after a fight with Cindy, he gets a prostitute and takes out his aggression sexually. In Cindy’s same hotel. In another Orrie Hitt book I read called The Promotor the protagonist was the same way. He is completely disgusted by what the women are doing but at the same time he’s way into their bodies and has no problem using them in the way that makes him look down on them. It’s bullshit, man!
But yes, the plot is about more than Eddie trying to get Cindy back. In fact, he kind of gives up halfway through. The daughter of the deceased carnival owner shows up. She’s a banging blonde and takes to big Eddie for not only his muscular fighter body but his degree in business. She needs him to help keep the carnival going and to satisfy her physical needs. There is a scummy pimp type hustler who runs the girlie show and is trying to get it in anywhere he can, including Cindy who becomes an absolute train wreck of a drunk.
The atmosphere is all carnival, and it’s written in a way that you are there. Of course, it helps that we’ve all been to one so maybe it’s just nostalgia. Either way, it works. It rains throughout most of the novel which adds to the dreariness. We spend lots of time in shitty hotels, strip clubs and carnival trailers. There are plenty of unsavory side characters and every interaction with a townie belittles the carnie as people. Why do I love bleak books so much?? I just do.
Ultimately Sex Pros was enjoyable and poetic in a way. The sex scenes are all softcore, lots of slapping skin and amusing analogies of intense gratification. It definitely falls into the noir category more than straight sleaze. There is more going on than broken hearts and uncontrollable lust. If you are into folks down at the bottom, who just can’t get it together and their own evaluations on why that is, this is a book for you.
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