Private Parts (book)

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Private Parts
File:Howard Sterns Private Parts Hardback Cover.JPG
Author Howard Stern
Larry Sloman
Cover artist Jackie Seow (Design)
Timothy White (Photo)
Country United States
Language English
Subject Autobiography
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Publication date
 October 7, 1993
Media type Hardcover (1993)
Paperback (1994, 1997)
Pages 448
ISBN 0-671-88016-0
Followed by Miss America

Private Parts is the first book written by American radio personality Howard Stern. Released on October 7, 1993 by Simon & Schuster, it is the fastest-selling book in the company's history.[1] It was later adapted into a film in 1997 starring Stern and his radio show staff as themselves.[2] The early chapters are autobiographical, covering Stern's upbringing and early career, while later chapters are more in the style of a memoir, covering recurring themes from his radio show such as sex, flatulence, and celebrities.

Stern's choices for the title were I, Moron, Mein Kampf and Penis[3] (the last was considered as Stern thought it would lead to the amusing newspaper headline "Howard Stern's Penis is a bestseller") but were refused by the publisher, although Mein Kampf would be used as the title of the book's fifth chapter regarding the beginning of his career.[4][5] They then compromised with the title Private Parts, suggested by Stern's co-host Robin Quivers, which Stern liked as a sexual pun referring to the personal "private parts" of his life with a popular euphemism for genitalia.

The book received mixed reviews from critics, often drawing comparisons to Lenny Bruce's How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Like Stern's radio show, it received a great deal of opposition due to its content. It is number 86 on the American Library Association's list of the "100 Most Frequently challenged books Between 1990 and 1999."[6] A paperback edition was released in September 1994, where Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, printed a further 2.8 million copies.[7] In late 1995, Stern published a second book called Miss America.[8]

Popular success

Upon its release, Private Parts quickly became the fastest-selling title in publisher Simon & Schuster's history.[9] The sales were supported by Stern's book signing tour of various cities across the United States, with the largest crowd attendances ever.[10] The success was in spite of mixed reviews and the refusal by several stores to carry the book over objections to its content.[11] The Caldor chain of department stores modified the New York Times Best Seller list which was displayed in stores to remove Private Parts from the top position, moving all subsequent books up one.[11] The inclusion of the book in library lists was also frequently challenged in subsequent years.[6] The book spent five weeks at the top of the non-fiction list from the weeks of October 9 to November 6, 1993 before being displaced by See, I Told You So by Rush Limbaugh.[12] Private Parts spent a total of twenty weeks on the NY Times Best Seller list, hitting the number one spot after a week of its release.[7]

Upbringing and rise to stardom

In the book's opening acknowledgements Stern thanks his co-author Larry "Ratso" Sloman as well as his staff and family. The first chapter is a story of a male listener of Stern's show masturbating while driving on his way to work to an interview of a woman about her first lesbian sexual encounter. Chapters two through six focus on Stern's upbringing and family. Initially Stern focuses on his birth, parents, sister and family through marriage. He then moves out to focus on his upbringing in Roosevelt, Long Island where he was one of few white boys in a predominantly black neighbourhood.[13] Stern also uses this chapter to relay his thoughts on the topics from the time the book was published such as Spike Lee and his film Malcolm X, and Rodney King and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The fourth chapter deals with Stern's adolescent sexual development including his earliest sexual experiences. He also details his sex life in college and the courtship of his eventual marriage to his wife Alison.

The fifth and sixth chapters deal with Stern's career in radio from childhood interest through his rise to prominence. Stern cites an early interest in radio from the age of five,[14] and his father's assistance and encouragement in growing his early career. His days in college radio are detailed followed by his earliest jobs at radio stations along the East Coast of the United States. He then details his career at radio stations WWWW in Detroit, Michigan, WWDC in Washington, D.C. and finally WNBC in New York City. Stern's conflict with management at various radio stations are relayed, including a rather detailed conflict with WNBC Program Director Kevin Metheny (whom he refers to as Pig Virus).

Stern's show and views

Chapters seven through eighteen move through a variety of topics beginning with his celebrity interviews. This includes individuals such as Sandi Korn, Bob Hope, Jessica Hahn, Richard Simmons, and Sylvester Stallone and his family. The book then moves into Stern's views on various groups especially the French, the Germans, Filipinos, and "everybody else".[15]

The book then details the Fartman character including the origins, and his appearance on the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. This is followed up by a listing of various regulars on his show referred to as the Wack Pack. Celebrities are revisited as Stern details those who irritate him, such as Oprah Winfrey, Arsenio Hall, and Madonna. Stern follows this up by revisiting his various sexual topics with stories of strippers, nudity, masturbation, and more lesbian sexual encounters.

Stern then returns to the familiar topic of celebrities, this time detailing feuds he has had with people such as the musical group Bon Jovi, Sam Kinison, Magic Johnson, and a physical altercation with Elaine Boosler at the Grammy Awards. Stern revisits homosexuality once again, this detail his musings on gay men. He then goes into comedy as he lists various comedians of the day and gives his opinion, including show regulars Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay. Lesbianism is revisited for the last time as another lesbian sex story is relayed. The seventeenth chapter details his interviews conducted by staff members Gary Dell'Abate and "Stuttering John" Melendez. The last chapter is reserved for Stern's critics and their efforts to have his show prohibited, and his response to them. An afterword is written by two psychologists who analyze Stern's personality and provide their professional opinion of the man.

Criticism

Stern's venture into literature drew much of the same criticism as his radio show. Private Parts drew favorable comparisons to Lenny Bruce and his book How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, but it was also characterized as nothing more than an extension of his radio show with little more to offer. Stern was praised for his populist message and attracting a group of people who normally do not read either by choice or for lack of ability. Another frequent criticism was that the material was juvenile, with little more to offer than stories of "breasts, behinds, penises, masturbation, defecation, and the expulsion of gas".[10]

Comparisons to Lenny Bruce

The book frequently drew comparisons to Lenny Bruce's well regarded book from thirty years earlier.[16] In some instances the comparison was favorable, citing Stern's as the best book by a comedian since Bruce's.[17] Others felt Stern fell short of the mark, or at least not influencing people as suggested by his ratings in certain radio markets.[18]

Extension of radio show

As the host of a highly rated radio show, the comparison between the book and his radio show was inevitable. The radio show was often the starting point from which the reviewer based their opinion of the book.[19] Sometimes the praise for the book came in spite of the critic's distaste for the show,[10] but often it was used to damn the book as nothing more than a collection of radio show highlights in print, but in more explicit detail.[20] Critics would sometimes qualify that they could not adequately relay the stories because of their papers' editorial standards.[10]

Mass appeal

With the considerable audience from his radio show, Stern was able to sell the first printing of his book within hours of its release.[21] This was in spite of a perception of Stern's listeners who were considered to not be given to reading books, or even illiterate.[22] The strong sales were seen as reflection of his populist appeal to a middle-class white male demographic who compose a large part of the fan base of his show.[23] The main reason given for his appeal at the time was as backlash from a push towards what was considered political correctness.[24]

Juvenile

Another frequent observation about the book was that it was juvenile both in its topics and layout. This included being compared to a comic book for its heavy use of pictures and varying fonts.[25] Margo Jefferson of the New York Times enjoyed the way it broke up the book, as this allowed readers to read the passages out of sequence.[26] The reliance on stories of body parts, functions, and human sexuality were also cited as a reason for what constituted the entirety of the book, and were not seen as compelling to some readers.[27] In one instance the review was given by a high school student.[28]

Quotations

  • It's weird, but I always wanted to be in radio. That was all I could think about from the time I was five years old.[14]
  • I grew up the only white man in a black neighborhood in Roosevelt, Long Island, a pawn in my mother's little social experiment in integration.[13]
  • I'm an obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive, miserable neurotic because I was raised by a woman who ran her household with the intensity of Hitler.[29]
  • My father's favorite sport was yelling.[30]
  • Basically, my mother, Ray, raised me like a veal. It was like growing up in a box with no lights on.[29]
  • So my father jumped up, banged on the glass in his control booth, and screamed, "SYMPHONY SID! BY THE POWERS VESTED IN ME BY THE FCC, I COMMAND YOU TO GET ON THE MICROPHONE IN A SERIOUS MANNER AND CONTINUE THE BROADCAST!" It worked.[31]
  • It dawned on me that if you were half a mutant you could probably get on the radio to entertain people and to make them forget about the drudgery of that shitty commute.[32]
  • I always resented the label of "shock jock" that the press came up with for me, because I never intentionally set out to shock anybody.[32]
  • You want the secret of life? Here it is: You wake up in the morning. You eat a little breakfast, maybe read the newspaper. If you're lucky enough, you're married. You yell at your wife, you make up with your wife. If your testicles feel alright, you bang your wife. You watch a video you rented or maybe you go out to the movies. The secret of life is so simple. That's life. If you have kids, you live with the kids. You don't move out on your wife. You stay with her even if you've banged her nine thousand times and you're sick of it. Nobody follows that. That's the secret to life.[33]
  • The rule is: Don't say anything that is 'patently indecent' or offensive to your community. Well, I live in a community where priests rape young boys, where you get shot in your car, where angry black mobs stab Hasidic Jews, and the mayor turns his back, where crack runs free like the River Ganges, and where movie directors fuck their wives' daughters. NOW YOU TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD TALK ABOUT ON THE RADIO![34]

Publication

  • Stern, Howard (1993), Private Parts (1st edition - Hardcover), New York: Simon & Schuster (Published on October 7, 1993), ISBN 978-0-671-88016-3, OCLC 28968496
  • Stern, Howard (1994), Private Parts (2nd edition - Mass Market Paperback), New York: Simon & Schuster (Published on October 1, 1993), ISBN 978-0-671-51043-5
  • Stern, Howard (1997), Private Parts (3rd edition - Mass Market Paperback - 1997 Motion Picture), New York: Simon & Schuster (Published on March 1, 1997), ISBN 978-0-671-00944-1

Adaptations

  • Thomas, Betty (Director) (1997, March 7), Private Parts [Motion picture], United States: Paramount Pictures
  • Stern, Howard (1997), Private Parts. Das Buch zum Film mit Howard Stern in der Hauptrolle [Private parts. The book to the film with Howard Stern in the main role], Munich: Goldmann Wilhelm GmbH, ISBN 978-3-442-44022-1

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ (Stern 1993; Bark 1993)
  2. ↑ (Thomas 1997)
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999" American Library Association. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ (Stern 1995)
  9. ↑ (Bark 1993)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 (Goodman 1993)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 (Barron 1993)
  12. ↑ (New York Times Oct 1993, Nov 1993)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 (Stern 1993, p. 63)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 (Stern 1993, p. 111)
  15. ↑ (Stern 1993, p. 230)
  16. ↑ (Goodman 1993; Jefferson 1993; Saracino 1994; Gleiberman 1993)
  17. ↑ (Santiago 1993)
  18. ↑ (Kening 1993)
  19. ↑ (Saracino 1994; Greto 1993)
  20. ↑ (Kening 1993; Freeman 1993; Naudi 1993; Cobb 1993)
  21. ↑ (Mills 1993)
  22. ↑ (Macintyre 1993; Roeper 1993)
  23. ↑ (Macintyre 1993; Greto 1993; Gardner 1994)
  24. ↑ (Goodman 1993; Jefferson 1993; Macintyre 1993; Greto 1993)
  25. ↑ (Goodman 1993; Jefferson 1993; Pintarich 1993)
  26. ↑ (Jefferson 1993)
  27. ↑ (Kening 1993; Naudi 1993)
  28. ↑ (Saracino 1994)
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 (Stern 1993, p. 36)
  30. ↑ (Stern 1993, p. 41)
  31. ↑ (Stern 1993, p. 112)
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 (Stern 1993, p. 114)
  33. ↑ (Stern 1993, p. 80)
  34. ↑ (Stern 1993, p. 421)

References

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External links

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