Naked Came the Stranger

RIP Mike McGrady. Nowadays, people write terrible books for fun and profit, but in the olden times, they used to do it on purpose as a political statement.

Under the pen name Penelope Ashe, McGrady and a bunch of his likeminded Newsday staffers collectively wrote what is universally considered to be one of the best worst books of all time. It doesn’t hang together, the sex scenes are Twilight-worthy, and it scans a little like Desperate Housewives fan fiction, but for a generation raised on Valley of the Dolls, is it really so far-fetched? All author appearances were made by McGrady’s bangin’ sister-in-law, who purred and slutted her way gamely around the talk show circuit on his behalf.

On a more sober note, McGrady co-wrote Linda Lovelace’s extraordinarily disturbing memoir, Ordeal, which will ruin any plans you have to have ironic 1970s porn viewing parties, had you such plans to begin with.