Hustled

With Larry Flynt as your father, you're starting life with several strokes against you, but Tonya Flynt-Vega is a survivor and Hustled describes the ordeals against which she had to survive.Despite the recent movie that glamorized Larry Flynt as an eccentric defender of the first amendment, anyone grounded in reality can easily see through that façade and identify him as a woman-hating, solipsistic pervert. His daughter adds even more fuel to a healthily burning fire. She describes his boastful bestiality, womanizing, drug-use, flag-desecration (fortunately that was back when it was still a crime), and his unnatural twisting of the First Amendment to make it serve his own ends rather than what it clearly states.Perhaps most controversial-but not at all surprising-is the description of his incestuous abuse of her as a little girl. Larry Flynn has preposterously denied this charge. Obviously, he would go to jail if he admitted it, but a man who has made a career out of celebrating rape is a bit hard to believe when he claims innocence of that very same crime. His physical degradation of her is typical of the behavior he espouses and exemplifies. She details many of his affairs and the overall objectification of women on which his empire is founded.Still, this book remains far more than a "Daddy Dearest"-type hatchet job. It is a caveat on the pernicious nature of pornography. Far from the "victimless crime" myth and Larry Flynt and his myrmidons perpetuate, Tonya details the destructive nature of this cultural pollution. She introduces us to a few girls who naively believed it was a stepping stone to a movie career only to become trapped in its ruinous vortex. Perhaps the saddest example of all, however, is her own father's pathetic life. Tanya recounts the situation of twenty-some years ago when Larry Flynt flirted with Christianity after a meeting with Jimmy Carter's Evangelical sister. The book portrays him as a lost soul who was at that time searching, and Tanya believes he was legitimately tempted to abandon his life of perdition. Tragically, its pull was too great, and he became even more blasphemously hostile.While Hollywood's fictional snow job slandered several brave souls who dared to stand up to him, this book shows the heroic actions of Jerry Falwell in bring suit against Flynt. Ruth Carter Stapleton who is expectedly dismissed by Hollywood's agnostic crowd is shown to be an intelligent woman of unbelievable compassion and kindness.Overall the book is a very good insight into the psyche of one of President Clinton's strongest supporters.