sex maniac

Both cases were dismissed, but they painted a picture of a sex maniac who kept young women for his own pleasure and that of well-placed friends.

Completed in the late 1950s and originally published in French, “Hollywood Babylon” was banned for years in the U.S. and was still adult fare upon formal release in 1975, when New York Times reviewer Peter Andrews labeled it a “306-page box of poisoned bon bons” written as if a “sex maniac had taken over the Reader’s Digest Condensed Book Club.”

Wolitzer has a gentle touch for conveying the nuances and humor to be found in small moments of intrigue, like when Paulette opens a story with: “Everybody said that there was a sex maniac loose in the complex and I thought — it’s about time.”

The linked stories follow Paulette and her husband, Howard, through childbirth; a scandal in the basement laundry room of their New York apartment building; trips to at first mock suburban model homes and then long for them; a parent’s death; children’s coughs; the appearance and abrupt disappearance of a “sex maniac” and more.

Could the Man of God chaperoning them be a sex maniac?