Vintage Pulp | Feb 6 2011 |
Loren Beauchamp is known to have been a pseudonym of sci-fi titan Robert Silverberg, but according to the blog vintagesleazepaperbacks Sliverberg himself disavows any association with Les Floozies. Considering how many smut novels he wrote there's no reason for him deny any particular one, so you'd tend to believe him. But we also learned that the book, published in 1965, is a reprint of a 1962 effort called Hotrod Sinners, which Silverberg definitely wrote. So it looks like what happened here is the book got chopped up by editors and Silverberg decided it wasn't his anymore. That isn't an unusual reaction from a writer whose work has been altered. Even so, Les Floozies is pricy for something cobbled together by, well, who knows, really? It's basically about a couple of call girls and their love triangle with a young, hot-rodding pimp, with the plot moving the principles from dusty nowheresville to New York City, where they rise in the big time sex industry ranks. All very interesting, but it's actually the unusually attractive cover that interested us. It's not credited, though, and that's just the way it goes with sleaze publishers. Quelle bummer.