Overview

A hilarious memoir of one man's journey from inexperienced ex-pat to New York sexpert Grant Stoddard left Britain for the States with the clothes on his back, a fascination with all things American, and a burning hope for something bigger. But with no steady job, no money, and no girlfriend, the starry-eyed young Englishman's excitement was shrinking fast. Then fate in the guise of an X-rated online contest intervened. Winning first prize -- sexual intercourse with an infamous married sex columnist -- changed everything. With a shot of much needed confidence, the sensitive lad emerged as the mascot of Nerve.com, a gonzo sex columnist who would begrudgingly try any and every lurid thing his co-workers devised. From offering himself up as man-bait at a notoriously hard-core gay bar to attending an elite orgy with a blue-blooded date, Stoddard went where few men dare and lived to tell the tale. With a self-deprecating style and wonderful appreciation of the absurd, Working Stiff is a unique coming-of-age story from a very funny and irreverent new writer.

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9780753512715

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Reviews

"""Stoddard's prose manages to be clever, poignant, x-rated, and hilarious -- often in the same sentence. I blushed through the whole book, but couldn't put it down"" Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada ""A genuine talent... he writes with elegance and precision"" LA Times"

Undereducated, undernourished, underemployed git from Essex shows up in Manhattan and falls into job as sex columnist for hot website.To say that Stoddard is the absolute last guy one would imagine to end up in the job he did would be an understatement of staggering proportions. After a raucous flash-forward detailing in graphic terms his experience having sex with himself (it involves plaster of Paris, a mold and a willing female friend with a harness) at a California ranch, Stoddard's memoir winds back to his modest roots in the benighted borough of Thurrock, Essex, one of England's cultural blind spots. Initially possessed of absolutely no luck with the opposite sex-those years at Thames Valley University are cringingly hilarious-Stoddard finally loses his virginity to a friend he visits in the US. His New York visits begin to stretch out, and he's soon a bona fide Manhattanite, working for a small record label, conniving for cheap rent and getting as much mileage out of his British accent as he can. Although the meat of the book involves Stoddard's almost accidental hiring at the sex website Nerve.com at the height of the Internet boom-and his misadventures as the site's wacky columnist-his low-key writer's voice is better suited to the sad-sack persona he develops early on. Stoddard's descriptions of his increasingly edgy sex misadventures (bondage summer camp, public orgies, working out a closetful of kinks with an apparently endless stream of ready-and-willing New York girls) are enjoyable for their geek-out-of-geekdom charm. But the appeal here winds down as his career amps up.This odyssey of luck is often charmingly relayed. However, by the time the formerly mousy Brit finds himself in California shooting a pilot for VH1 and sleeping with teenagers, it all loses its luster. (Kirkus Reviews)

'Stoddard's prose manages to be clever, poignant, x-rated, and hilarious -- often in the same sentence. I blushed through the whole book, but couldn't put it down' Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada

Author Information

At twenty-one perennial virgin Grant Stoddard left Britain for the United States in pursuit of true love. After eighteen months of couch-surfing and heartbreak, he stumbled into a job as New York's most intrepid sex columnist, despite having little experience in either sex or writing. He lives in New York City.

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