Stormy Daniels tells us more than we ever wanted to know
Vick Mickunas
If you told me when I began reviewing books for this newspaper 14 years ago that one day I would cover a memoir written by a star of pornographic films, I would have told you that you were being absurd. Well, we live in a ridiculous world right now, this week I am covering the new book by the porn celebrity Stormy Daniels.
There’s one reason this memoir was published: Stormy Daniels claims that in 2006 she met our future president, Donald Trump. She alleges Trump invited her to dinner but when she showed up at his penthouse lodgings for their dinner date he wasn’t dressed to go out.
Daniels kept details of their encounter that night to herself until Trump was on the verge of getting elected to the highest office in the land.
Lawyers paid her off so that she would not go public right before the election about her knowledge of his alleged infidelity with her.
I won’t get into particulars of what supposedly transpired that night in Trump’s luxury suite. Suffice it to say that when you read the memoir of a porn star you can expect all the dirty details to be recorded in unexpurgated fashion. You have probably already heard most of the tawdry tidbits from that purported conquest, unless you have been residing in a cave without the Internet for the last six months.
Daniels admits she should have seen it coming. Since this moment of bizarre seduction is the centerpiece of the book and the sole reason it was written, I’ll defer the details to those willing to slog through this literary morass to extract all the juicy bits.
I expected photos. There’s one photo inside the book. It is a picture of the author as a young girl. She looks like she’s about 11 years old and is sitting astride a horse. She looks happy.
Stormy loves horses. She loves money, too. When given the choice between having $500 or spending it on her first horse it was a nobrainer.
She bought the steed, a neglected creature in poor shape.
She nursed that animal back to radiant health. Oh, how she adored that horse.
Her early family life was an unhappy one. Neither parent seemed to care about their only child.
Her dad essentially deserted them. Her mother neglected her. She found a friend in the Louisiana trailer park where they were living. Her friend spent time in a neighboring trailer watching movies with a middle-aged man.
The future Stormy (that’s her porn name) sought out her friend. She quickly realized that the neighbor was sexually abusing her friend.
You will find yourself admiring the author as she describes how she sacrificed herself to be abused instead of her friend in an effort to protect her.
By the time Stormy was in high school she had already become a topless dancer in clubs. She liked the money. There was more even more to be had making porn. She doesn’t blame her lousy parents, the sexual abuse, or anything else for choosing that career. She’s one tough woman.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www. wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.