Private Parts

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW






Book: Private Parts



Author: Howard Stern



Publisher: Gallery Books, republished 1994



ISBN-13: 978-0671880163 Hardcover



ISBN-10:  0671880163 Hardcover



ISBN-13:  ‎ 978-0671501006 Paperback



ISBN-10:  0671501003 Paperback



Language level:  5



(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)



Recommended reading level:  No one



Rating: 0 stars—not recommended



(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)



Category: Biography



Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker



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     Stern, Howard.  Private Parts (Published in 1993 by Simon and Schuster).  Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American broadcaster and media personality. He is best known for his radio show, The Howard Stern Show .  Private Parts is the first book by Stern, an autobiography by the original “shock jock” in which he reveals his takes on politics, current affairs, and the entertainment business.  I must begin by saying that being generally familiar with Stern and his program and having heard about the book, I have not read nor would I ever read Private Parts.    However, I did have one experience with the book that I would like to share.  When we lived in Affton, MO, I was in a branch of the St. Louis County Library one day and while looking at books in the biography section, I came across Stern’s book.  It was on a low shelf where any child could pick it up and look through it.  Curious as to whether it was as bad as I had heard it to be, I perused the pages and found that it was much worse than I had imagined.



    It was filled with copious pictures of naked people and detailed, explicit accounts of Stern’s sexual exploits.  One blurb for the book said, “In Private Parts Stern spills his life story, from his dysfunctional beginnings to his unlikely, turbulent rise to superstardom. In the process, he shares his views on everything from foreign policy to fatherhood and Madonna to masturbation, with lots of lesbians in between.”  Wikipedia said, “Simon & Schuster rejected an early cover that featured Stern and two naked blonde women holding his crotch. The publisher had it altered, removing the women entirely and covering Stern’s genital area with a banner presenting the book’s title. The shots that were rejected were printed in the book.” A partially nude Stern draped in a velvet cape graces the cover.  It is said that Stern changed some of the women’s names that he had slept with while attending Boston University to protect their identities.  A frequent criticism was that the material was juvenile, with little more to offer than stories of “breasts, behinds, penises, masturbation, defecation, and the expulsion of gas.”



     The reliance on stories of body parts, functions, and human sexuality was often used to damn the book as nothing more than a collection of radio show highlights in print, but in more explicit detail.  Critics would sometimes argue that they could not adequately review the stories because of their papers’ editorial standards.  Due to its availability to children, I brought my complaint to the librarian, but I don’t know if anything was done about it or not.  Interestingly enough, I later told a friend of mine about the incident.  She replied that she was once in the library and found a totally inappropriate book in the children’s section.  After scanning the contents, she replaced the book and it “accidentally” fell down behind the shelf.  While I believe that our small town library here in Salem, IL, is very responsible, I don’t trust public libraries in general, what with drag queen story times for children, pornographic pro-LGBTQ+ materials in the youth department, and laws like Illinois’s outlawing all “book banning.”  Beware!