Skipping Towards Gomorrah - book review

I picked up Skipping Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage because the sub-title seemed like such a contradiction in terms. The subtitle is "The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America". I know that the list of the "Seven Deadly Sins" was developed by the Catholic Church hundreds of years ago and to pursue them intentionally in today's world seemed so anachronistic. To pursue them as part of a pursuit of happiness seemed totally insane. But then maybe I've bought into the idea that "wickedness never was happiness" and that committing one of the "deadly sins" was indeed wicked.

The way the subtitle was phrased made me think about H. L. Mencken's definition of a Fundamentalist as "one who fears that someone, somewhere is having a good time". The subtitle appeared to imply that some fundamentalist somewhere made up a list of seven ways to have a good time. Dan must have also felt that way as he attempted to find how happy people are who are committing the seven deadly sins as cataloged by the medieval Catholic Church:
Greed
Lust
Gluttony
Sloth
Envy
Pride
Anger

Of course one can commit these "sins" without any fanfare or any pleasure for that matter but Dan wanted to commit them all with flair. After all he is already having a gay old time (if you get my drift).

So he investigated (although not necessarily participated) in activities related to these sins and in this book gives us a blow by blow description. For greed, he goes gambling and talks with those who are most hooked. For lust, he visits a swingers club and finds them surprisingly ordinary. Gluttony takes him to a club that celebrates putting on pounds and enjoying it. Stretching the definition a little, he next examines marijuana and potheads as part of a "slothful" culture. Envy puts him smack in the middle of the rich where he finds that he isn't as envious as he thought he might be. Pride, Dan turned into an exposition the numerous Gay Pride parades, days, and other festivals celebrating Gay-ness. And finally anger takes Dan to a shooting range where he shows that marksmanship does not correlate with your political point of view. He then goes into a diatribe about guns, gun control, the second amendment and several other divisive topics.

I didn't find "Skipping" to be "fresh and funny" but it was enjoyable. The seven deadly sins were just a handy method to share his fresh look at things that go on every day in the good old US of A.