Skipping Towards Gomorrah, by Dan Savage

Published in 2003. 320 p.

Rating: 4.2 stars

Summary: Nationally syndicated gay sex-columnist Dan Savage takes on a political agenda to commit all seven of Catholicism’s Deadly Sins, explaining the importance of all of them in the political and social arenas. He gambles and meets swingers in Vegas, stays in for smoking pot, goes to a fat-acceptance convention in San Francisco, goes weight-loss hiking in Malibu with the rich, goes to pride in L.A. and learns how to shoot a gun in Texas, and then goes on an all-out sinning binge in New York.

Review: First off, I just need to say that I fucking love Dan Savage. Go read everything he has ever written. Seriously.

So, the basic point of the book is for Savage to commit all seven of the deadly sins of his childhood Catholicism in order to prove to the “virtuecrats” that America is not the Gomorrah of the modern world, but a pretty damn cool place to live.

Greed: Savage learns to gamble. He opens the chapter by hating on Vegas, but through the course of his experiences, learns to love it and the gambling involved. The best part, though, is when Savage returns to the scene of various crimes (literally, he was charged with both a felony and a misdemeanor due to actions surrounding his experiences during the Iowa caucus,) to gamble in Dubuque, Iowa on a riverboat. Here in Dubuque, Savage meets some old gamblers that teach him how to gamble and win at Blackjack (seriously, check it out if you want to win some money gambling…good strategies are taught), but warn him properly. As Savage gets greedy at the end of his stay, he breaks the rules, loses all the money and is just another broke, greedy gambler. One word: awesome.

Lust: Swingers!! Another awesome chapter in which Savage discusses infidelity, both accepted and not. He is at his most political in this chapter…not exactly ironic, if you ask me (hello, Ms. Lewinsky). He makes a solid argument for accepted infidelities within relationships, and while I don’t know if I’ll be able to jump on board the good ship infidelity, it gives you reason to at least re-think your sexual boundaries within a relationship.

Sloth: Americans are potheads, and Savage tells us why: Americans FUCKING WORK MORE HOURS THAN ANYONE ELSE!!!! I fully support Savage in his argument for the legalization of marijuana. Medical marijuana is a start, but really, people, let’s get the ball rolling.

Gluttony: Oh. My. God. There is an organization for the acceptance of fat people…where they have their one lingo and they tell each other that fat is sexy and healthy. I shudder at the thought, as does Savage, but he braves the pounds of human flesh awaiting him and goes to a conference. Thankfully, he highlights the issues of people at the conference in which some realize that being so fat that you can’t move is not healthy, and that gastric bypass is not the anti-Christ. He doesn’t really get down to the nitty-gritty sinning part until he goes into his eating habits (concerning their inner fat-kids) with one of his friends in particular, and dissects American eating habits (why super-sized portions and meals are more popular than the Red Sox in Boston.) This is where Savage shines the most…or maybe it’s just because my mouth was watering at the thought of a gi-normous piece of cake being set in front of me.

Envy: This was probably my least favorite of all the chapters. To learn about envy, Savage goes to an expensive weight-loss ashram to lose weight with the rich and famous. He doesn’t end up envying them and their ability to pay large amounts of money to act poor for a weekend; he simply ends up a bloody mess on a trail outside Malibu.

Pride: This chapter was interestingly controversial. Savage may be the most openly gay man on the planet, and yet he doesn’t believe in the importance of Pride for the gay community. His beef is in the idea that Pride exists for the gay youth to come out and be loud and proud; he believes that is just a rainbow-filled excuse to get wasted and dance all day and night, and that it would be fine if the gay community would just come out and say that. (To throw my own two cents in, I believe that it is important for the newly out to see how big and diverse the gay population in their area is, and that it does help build pride in themselves as a part of the gay community that Pride celebrates. Booyah, Savage.) His argument lacks some basis and is not entirely well-thought out. But he parties hard and reports it accurately, so rock on.

Anger: This chapter holds my favorite line of the book: after being told that he is a natural at shooting a gun in Plano, Texas “Natural isn’t something I get called a lot in Texas.” This chapter is enjoyable to read, but I don’t really see how learning how to shoot a gun at a gun range is a sin. Forgive me Savage, but wouldn’t watching an Edward Norton-style fight club have done the trick? In the end, it comes off as a piece in which Savage boasts his gun shooting ability.

New York City: This chapter is full-on brilliant. Savage goes to the real Sin City (Vegas, you got nothing on New York), and is in involved in the committing of all seven sins in only a few short days. Here we meet Emily, a high-class escort, and Brad, another high class escort, who happens to be her boyfriend. Savage hires each of them for a night without telling either of them that he met the other half of their high-class prostituting couple. Savage gets a lot closer to his agenda with these two than in any of the previous chapters, and as a result, it is the most fun chapter in the book. Rock on, high class prostitution.

My biggest complaint about this book is that the end does not hold up to the beginning. The book takes a turn for the worse around the middle and never fully recovers, although it makes a valiant effort with the New York City chapter. Overall, I would recommend reading it, however, you start with one of Savage’s other books and become a fan before picking this one up, because this one won’t garner Savage any fans that he doesn’t already have.