Introduction
Much has been written today about the turned-on college students with their addiction to drugs, their I antisocial behavior, and their rejection of established I moral values. Every day that passes, the press adds to ; the flood of material on such subjects. Some of this ! material, of course, is sociologically sound and valuable, while a great deal of it is pure sensationalism.
It is important to remember that for every ; youngster who "freaks out" there are many more who ' are genuinely interested in doing something con-j structive about the current state of affairs. They do not merely give lip service to ease their social consciences; they actively participate in public programs : and personal projects to improve situations they feel are in need of attention.
This novel, Sorority Sex Freak, tells the story of one such well-meaning student: Suzanne Delacorte, only daughter of a wealthy Detroit family who plans to become a social worker, and as part of her sociology studies at Wayne State University moves into a slum neighborhood to learn how the other half lives. Suzanne learns not only the degrading social and financial conditions of those who live in Detroit's inner city, but she also finds out about their unbridled sexuality.
Her own dormant desires are brought to the surface through a series of traumatic experiences at the hands of neighborhood youths, as well as two lesbian girl friends. Suzanne's strict upbringing experiences a rude shock as she inadvertently discovers that putting out a hand to the underprivileged can often have unwelcome consequences.
Suzanne has been brought up with the best of everything: wealth, social position, and careful supervision of her private life by her parents, who wanted to make sure that their only daughter got a good education and married into a good family. Their reaction to Suzanne's decision to rent her own apartment is one of resentment and near horror. "Live in that neighborhood?" says Mrs. Delacorte. "Among all those terrible people?"
As it turns out, Mrs. Delacorte is quite right, in a way-although not exactly the way she thinks. Ironically, Suzanne is quite right, too, for her main goal is learning, and she certainly learns a great deal in the course of her experiences. What she learns is not mere classroom knowledge, either; it is from meeting life at its rawest, most primitive level. It is at once painful and exciting; shocking and profoundly revealing.
Such a novel as this could hardly have come about by accident. In keeping with their policy of bringing socially significant themes to the public attention, the publishers approached Ward Fulton, well-known author of many books dealing with American behavioral patterns. Mr. Fulton lived for several years in the city of Detroit, and from his personal experiences and research in that city has derived the materials of this book, set in the same locality where the author lived himself. Many of the episodes are taken from real life, from experiences related to Mr. Fulton by persons who have had personal contact with the underprivileged families trying to eke out a living in the inner city of Detroit.
This is not a book for the squeamish; the degrading encounters leading to Suzanne Delacorte's sexual awakening are detailed with graphic explicitness in order to stress the sordid upbringing endured by many teenagers through the circumstances of their poverty, and their premature exposure to sex at its most elemental level.
Mr. Fulton recalls instances of seeing young girls of eleven and twelve openly soliciting men on Third Avenue in Detroit, offering sexual service in return for a dollar or less. He remembers a small boy on West Forest Avenue, a child not more than eight or nine, who admitted earning money for cigarettes by masturbating anyone for a quarter.
For those readers who have only vague ideas of how the poor live in a city slum, Sorority Sex Freak will come as a soul-searing revelation, particularly as it is based on fact. Not since Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and David Copperfield has a writer captured so completely and accurately the essential spirit of life
This novel, Sorority Sex Freak, tells the story of one such well-meaning student: Suzanne Delacorte, only daughter of a wealthy Detroit family who plans to become a social worker, and as part of her sociology studies at Wayne State University moves into a slum neighborhood to learn how the other half lives. Suzanne learns not only the degrading social and financial conditions of those who live in Detroit's inner city, but she also finds out about their unbridled sexuality.
Her own dormant desires are brought to the surface through a series of traumatic experiences at the hands of neighborhood youths, as well as two lesbian girl friends. Suzanne's strict upbringing experiences a rude shock as she inadvertently discovers that putting out a hand to the underprivileged can often have unwelcome consequences.
Suzanne has been brought up with the best of everything: wealth, social position, and careful supervision of her private life by her parents, who wanted to make sure that their only daughter got a good education and married into a good family. Their reaction to Suzanne's decision to rent her own apartment is one of resentment and near horror. "Live in that neighborhood?" says Mrs. Delacorte. "Among all those terrible people?"
As it turns out, Mrs. Delacorte is quite right, in a way-although not exactly the way she thinks. Ironically, Suzanne is quite right, too, for her main goal is learning, and she certainly learns a great deal in the course of her experiences. What she learns is not mere classroom knowledge, either; it is from meeting life at its rawest, most primitive level. It is at once painful and exciting; shocking and profoundly revealing.
Such a novel as this could hardly have come about by accident. In keeping with their policy of bringing socially significant themes to the public attention, the publishers approached Ward Fulton, well-known author of many books dealing with American behavioral patterns. Mr. Fulton lived for several years in the city of Detroit, and from his personal experiences and research in that city has derived the materials of this book, set in the same locality where the author lived himself. Many of the episodes are taken from real life, from experiences related to Mr. Fulton by persons who have had personal contact with the underprivileged families trying to eke out a living in the inner city of Detroit.
This is not a book for the squeamish; the degrading encounters leading to Suzanne Delacorte's sexual awakening are detailed with graphic explicitness in order to stress the sordid upbringing endured by many teenagers through the circumstances of their poverty, and their premature exposure to sex at its most elemental level.
Mr. Fulton recalls instances of seeing young girls of eleven and twelve openly soliciting men on Third Avenue in Detroit, offering sexual service in return for a dollar or less. He remembers a small boy on West Forest Avenue, a child not more than eight or nine, who admitted earning money for cigarettes by masturbating anyone for a quarter.
For those readers who have only vague ideas of how the poor live in a city slum, Sorority Sex Freak will come as a soul-searing revelation, particularly as it is based on fact. Not since Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and David Copperfield has a writer captured so completely and accurately the essential spirit of life among the so-called underprivileged.
In addition, the importance of an emotionally acceptable sexual awakening is stressed, for through the horror of Suzanne's first sexual experience is illustrated how a young woman's attitude towards sex can be adversely affected, coloring her entire outlook on future relations, and altering and heightening her normal responses.
Not only the student of human behavior, but the parents of teenage children, will learn a significant lesson from Suzanne's story, which is a reflection of one side of urban life that constitutes a major social problem in America today.
-The Publishers