But it was rough, this book is incredibly violent, and the psychological torment he inflicts on the women he employs is wild. There is no doubt in my mind that being raised by a single parent, living in poverty, and racism all influence incarceration rates. In Pimp], Iceberg Slim breaks down some of the coldest, capitalist concepts I’ve ever heard in my life. Either way, there was only so much in jail out of jail, slap this whore slap that whore I could take before I had to wonder why I was still giving this book the time of day.

Dazzle Razzle ratchets it up, but you need rather specialized knowledge for some of what is tackled. Scottish author Irvine Welsh offered that ‘Iceberg Slim did for the pimp what Jean Genet did for the homosexual and thief and William Burroughs did for the junkie: he articulated the thoughts and feelings of someone who had been there.Old Iceberg Slim's tale, in the most (for lack of any other way to say it) yucky way, shows the tremendous and awful danger that occurs when the torments of anger and hatred rise above conscience and the most basic elements of human decency and actions. His writing is fucking magical and mystical and things get so damn bleak and you're like oh god this is gonna end so terribly.

But, for a free book, it's certainly worth a peek by anyone interested in the genre, if only to extract what enjoyment one may in the first ~70 pages before reality inevitably sinks in and cripples the otherwise promising momentum. The book claims that during his career he had over 400 women, both black and white, working for him.I don’t really care about all that mumbo-jumbo, that garbage doesn’t move me nor does it inspire any worthwhile thought on my behalf. I’m going to need to justify that, so here’s a little taste of Slim’s masterful lambasting: “Listen square-ass bitch, I have never had a whore I couldn’t do without.

It was raw and honest, and Slim has an obvious talent with words, but as the book wore on and it delved further and further into the world of pimping, the book became tedious. Granted, while some might read this book and take it that way, I look at it as to why one shouldn't get into the life at all. by nurture, by living how well i did, by learning certain educated, delayed gratification if not repression, i hope i have never used any of my qualities to hurt, i have never used, i have never worked out my hurt by hurting others. Granted, the book uses the "cant" of the panderer and criminal underworld of black America in the 40s through the following decades, but readers of Raymond Chandler or even Dashiell Hammett will recognize the patter and meter, if not the prose and metalanguage, of the narration by Slim.While there was a “plot twist” in revealing the background of some characters, there was also consequences to the main characters actions that felt a bit over the top. Check out the YouTube channel "Soft White Underbelly" which documents interviews with people living on the fringes of American society: Prostitutes, addicts, pimps, etc.