Comments on: Campus Sexpot by David Carkeet

By: David Carkeet

David Carkeet — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:11:42 +0000

For a writer there is no worse feeling than regret for what one has written. Looking back on the writing of this memoir, I can see that, caught up as I was in the exploration of my past and its links to Dale Koby’s writing, I presumed too much about the man. I also gave insufficient thought to the effect my incomplete sketch of him could have on his family. That sketch now strikes me as thoughtless and judgmental, and I regret the hurt it must have caused. –David Carkeet

By: A Koby

A Koby — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:52:32 +0000

The pulp fiction novel written by my father was intended as a snub at the small town of Sonora and some of its leading citizens – like Carkeet’s father for example – the drunk judge who could always be found at the local bar. It was not supposed to be good. It was dashed out in less than an hour.

Just to set the record straight-it was not my father who was having the affair with the girl it was the boy’s P.E. coach who was good friends with my father. My father covered for the coach’s affair and that is what got him in trouble. My father expected the coach to come forward when the accusations were made against my father. It was a betrayal my father, then a young man fresh out of the service, never forgot. It should also be noted that the principal knew it wasn’t my father since my father wouldn’t reveal the names of who was involved he was fired. I remember visiting the coach’s home and playing with his children. I also remember the scandal, and my parents packing and leaving town in the middle of the night.

I remember my mother being furious with my father for not breaking the ‘manly code of silence.’ The only person who didn’t know the truth about the affair was the coach’s wife.

My father went on to become an editor and a publisher, not of pornography but of car and van magazines until he returned to teaching high school. He was killed by a drunk driver on his way to Cal State Northridge on October 9, 1979.

Calling my father a pornographer is patently unfair as he took the job just to make money to feed his family in the wake of his being fired. He left that industry as soon as he could. He called the time he worked in that industry his greatest regret. Our family has and continues to seek out all illicit material with my father’s name on it. The material is destroyed. It was his last request.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:52:00 +0000

I would like to respectfully disagree here. While the use of Dave Koby’s novel is in many ways nontraditional in a memoir, its use here dovetails amazingly well with the author’s own young search for a definition of good and bad. While Koby’s book represented all that was seen as “bad” for Sonora residents at that time, Carkeet’s life was a struggle to be seen as “good” while living with the “bad” thoughts and wants that any teen has. Because of this, I think the inclusion of Koby’s story is integral to portraying the worlds of good and bad in Carkeet’s youth.