Hustled

Continuing her very public campaign against her father, Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler and other pornographic magazines, Flynt-Vega puts into print what she has been saying for years: that her father's pornography empire ""may be the greatest menace in America today"" and that he robbed his own daughters of a decent childhood by abusing and sexually molesting them. Flynt-Vega chronicles her desperate journey from emotional and physical devastation to a healthier lifestyle, a change she says occurred because of her developing faith in God. The book is not for the fainthearted, for it details both her own and her parents' thoroughly wretched upbringings, describes the incestuous relationships Flynt allegedly had with his daughters and details what the author casts as his prevailing mental illness. Flynt-Vega offers a constant rebuke to the 1996 box-office hit, The People vs. Larry Flynt, which portrayed her father as a stalwart, albeit disgusting, champion of free speech. Although the text is solidly written, thanks to the work of Schwartz, it is not flawless. Flynt-Vega borders on histrionic in some of her descriptions of Flynt's relationships to the people around him. She also takes cheap shots at one of her siblings. For the most part, though, she has successfully stepped back to describe the frenzied, trashy and tragic life and career of Larry Flynt as well as her own pilgrimage to faith. (June)