Without Wax, published by Casperian Books, is more than simply a linear biography of Wax. Walsh has structured the book like a movie, complete with talking head interviews, flashbacks, and cut-away shots to reflect a character’s thoughts. Interspersed within the "footage" about the life of Wax are various small vignettes, profiles of Wax's fans. As a type of piece de resistance, he has also included a script from Wax's first feature, which might be short on dialogue but long on the inventive stage directions unique to an adult film.
Wax hadn't set out to be a porn star. At one point during high school it looked like he had a chance of having a decent career in baseball — at least triple A, if not the majors — if only he hadn't had that additional growth spurt. As a child Wax was a slow developer; slow to the point that his parents were concerned enough to send him to a doctor who claimed he had come up with a way to increase a young man's size so he'd have no cause ever to be embarrassed again. The so-called doctor's treatment turned out to include a combination of growth hormones, steroids, exercise, and a stretching devise.
While there's no doubt the procedure was effective, Wax went from being a 98-pound weakling in his first year of high school to being a star third baseman in only two years. It soon became apparent that his extra length was a hindrance when it came to running the bases and playing the field. As one of the directors he worked with commented when asked about Wax, there aren't many other lines of work, aside from the adult film industry, where his specific enhancement could be parlayed into a career, so becoming a porn star was pretty much a no-brainer.
Through interviews with co-performers and technical folk Wax worked with, we learn that while there are other equally well-endowed performers in the adult film business (nobody in the book refers to it as pornography), Wax had a boy-next-door quality that endeared him to women and made him far less threatening to men. It was this combination that quickly made him a star in the adult business and allowed his management to market a whole range of "Wax Williams" sex toys.
Walsh has been very careful to write Without Wax in a manner that appears to be faithful to the documentary ideal of objectivity. I was forced to remind myself, every so often, that in fact this was a work of fiction no matter how it looked. Even though it appears the characters are being presented in a non-objective manner, and that the author has no opinion one way or another, Walsh has written each one of them with intent and purpose. We're supposed to feel like we are making up our own minds about circumstances and people, when of course he's guiding us by having created everything we read.
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