Florence Stonebraker's Flesh Is Weak

Flesh Is Weak is a 1951 sleaze novel by Florence Stonebraker. Stonebraker was a prolific sleaze fiction author although she also wrote conventional romance fiction. One of the things I’ve noticed since I developed an interest in American sleaze fiction of the 1944-65 era is that there’s not as big a gulf as you might expect between sleaze novels and romance fiction. The sleaze fiction was more realistic about human emotions and more cynical about human motivations and it was a lot more realistic about sex but in both genres the stories concern people looking for happiness in a relationship and finding lots of obstacles in their path.

The heroine of Flesh Is Weak is Sue Howell. She lives in a seedy apartment house managed by her father Gus. The cops are about to close the building down, on account of the fact that most of Gus’s tenants are prostitutes. That’s how Gus makes his living - he charges the whores more than the normal rent. What he’s doing is kind of in a legal grey area. He’s not actually operating a brothel but the police can still shut his operation down. Mostly the police don’t worry but every now and the self-appointed moral guardians of the city force them to take action.

Sue is hopelessly in love with Kevin, who lives upstairs. He’s an aspiring musician. Kevin is convinced of his own towering genius and it bitter that the world doesn’t share his high opinion of his talents. Since he’s a genius there is of course no question of sullying his talents by getting a real job. He finds rich middl-aged women willing to keep him in exchange for sex.

Sue isn’t so much stupid as simply young and naïve. She knows what Kevin is like. They have regular sex and she knows it doesn’t mean anything to him. But he’s convinced that one day she’ll find a way to make him love her.

There is a nice young boy who wants to marry Sue. Herbie Nichols has a good job and is ideal husband material. The problem is that he’s boring and nerdy and he doesn’t excite Sue either sexually or emotionally. Sue is sure that a proper marriage should be based on both love and sex.

There’s also a sleazy young guy named Larry after her, and a Las Vegas big shot who has offered her a lucrative career as a call girl.

Sue is no Girl Scout but she is neither a conventional Good Girl nor a conventional Bad Girl. She just has very poor judgment when it comes to men. She’s hopelessly romantic and she really likes sex. Most of her decisions are based on a combination of her desires for romance and sex.

Sue can be an exasperating character but that’s because she’s a 19-year-old girl. She’s emotional and impulsive and she’s playing romantic and sexual games to which she doesn’t know the rules. She’s a believable character. She makes bad decisions because she’s young and inexperienced.

You could say the same about Herbie Nichols. When a girl obviously doesn’t love you and is obviously physically repulsed by you it’s not a smart idea to pursue her with the intention of marrying her. But Herbie is young and naïve and obsessed by Sue’s beauty and very obvious sexuality.

It’s hard to make excuses for Kevin. If he wants to find a rich older Sugar Mama to support him then he should just do it without the self-justifications and the absurd fantasies of being an undiscovered genius.

Kevin is a whore who doesn’t like to admit it. Sue has turned a few tricks as well (with Larry) but she isn’t troubled by guilt. It wasn’t unpleasant and twenty bucks is twenty bucks. Sue’s judgment might be poor but her attitude towards sex is one of enthusiastic guilt-free enjoyment. Her lack of sexual hangups at least gives her some chance of getting her life together even if the odds are stacked against her.

The great thing about these 50s sleaze novels is that you’re never sure how they’ll end. Since the moral guardians of society considered the publishers and writers of these books to be mere pornographers and were never going to approve of them anyway those publishers were not too worried about giving the books morally uplifting endings. You never know if the Bad Girl will get punished, or redeemed, or get away with her sinfulness. So in this case we can’t really predict what Sue’s fate will be. And I’m not going to spoil the book by telling you.

There are no graphic descriptions of sex, in fact there are no descriptions of sex at all. The sleaze factor in early 50s sleaze fiction comes from the fact that it’s made clear that the characters are actually having sex and are sometimes doing so for money. By the end of the 50s these novels became just a bit more explicit.

Flesh Is Weak is a pretty good example of the genre. Think romance fiction with lots of illicit sex and a bit of prostitution. Overall it’s very entertaining.

I highly recommend Stonebraker’s slightly earlier Reno Tramp, a must-read for sleaze fans.