Nonfiction is the new black comedy in this hilarious collection of award-winning literary essays written by the infamous Pagan Kennedy. In the title piece, Alex Comfort, author of *The Joy of Sex* , reinvents himself as a sex guru in California and hatches a plan to destroy monogamy forever. In the stories that follow, a retired chemist finds a way to turn a wasteland into paradise, an aspiring tyrant tries to become the emperor of America, and an artist rigs himself up to a brain machine made from parts he bought at Radio Shack. All of the essays—most of which have appeared in *The New York Times Magazine* and *The Boston Globe Magazine—* document the stories of visionaries bent on remaking the world, for better or for worse.