No Need to Wash Out the Mouths

 This book is filled with curse words. There are probably five swear words per page, give or take a few. Most of them are in the dialogue exchanged between the characters, but even when Kemp is thinking to himself, there are a few "goddammits" here and there.

 I've been taught that overloading on curse words could take away from the writing, but I can't imagine how this book would be without them. It'd be almost too polite, and unnatural. The words people use to speak help define personalities, and that's certainly the case with the characters in this book. Because of the use of swear words, I can tell who is the most educated, the most easily angered, etc. It really shows a lot of things without the narrator having to say them. The more I read, the more comfortable I become with the profanity, and the more I realize that they actually help the story to flow. For example, in one scene, Lotterman is arguing with Yeamon about a piece Yeamon wrote that he isn't happy with. The foul words move the scene along better because they really capture the heat of the moment, and you can tell how angry Lotterman is with the situation based on the words he uses. I think these words also help to convey the fact that the characters in this book are "real" people with "real" dispositions, and so they will speak as such. In our own lives, we will say the occasional "shit" and "f*ck", and that's just that.

 The curse words also come out the most after everyone has a few drinks in them, and since this book is about Kemp and his friends being drunk most of the time, the dirty words seem appropriate.