Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140870 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A 10-year veteran of the sex industry takes readers on a seedy tour of low-rent massage parlors and peep shows where she vamps in high heels and corsets, guides creepy men to ejaculate on her breasts and offers views of her privates to embarrassed gawkers. Lewis admires her co-workers and is bitingly negative about her clients. "It occurred to me that sex work was much like toilet training," she writes. "We were paid to manage, direct, and tolerate their waste, ignoring the stench and cooing over their various evacuations, like erotic bathroom attendants." She also claims to be baffled by porn's appeal, which seems disingenuous considering her often astute analysis of the mechanics of the trade. Although crudely frank about sexual positions and bodily fluids, Lewis, a 34-year-old bisexual, is slippery about her own background and motivations. Her protests that her self-esteem isn't low ring false, and its doubtful readers will believe that a National Merit scholar and self-described feminist is actually happy peeing herself for the camera. This sad exercise in denial misses the mark as either titillating erotica or bold affirmation of personal autonomy. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Graphic at times - but why wouldn't it be?
I bought this book at the bookstore by my office, and as is the case with all books I buy that I'm interested in, I started reading it immediately when I got on the train to come home. When I turned the page to the new chapter with its gigantic headline "Real Live Horny Girl Next Door", it occurred to me that the guy standing right next to me was reading every word over my shoulder and was now convinced I was a freak.

The author should probably take that as a compliment - I don't really care if he thinks I'm a freak, and he obviously cared enough to leer over my shoulder for my 45 minute commute home.

I wouldn't refer to myself as a prude in any sense of the word, but I admit I blushed a little bit as I started to read it. The language is necessar - after all, I can't describe my day at work without using the words "computer" and "rendering" (I work in 3D modeling at an architecture firm), so how could the author describe her job without a variety of different words of male genitalia? After you get past the first few pages of your own potential embarassment, all those "cock"s and "pussy"s are just words, as they should be, and the book reads smoothly. When describing a sexual act, it's easy to resort to overromanticizing on one end or an incredibly base vernacular on the other, channeling online erotica writers everywhere - thankfully our author doesn't do that for a second. Her job is her job, and she describes things just as they happen. It isn't sexy, but it isn't repulsive. Some people wait tables, she pretends to masturbate for money. We all put in our hours to make our rent, and this is no exception.

The book doesn't have any real conclusion, which seems to make a certain amount of sense as the writer is a blogger. It's more of an opportunity to glance into ten years of her life, as if you're reading the diary of a woman coming into her own and becoming comfortable with herself. It was a quick read and could be accomplished in a couple of open afternoons. The writer's style is easy to get into and offers a blunt, straightforward view into what it means to be a woman in the adult entertainment industry. If you're looking for smut, this isn't it, but if you're looking for an intelligently written account of a job few of us will ever experience, this is the book for your Saturday afternoon.

Sex workers are human beings, too.
This is a book about someone (Ms. Lewis) who has chosen to be part of a life style that a large percentage of average people would not look upon favorably (or worse.) But it is also a book that helps one understand the why's and who's of being a sex worker, and the fact that sex workers are human beings with feelings much like our own.

I loved this book, couldn't put it down. I related to Ms Lewis from a father's viewpoint. From beginning to end I was with her. The book so wonderfully describes her various feelings from when she began until the present. In a business that most people consider very negatively, she has accomplished a lot on her own. Her intelligence, independence, courage, the dangers, the concerns, her strong feelings, they sure do come through in the book..

Ms Lewis style of writing carried me along from experience to experience. It is fascinating to hear about the various places she has worked and the people she worked with. It gave me such mixed feelings of knowing what one goes through and realizing that underneath it all is a woman who wants and needs times of love and closeness and caring.

The book is beautifully written, never doubt it. Every so often she'd have me laughing at the way she described something. Throughout the book she conveyed how scary it was each time she applied for a new job, how unsure of her abilities she was at times. It was very interesting to learn of what goes on in various types of sex work as I have never before heard in such detail.

Most startling and yet something that one might not be surprised about if given some thought is the way the author feels about her clients/customers......... realizing that for the sex worker, it is a job, one that pretty much requires shutting out the feelings that one in love would have.

I am really glad I read this book for it let me understand that those we might avoid are just as human as we are, just as wise, just as caring.

Good read but no real substance
I had to read this book since I have lived in Seattle for a year and a half now and I find it interesting to read about all the hidden places in the city!

This was definately a good read. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next and it kept me turning the pages but that was the only thing that made me give it four stars. To begin with, one thing I didn't quite understand was the naming of the chapters. All are named after songs and while some bear a slight resemblance to its contents, most do not. I am also not quite sure that I bought into the whole "It's okay for feminists to do this work because we get paid and thus have power". People get paid for working at McDonald's too and probably get about as much respect. The author also claims that she feels just great about herself and her work but that sounded hollow next to the more than frequent passages where she graphically describes her murderous rage toward her customers. I totally felt the depressive vibe that permeated this book. Nowhere does the author talk about having friends or family and it seems that when she is not working in the sex industry, she is at home watching television. The author is at pains to describe that she keeps her work personality seperate from her real personality but readers are not permitted to see that other reality, we are only led from seedy joint to seedy joint. Maybe in writing about the sex industry, she keeps her game face on. There were obvious passages where the author was conflicted about her work and I think that went a little way towards adding to the reality of working in such an industry. I also appreciated her humor, intelligence and the candid way in which she approached life in general.