Callgirl

Rating:
Summary: SURPRISING AND INTRIGUING
Review:

The question posed on the dust cover of Jeanette Angell's memoir is "If you were offered the same choice, are you sure you'd make a different decision?" Provided that you're strapped for cash, the question is whether you would choose to work at a Borders bookstore or a Starbucks coffeehouse for a tad over minimum wage or would you become a call girl earning approximately $140 per hour?

Well, my response before and after reading this intriguing bio was "Hand me a Starbucks apron, please." Personal options aside, Ms. Angell has cogently and thoroughly described the time she spent in juggling her day teaching job and her night work as a paid escort, which she describes as being "a skilled professional possessing an area of knowledge for which there is a demand, and for which the client is willing to pay......"

After earning a Masters in Divinity from Yale and a 1995 doctoral degree in social anthropology, Ms. Angell anticipated joining the faculty of a prestigious university and beginning her climb to tenure. That was not to be the case. Instead she found herself teaching classes at a small Boston area college where she received a semester by semester paycheck. She also found herself co-habiting with Peter, a lowlife who absconded with the contents of their joint checking account.

Determined not to ask her family or the State of Massachusetts for assistance, she began to scan the want ads. Available openings paid the above mentioned minimum wage, which would not begin to cover her bills. Looking further, she found that girls were needed by an escort service run by a woman identified only as Peach. She picked up the phone. Mystified by the fact that Peach didn't want a face to face interview, Ms. Angell nonetheless agreed to begin immediately by seeing her first client that evening.

It worked for her. Of that encounter Ms. Angell writes, "This wasn't anything esoteric or bizarre or dangerous: this was something I had done before, something I did well, and - best of all - something I enjoyed doing." Thus, for Ms. Angell, known by night as "Tia," a second career was born, a career she would follow for three years.

During her initial days or more accurately nights as an escort Ms. Angell was teaching a course titled "Life in the Asylum," which was in part an examination of the cruel ways in which institutions then and now deal with the mentally ill. Ms. Angell, obviously, feels passionately about this injustice as she does about the ways in which women are oppressed. Writing from a sociologist's point of view, she takes time throughout her narrative to eloquently discuss these issues, as well as making a heartfelt plea not to stereotype prostitutes.

The author of several previous books, she is an accomplished writer who laces Callgirl with deftly painted portraits of her clients. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, at other times a bit frightening, these men are all different from the 400 pound fellow who seeks to control the personal lives of "his girls" to a wealthy gentleman who sent her home with a giant size bottle of Chanel No. 5.

Assuming she was only being social she began using the all too available cocaine, which she eventually needed to start each day. It was not long before she realized that this abuse was jeopardizing her teaching. Then a scary brush with the law that would have ended her academic career forever pushed her into a determination to quit working for Peach. Of this decision she writes, "It wasn't cerebral. It was emotional. More than anything, I was feeling the job, with all of its uncertainties and stresses, slowly slipping off my shoulders like an old, worn-out coat that has served its purpose well."

Ms. Angell was lucky. At the close of "Callgirl," which was written 10 years after her retirement she is happily married, teaching, and is a mother. When she looks back at what she calls the "glamour of those days," she smiles.

As I said, Ms. Angell was lucky.

- Gail Cooke




Rating:
Summary: For the curiosity seeker, a can't put down read!
Review: The anecdotal stories are a riot, very entertaining and certainly a look through the peephole at a series of transactions that the average reader - or should I say the average non prostitute hiring reader- would never otherwise be able to imagine. So much of our media claims to portray "reality" in the guise of contests and self conscious posturing in situations that are patently contrived.This is the real thing - human nature , unvarnished, people "making deals" Kudos to Ms. Angell for telling the tale with such detail, intelligence and nuance. Double kudos for having the guts and self reliance to be able to expoit her "service" into a hopefully lucrative and successful book run. How about a movie deal- The entreprenuerial Bridget Jones ?
I believed every word put forth in this book, and cringed to think of how paltry the rewards seemed ( to me) for someone as intelligent and capable as the author- and hardworking! Her clients were very high maintenance...


Rating:
Summary: Finally, the truth!
Review: "Call Girl" is a story more women could tell than just Jeannette Angell - if only they had her literary skill and her backbone! As a baby boomer, I myself got through my first university degree as a topless dancer in Boston's "Combat Zone" and I'm only sorry I didn't know about the escort option! I was making $25 a night - a very long night - while Angell was pulling in $140 an hour.

If we would all admit it, there are many women, both educated and not, both beautiful and not, who have taken up some form of sex working because of the money, the hours and the skill set. The demand by men is only exceeded by their hypocrisy. Given opportunities to make decent money with flexible hours, many of us might have welcomed greater professional choice.

But not all of us can create a magical reading moment out of the experience. I read "Call Girl" over a vacation weekend, and could hardly put it down. Her witty client sketches, her honest grappling with the contradictions of teaching at a prestige university during the day while being a prostitute at night and her frank approach to all the implications for her life made for a super read. I particularly admired her lack of self-pity when a rascal ex-lover absconded with her bank account leaving her to find her own solution.

As a much published writer, Angell's prose is as smooth and slick as the charm with which she handled clients. In today's judgmental and repressive society, I recommend you buy this for all your friends as a holiday gift, to both educate and entertain them.



Rating:
Summary: It's almost as if I could see myself doing it too
Review: "Callgirl" made me feel a bit at times like a voyeur, and at other times, like a paticipant. With a bit of a wild past myself, it also added elements of relief and excitement, because I realized while reading it, if I had chosen just one path to the left or right, it could have been me! Different from the regular "hooker tells all stories" mostly because I felt it was so genuine. Not glamorized by a black book of movie star clients, or midnight visits to the White House, it really resonated as a real tale of something that lots of women could find themselves doing under the right circumstances.

I didn't read any morality into it, as I'm sure some people will. In my opinion, it's best read with an open mind and with the intent to just "hear" the story (and in many places, I felt I was experiencing the story) and not form any judgements.

A good read, I especially recommend it for all those who've ever wondered how their lives might have turned out had they chosen this path, or that. For me, it posed the sort of questions that other people got out of seeing the movie "Indecent Proposal." Great conversation to be had amongst people who've read this book and get together to talk about it!!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: An excellant story of an academic over achiever that justifies leading a
double life to pay the bills until that permanent professorship is garnered.
Wrestling with the internal arguement of "I like sex so why shouldn't I get
paid for it?", Jen spins a well crafted tale of how an intelligent "good
girl" can lose her bearings when the money, drugs and alcohol come easy and
the "clients" are upper middleclass. Whether the realization that an arrest
will destroy her "real" career or relationships are doomed to failure when
your part-time job is the oldest profession, Jen breaks away and puts the
"nightlife" behind her.

Tantalizing, intriguing, informative, factual and emotional are just a few
of the words to describe it and, Ladies, if you want to know what your man's
fantasies are, this should be your handbook.


Rating:
Summary: A stirring story of a survivor
Review: If you've ever wondered (and who hasn't?) what it's "really" like to work as a callgirl, this is a compelling and intelligent foray into a hidden world. But more than a story about life as a highly paid "escort," Callgirl is a moving story of how one strong, resourceful woman survived three years of sex, drugs and misogyny. Angell not only survives but emerges with her heart, soul, psyche and intellect intact and tells her story with wit and honesty. While I would gladly clean toilets than choose her path, I now have a less stereotypical view of the women who do.

Rating:
Summary: Superlative account of a misunderstood profession
Review: In "Callgirl," The French-born Angell - who earned her Master of Divinity degree at Yale and her doctorate from Boston University - gives a studious yet insightful account of the three years she worked as a callgirl for an escort service.

Angell's decision to work as a callgirl had more to do with rent than research. She'd just begun a new semester teaching a series of college lectures when a live-in boyfriend vanished, having first wiped out her bank account along with her prepaid salary.

The mid-level escort service, run by a woman whom Angell calls "Peach," stood out among the ads in that it required a minimum of some college education. Angell imagined the worst, but found most clients an invisible, unremarkable group of men - lawyers, stockbrokers, your regular businessman, those about to be married: your husbands, brothers and fathers. There were others, however, who insisted on degradation.

Before she left the profession, Angell created a new university course that explored both the history of prostitution as well as how mainstream society interacts with it. Callgirl goes beyond the syllabus with a thought-provoking look at a common assertion - that the men who employ prostitutes are normal, but that the women who engage in the trade are not. Angell breaks down many stereotypes (most which are borne of ignorance) in a page-turning memoir that one won't easily forget.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting Book
Review: On Saturday I promised myself that if I finished a chore, I would get to start reading CALLGIRL, sitting brand new on my shelf. Chore done, I opened the book...and couldn't put it down. A cliché come true. I finished that night before bed.

The author's first-hand, frank account of the escort trade, of the business aspects and the intriguing characters and the risks and rewards, would by itself be riveting reading, but what adds unique depth is the interweaving of a second world, the one in which the author is a respected college professor who teaches, among other things, a course on prostitution. The author, who is now a writer and wife, makes it clear she has no regrets for her past "other" life, and presents cogent arguments to legalize prostitution.

The following day, I gave the book to my wife. She couldn't put it down either.


Rating:
Summary: Very honest and fun read!
Review: This autobiography by a former callgirl is a fun read. While the author openly admits to liking her way of life for a while, she also manages to show the darker side and makes us feel as though she managed to grow through her experience.

I thought this book was thoroughly enjoyable and was an excellent purchase.

Rating:
Summary: is this real or complete delusion
Review: This may all be just a very sad delusion; and if it is, then is this a memoir or an *example* of psychotic literature. This is work is positioned as a work of non-fiction. How do we not know this is a just a complete fiction being marketed as non-fiction by a smart agent.

This may just be a ruse; the goose, as it were, that laid the golden egg. And if you buy into it, you'll make a deluded mind richer.