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jayyenn's review
5.0
This collection of Shane’s sexwork memoirs contains her blogposts from 2008-2013 where [b:Prostitute Laundry|28495733|Prostitute Laundry|Charlotte Shane|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499800815s/28495733.jpg|48646662] collects her tinyletter newsletters from 2014-2015. By their nature they are more disjointed than PL giving me an impression of dissolves from one entry to the next.
Shane’s writing here, like always, is powerful and poetic. Her thoughts on need, love, kindness, yoga had me underlining the passages constantly.
Shane’s writing here, like always, is powerful and poetic. Her thoughts on need, love, kindness, yoga had me underlining the passages constantly.
joemacare's review
4.0
"At some point I came. At some point I went away." - definitely one of the best couple of sentences with which to end a book.
gynocyber's review
5.0
reading this was like scrubbing a bunch of buildup off of my brain lol. clarifying and fearless internal poetry
sohowshouldipresume's review
5.0
I can't even imagine the kind of relationship that the author has with her body, but at the same time so many of her musings and emotions seem familiar and dear, in spite of the lack of shared experiences. A beautiful book.
lindick's review
4.0
This is a fascinating portrait of a life of someone who does sex work (high end escort type work), and who also writes, loves yoga, has a screwed up family, etc. It’s about but not just about the experience of sex work, and it’s one of the most...holistic, I guess, and honest portrayals I’ve seen. I love how she shows both the fun, sexy moments, how much she can love the sex and the attention and the money, and the gross and boring and depressing parts. And neither negates the other or somehow makes the choice to do it as her job not a valid one.
It was a little challenging for me how she would often go right from a really explicit sex scene (sometimes written in an evocative and interesting way, but never for the purpose of obscuring what’s going on or making it more “appropriate”) to feelings about her dad or intellectual ponderings, but I think it was good, to be challenged in that way. Why do we see these as completely separate things, you know?
It did feel very much like collected internet ramblings. Which is close enough to a journal that it didn’t feel weird to read in a book format, but I did sometimes wish there was a little more editing (especially, as is often the case with small presses, copy editing, because there was a not-bad but noticeable number of typos).
I will say that there was a certain melodrama, or tendency to say sort of overwrought things (e.g., about her birthday: “No friends sent messages, which is fitting because I am not the type of person who has friends”) that sometimes strike me as Too Much, but I can also see them reading very differently on a tumblr and/or newsletter that she probably never expected to be collected in this way. I think I felt more open to this sort of thing because I liked her and her writing and interesting observations. But it could also be a bit exhausting at times.
It was a little challenging for me how she would often go right from a really explicit sex scene (sometimes written in an evocative and interesting way, but never for the purpose of obscuring what’s going on or making it more “appropriate”) to feelings about her dad or intellectual ponderings, but I think it was good, to be challenged in that way. Why do we see these as completely separate things, you know?
It did feel very much like collected internet ramblings. Which is close enough to a journal that it didn’t feel weird to read in a book format, but I did sometimes wish there was a little more editing (especially, as is often the case with small presses, copy editing, because there was a not-bad but noticeable number of typos).
I will say that there was a certain melodrama, or tendency to say sort of overwrought things (e.g., about her birthday: “No friends sent messages, which is fitting because I am not the type of person who has friends”) that sometimes strike me as Too Much, but I can also see them reading very differently on a tumblr and/or newsletter that she probably never expected to be collected in this way. I think I felt more open to this sort of thing because I liked her and her writing and interesting observations. But it could also be a bit exhausting at times.
sasscasspdx's review
5.0
I lost this book about 25 pages before the end. What I did read was great. Memoir? Creative non-fiction? I'm not sure. There is a dreamy quality to it that rides the fine line between truth and reality. Wish I could find my copy to know how it ends.
crossatlant5's review
4.0
NB is melancholic, curious, bursting with anger and empathy in equal measure. Charlotte Shane has been painfully insightful for a minute now and this collection brings her lyrical, Buddhist-inflected voice to her own experiences as a sex worker (more specifically, a prostitute, as she calls herself). Her perspective and prose are a breath of fresh air.
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