Callgirl: Confessions of an Ivy League Lady of Pleasure

I am a former call girl, as well as an academic. Many of my own experiences could be lifted from the pages of this well-written, insightful book. As the author repeatedly states, her experience is her own, and within the sex industry there are many variations of similar stories. The only ones who can possibly doubt Ms. Angell's veracity are those who have never been similarly employed. Such views should frankly be discounted as the ramblings of those who would supress the empowerment of women or are envious that she and others dared to seize their own personal power and possibly live out a fantasy -- all in the face of a falsely moralistic society. What makes this book so distinctive and important to the body of literature dealing with prostitution is that with the author's academic background (particularly with her anthropology emphasis)she is able to articulate her call girl experience by way of critical thinking and a thorough understanding of human nature, and by doing so hopefully enlightens the uninformed (which one must admit is the overwhelming majority)to the fact that by FAR most call girls and many other sex workers do NOT fit the stereotypical mold. My own experience proves to me that while Ms. Angell's book is exceptional, she is not merely "lucky" to have worked in the business, prospered, survived, AND prevailed -- unscathed. She is actually fairly typical. There are MANY women who have done and will continue to do the same. Hopefully more of them will tell their stories as well. As a former callgirl, I highly recommend this book to all who are curious about the profession and would like to read an accurate, informative, and entertaining account.

The "whore with a heart of gold" is a literary staple; such beings may be rare in real life, but undoubtedly much more rare is the callgirl with a Ph.D. and college teaching assignments. A woman with that combination would be worth reading about, and in _Callgirl_ (The Permanent Press) Jeannette Angell introduces us to one: herself. Her book is a chatty, extremely readable account of her three years in prostitution. She is careful to make sure that readers know that this is a memoir, and her story, and not generalizable to the story or the plight of anyone else. Angell made an informed choice to enter the profession, and an informed choice to leave it, and had the luxury of choice in both situations, as many women do not have. She has plenty of stories to tell, and is unsparingly critical of herself at times, so her book is funny, raunchy, and sad page by page, but engrossing throughout. Angell finished her Ph.D. in social anthropology in 1995, and while waiting for a position of tenure, she took a series of positions as lecturer. She was just barely getting by, and then suffered an emotional and financial disaster: her boyfriend not only dumped her but emptied her checking account before doing so. She needed money just to get by from month to month, more than her limited lecturing could get her. She signed on for a good one, paying $140 an hour, with $60 going to management. Angell liked sex, she liked being around people, and she really needed the money. Any ethical dilemmas over the job lessened when she thought that in her sphere, having casual sex with a man from a singles bar was acceptable but sex as a business proposition wasn't. Which is really less ethical? She forces the reader to examine plenty of ethical issues. She was expecting a lot of kink initially, but "What I got instead was the sort of unmemorable sex that invariably characterizes first encounters." Clumsy and awkward. As she reflects, "It happens in real life all the time." There was a scary encounter with a cop, and although "Most of the fetishes and unusual activities that I encountered were fairly benign, essentially harmless..." a couple of them described here are chilling, though; an argument could be made that prostitutes are providing a larger social function in keeping such activities within the pay-for-play realm. She left the business for reasons she can't be sure of, but it had given her financial security, and a chance to have her desirability confirmed "just at the point in my life when Madison Avenue was telling me that I was over the hill." She admits that she was lucky; Peach cared about her workers. Even when Angell dipped into cocaine, she was lucky enough not to have whatever it is that makes people addicted. She writes full time now and has a husband and children. Her husband had some difficulty initially accepting her past. Angell has written to dispel misconceptions regarding prostitution, but she knows that her satisfactory

The author has a great "voice," one that starts where the reader is, knows what most readers are probably thinking, and moves us to a more nuanced view of the callgirl experience. That skill is similar to what probably made her a good teacher as well as sex worker.

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.

"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.