Hustling

I don't even remember how I chanced upon this one but I'm glad that I did. It was written in 1971 about prostitution in America, specifically addressing what life hustling sex for money is like. Sheehy's reporting is an example of real, phronetic social science. The author takes the subjects as they are, looks at what they're actions mean for the rest of us and never lets her own disposition color the work. She is critical and honest, a surprisingly rare feat in books like this. Too often the writers are too sympathetic to the women involved and glamorize the behavior, or they're too high on their moral horse to add anything but judgment and hypocrisy. Anyway, good and worth reading. There are some anecdotes in here about New York City in the 70s that make for good conversation.

HUSTLING, by Gail Sheehy, is a rich and in-depth exposè of the world of prostitution that existed in New York City in the early and mid-seventies. Spanning all levels of the prostitution industry, from street-pros to high-class call-girls, the pimps, johns, the police dept. and even the political end of the spectrum, City Hall, Sheehy weaves a wonderfully detailed account, without the clinical "documentary" approach, of a city and its people being eaten from the inside out. Extremely well researched, with a plethora of interviews, this book introduced and explained a world so far away from my own, yet so intriging, that it remains a favourite of mine to this day. If I could give an example of the "feel" of this book I would instantly recall the motion picture "TAXI DRIVER", by Martin Scorcese, for both mood (dark), setting (street-level, New York City of the 1970's), style (emotional, realistic, gritty), and , of course, subject matter. I highly recommend this outing by an excellent writer, Gail Sheehy.