 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Callgirl
By Jeannette Angell
Schwartz Publishing $29.95
 Predictably
linked with bestsellers like The Bride Stripped Bare and 'tell-all' books by adventurers
in the worlds of prostitution or promiscuity, this debut by Jeannette Angell,
a 30-something Boston lecturer, is in a different literary league.
Dr Angell was living in a toxic relationship with a man who was working his
way through her money. Giving him the flick, she decided to face her financial
reality, wondering why it was acceptable to have sex with a bar pickup but not
to do so for money.
She circled an escort agency ad and gave them a call. That same night she found
herself scribbling 'Bruce' and a phone number on the back of an envelope and preparing
'Tia' for her first assignment.
So began a double life of lecturing to students - one unit was 'The History
and Sociology of Prostitution' - and catering to clients of the agency, most of
them reliable regulars, whatever their peccadillos.
'In this profession, one encounters a range of sexual tastes and fantasies
that one probably wouldn't experience first-hand if one had fewer partners. Partly,
I think, it's because when the encounter is professional rather than personal,
a client may feel freer to express the fantasies that may not be considered mainstream.
'Here, it's safe. A callgirl, after all, isn't going to be shocked or disturbed
by odd behaviour... If anything, she's going to tell you how exciting you are."
Explaining the industry, she writes, "What we do as prostitutes... does
not constitute sex in our minds. The callgirl is catering completely to the client's
needs on a very one-way street. She gets about as much excitement out of a call
as she does out of going to the supermarket.
'I often mentally composed to-do lists while moaning in apparent rapture, a
little multi-tasking to help the time pass more quickly. I have faked more orgasms
that I can count. Sorry, but that simply isn't sex.'
Dr Angell finally left the game after being called to a ritzy hotel and realising
she had been set up by police. Aware that 'many women are not in this profession
because they hold doctorates and need to pay off student loans' she adds as a
footnote, 'Please don't be so quick to call us hookers, to dismiss us, to judge
us. We could be your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your daughter. Even
your college professor... Statistically, we already are.'
- Books reviewed are available at Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore.
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