The Last Harem

by George P. Saunders, Aphrodite Antonia Dorian

The Last Harem is the true-life experience of Aphrodite Antonia Dorian as a harem-girl to the Sultanate of Brunei. Sexual intrigue and romance highlight her adventures, torn between a love for a boyfriend back at home, and a handsome prince in a foreign country, arguably one of the wealthiest men in the world. Rife with conflict, The Last Harem pulls no punches -- Aphrodite literally fights to survive within the harem inner-circle, as the other women plot and conspire against her when she becomes one of the prince's 'favorites.' Her intense desire to love and be loved saves her from many harrowing tragedies and at the end of the day, she returns home more wise than many, and more gifted than most women in many lifetimes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2012

About the author

George P. Saunders occupies his time on Planet Earth in the lovely town of Beverly Hills, California. He is the author of the celebrated crime thriller Gray Area, along with ten other novels in the science fiction, young adult and horror genres, as well as non-fiction humor and satire. He has over 25 films either produced, directed or written and more than a dozen more which he has co-starred in with such notable celebrities as Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin in Hunt For Red October (as George Winston), Joey Travolta, Richard Lynch, C. Thomas Howell and Mickey Rooney. Saunders was the head writer on the reality series for Military Films during the Gulf War, wherein he worked with the Navy Seals and other combined elements of the United States Armed Forces. While not writing, acting or doing other entertainment related 'stuff', Saunders is known to enjoy a fine tequila on occasion, followed by a dry Cabernet.

More about Saunders may be gleaned on my blog at www.GeorgePSaunders.blogspot.com

Reviews

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are so many things I hated about this book, I don't even know where to start. First I have to point out that I am very much a libertarian and being one I am of the belief that consenting adults have the right to do what they wish as long as others are not harmed, so her being a high paid prostitute is not a big deal to me.
However, I very much believe in calling a spade a spade. The author is delusional about what her role and all the girls roles are/were in going to Brunei. You are not a friend of the prince, you are not entertainment for simple karaoke jams, you are not there for your good conversation skills. You are there to meet the sexual needs of the men paying the very high price for you be there. You are a prostitute. The authors complete lack of honesty with herself makes the majority of the book nothing more than a rose colored picture of what she wishes was the truth.
Second, the writing itself is awful and so redundant, superfluous, unnecessary... ( get it, its REDUNDANT!!) that I will be seeing "$22,500 a week" in my nightmares.
Thirdly, and this is just a personal prejudice that I own, I hate stereo-typical Hollywood/Burbank, non native Californians. I was born and raised in Southern California and these plastic, fake, vapid, self-serving, brain dead, money hungry, image is everything, wanna-be actor, waste of space type people is one of the reasons I moved out of there at 21. This book was co authored by two of those very people, so it was just another reason to hate this sad little book.
In conclusion, this book sucked on many levels and is nothing more than a desperate aging wanna-be star to try and suck a little more money out of her time as a prostitute, and maybe get a little attention that she so deeply wanted and never really got from Hollywood.

[s · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is kind of fascinating, but in the way where what's left out is far more compelling than what is included. meaning i figure there is a lot more to this story, and i want to know what it is. i think it was written as a counterpoint to "Some Girls", which is a memoir about the same thing, but (from the sample on my Kindle, at least)appears to be much more critical and well-written. i wanted to know about everything we weren't hearing about, basically. if she glossed over it, i figured it was interesting.

i kind of want to pat the narrator on the head. oh, aphrodite. bless your heart. but please stop talking about the value of the jewelry and describing it, for the love of god. and yes, you can reiterate the weekly salary AGAIN even though you've said it 38294232 times already.

i don't understand why George's thoughts are included at all -- it really took me out of the story, and all the factual information shoved in there along with his feelings seemed totally unnecessary. also, if Aphrodite was really that ignorant that there was sex involved in this whole thing, i'll eat the driver's license in my wallet that proves i was not, in fact, born yesterday. i could care less if she knew or not, because i don't see anything wrong with what she did.

for a narrative about a girl in a harem, this was pretty dull stuff. dull, and very defensive -- honey, it's okay that you made out with a girl at the harem. there was a lot of justification going on, here, and that's not really an interesting read. tell me salacious details, but knock it off with the judging. it's fine if you went there to fuck foreign princes. it's fine if you made out with your roommate because she was hot. obviously, YOU don't think it's fine, Aphrodite, but i'm not sure how that's going to change by publishing a fluffy, rather dull retelling of what to be a lot more interesting of a story.

[Raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book interesting and thought provoking. It is a blunt and open presentation of events, circumstances, and choices that would be completely foreign to most Americans I know.

The story is interesting and mostly unvarnished. I found it engaging. There is some temporal incongruity and repetitions that disrupt the reading experience but overall, I speed skimmed maybe 15% which is low for a nonfiction book for me.

I didn't come away from it feeling compelled to judge Aphrodite's choices for better or worse. I read this as a person's interesting story, not something I was personally invested for forming an opinion. This book is not for everyone. It will hit some in very uncomfortable way. I respect that Aphrodite and George exposed themselves to judgement by sharing this interesting and unique experience.

[Patricia Andrade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe I thought the author would have a deeper more spiritual soul or something silly like that. She knows the value of jewelry and she is obsessed with weekly wages. She likes money, wealth, and shiny things. I thought this could have been more interesting if she had stopped being so defensive. It doesn’t really suit for a memoirist to be defensive with their unseen readers.

[Nai · Rating 1 out of 5]

Redundant writing, bad editing. Couldn't finish. The synopsis was intriguing, but the story was not well told, and the author makes assumptions about relationships between the characters that seem highly unlikely to be 'true-life'.

1 – Couldn’t finish

2 – Finished, but with great difficulty

3 – Liked, but had some issues along the way

4 – Really liked and will readily recommend to friends

5 – Near flawless, among my favorite reads

[Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aphrodite has a wonderful boyfriend, but wants to earn some fast cash so she agrees to go to the Brunei. She is paid quite generously to show up at parties and be pretty. There can be more if she chooses. The story was just okay. She did not become a sexual slave, neither was she held prisoner, and was able to return to the US with a much fatter wallet.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

the story of one woman's life in brunei as a paid companion, and how it impacted her life.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic, bad writing.