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The Happy Hooker: My Own Story
How did you first learn about sex? If you grew up in the 1970s, it may have been from a gleefully lusty tour guide named Xaviera Hollander
In the late 1960s -- that era of sexual chaos, when Playboy Clubs and love-ins were competing for national attention -- a beautiful, intelligent young Dutch secretary named Xaviera de Vries moved to New York, grew swiftly tired of her desk job . . . and soon became the most visible and glamorous madam the city had ever seen. As Xaviera Hollander, she published a shockingly candid account of her life behind the brothel door. The Happy Hooker shot straight to the top of the bestseller lists, sold more than fifteen million copies, and made this enterprising young woman an international phenomenon.
Thirty years later, these delightfully explicit tales of the '60s and '70s swingers' scene -- including countless jaw-dropping stories of lesbianism, bondage, fetishism, and more -- remain as titillating as ever, charged with the mix of shrewd observation and uninhibited appetite that made Hollander an irresistible storyteller. The Happy Hooker is a classic: the world's greatest book on the world's oldest profession.
In the late 1960s -- that era of sexual chaos, when Playboy Clubs and love-ins were competing for national attention -- a beautiful, intelligent young Dutch secretary named Xaviera de Vries moved to New York, grew swiftly tired of her desk job . . . and soon became the most visible and glamorous madam the city had ever seen. As Xaviera Hollander, she published a shockingly candid account of her life behind the brothel door. The Happy Hooker shot straight to the top of the bestseller lists, sold more than fifteen million copies, and made this enterprising young woman an international phenomenon.
Thirty years later, these delightfully explicit tales of the '60s and '70s swingers' scene -- including countless jaw-dropping stories of lesbianism, bondage, fetishism, and more -- remain as titillating as ever, charged with the mix of shrewd observation and uninhibited appetite that made Hollander an irresistible storyteller. The Happy Hooker is a classic: the world's greatest book on the world's oldest profession.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
162 people are currently reading
2534 people want to read
About the author
Xaviera Hollander
64 books71 followersFormer prostitute and brothel keeper.
She was born in Indonesia to a Jewish father and a Dutch mother. After world war II she moved to Amsterdam.
She later moved to South Africa and New York city where she became a prostitute
She was born in Indonesia to a Jewish father and a Dutch mother. After world war II she moved to Amsterdam.
She later moved to South Africa and New York city where she became a prostitute
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
July 22, 2008
I was in Amsterdam with a few friends and my Italian boyfriend, we had no place to stay. A young American guy we had met in a bar earlier in the week offered us rooms in a bed in breakfast. We drove to the bed and breakfast, we went inside.
We noticed erotic art on the walls. We noticed erotic books on the shelves.
A portly woman with short brown hair handed us keys and shoved us into hastily made up rooms in the upstairs of her house.
Then, she sold us her book. I had never heard of Xaviera Hollander, I was born in the eighties. We stayed in bed all piled in, five of us reading outloud from this book. We read it outlound in the lines at the airport on the way back to the states(we received quite a few strange looks). What a way to be introduced to this crazy book.
We still get emails from Xaviera Hollander updating us on her life! I don't think I could have thought up a better Amsterdam story in my wildest dreams.
We noticed erotic art on the walls. We noticed erotic books on the shelves.
A portly woman with short brown hair handed us keys and shoved us into hastily made up rooms in the upstairs of her house.
Then, she sold us her book. I had never heard of Xaviera Hollander, I was born in the eighties. We stayed in bed all piled in, five of us reading outloud from this book. We read it outlound in the lines at the airport on the way back to the states(we received quite a few strange looks). What a way to be introduced to this crazy book.
We still get emails from Xaviera Hollander updating us on her life! I don't think I could have thought up a better Amsterdam story in my wildest dreams.
August 23, 2015
No one frolicked around with German shepherds in my copy - and I sure as hell don't feel cheated on.
The Happy Hooker is a trainwreckalicious biography. It's plainly and poorly written, and it should be. An overly polished memoir would've failed to deliver that feeling of authenticity to Xaviera Hollander's story.
If one thing becomes clear in her biography - which describes how Xaviera grew up, took a flight to New York one day to be with a sucky boyfriend, then got a job as an escort to earn a few extra bucks and ultimately managed to become the notorious madam of a highly successful, illegal New York City brothel - it is that Xaviera has a refreshing 'the devil may care' take on life.
Although I was a bit repulsed at times, I was also in awe of Xaviera. Because this woman clearly pulled it off: dealing with police raids, blackmailers, nasty boyfriends and a continuous stream of clients with God knows how many fetishes. Her many anecdotes about the men visiting her brothel are often equally gross and hilariously bizarre.
For example: she recalls how one of her clients asked for a bunch of pretty girls to fulfill his lifelong dream, which was getting peed on. Thus she ordered her girls to put their toilet visits on hold for several hours and promised the one who managed to pee the longest a bonus. So the girls totally peed their hearts out, but in the end a small Puerto Rican girl won the bonus. She had produced a tiny trickle for over 56 seconds.
Turns out she suffered from an urinary tract infection...
He he he.
Errr, so yeah..it's up to you to decide whether you think you're missing out on some trashy fun or not.
The Happy Hooker is a trainwreckalicious biography. It's plainly and poorly written, and it should be. An overly polished memoir would've failed to deliver that feeling of authenticity to Xaviera Hollander's story.
If one thing becomes clear in her biography - which describes how Xaviera grew up, took a flight to New York one day to be with a sucky boyfriend, then got a job as an escort to earn a few extra bucks and ultimately managed to become the notorious madam of a highly successful, illegal New York City brothel - it is that Xaviera has a refreshing 'the devil may care' take on life.
Although I was a bit repulsed at times, I was also in awe of Xaviera. Because this woman clearly pulled it off: dealing with police raids, blackmailers, nasty boyfriends and a continuous stream of clients with God knows how many fetishes. Her many anecdotes about the men visiting her brothel are often equally gross and hilariously bizarre.
For example: she recalls how one of her clients asked for a bunch of pretty girls to fulfill his lifelong dream, which was getting peed on. Thus she ordered her girls to put their toilet visits on hold for several hours and promised the one who managed to pee the longest a bonus. So the girls totally peed their hearts out, but in the end a small Puerto Rican girl won the bonus. She had produced a tiny trickle for over 56 seconds.
Turns out she suffered from an urinary tract infection...
He he he.
Errr, so yeah..it's up to you to decide whether you think you're missing out on some trashy fun or not.
May 10, 2017
I read this when I was 16. I hid it under my mattress and my mom found it, but she didn't take it away from me. It got passed around to so many people that it was falling apart by the time I got it back. I found out about things from that book that I didn't know you could do at the time!
October 16, 2011
Are you tired of Ridley Scott recutting Blade Runner every two years, causing you to have to pay for a super-mega 12-disc Special Edition DVD or Blu-Ray set just to get the original 1982 movie, which is all you want to see in the first place?
Are you sick of George Lucas monkeying around with Star Wars, adding cheesy CGI just because he only had a budget for rubber foam costumes the first time around?
Did it irk you that Steven Spielberg erased the guns out of ET because it was politically correct to do so?
Were you indignant when old films were colorized in puke tones just to pander to people who wouldn't appreciate a classic film anyway?
Does it make you shake your head when you read about prudish editors who expurgated the Bible through the centuries? Or enrage you that moral crusaders of one stripe or another decide that Huck Finn is too racist to be accessible to young readers or that Judy Blume is too explicit or that any kind of book is deemed just too transgressive for some people therefore it must be for all?
Are you, in short, just kind of tired of all the constant changing and editing and rewriting of our cultural history in whatever form? Like when the Bush administration PR people reissued the famous shot of macho flight-jacketed Dubya on the aircraft-carrier deck with the infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him Photoshopped out because--as they knew and hoped that somehow you were too stupid to have remembered--the war was far from over and the mission had failed?
Well, if you are like me--curmudgeon as I am--you are irked, and tired, and indignant about all of that.
Which brings me to The Happy Hooker, penned in 1971 by the former, notorious New York City brothel madam, Xaviera Hollander (and two "co-authors").
Before I get indignant, though, let me state that this book is a classic. A real eye-opener in its day, not just about the workings of a house of prostitution but about all manner of sexual endeavor. Hollander was a textbook nympho, and every page is action-packed with kinky nastiness and tons of wry laughs. It still holds up.
Unbeknowst to me, however, I read the so-called "30th Anniversary Edition," which, on the surface, seemed like a good thing. After all, there is a new, updated epilogue in it, written in 2002 by Hollander in which she gauges the long-term impact of the book and the various ebbs of flows of the politics of morality. It's a nice bonus. Nice until you realize that the stuff that comes before it may not quite be the same stuff that was in the book when it was first published in 1972.
Unfortunately, it is not the same book. And coming to realize that made me feel like the person who gets to page 599 of a 600-page abridgment of The Count of Monte Cristo before realizing that the novel was supposed to be 1100 pages long and I'd just spent several weeks reading the wrong edition.
The reason I know this is because more than one person here on my friends' list on Goodreads mentioned a notorious passage in the book about Hollander's lascivious encounter with a German shepherd. Now, mind you, I DID NOT read this because I had any particular interest in this encounter, but once it was put in my mind I was on the lookout for it, and by the time I'd gotten to the epilogue and realized I hadn't read it anywhere my suspicions were raised of tampering afoot for the sake of salving squeamish PC sensibilities.
Max Varazslo's review on Amazon.com best summarizes the changes that have been affected in the edition I read. I quote him here:
"This "30th Anniversary Edition" actually tones down a lot of the material found in the original. Xaviera's former "fag" friends, whom she sometimes patronizes, are now "gay," for instance, and her encounter with a German shepherd in South Africa, of which she once wrote, "I'd be a moral fraud if I ignored it," is eliminated completely. One chapter, originally entitled "Biff-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am," has been completely rewritten as "Whipped (S)cream," with its seamier elements considerably softened. Almost ten pages of material have been snipped in all, including much of the moralizing the author once did to justify her lifestyle, which, owing to the occupational hazards she describes in detail, she quickly abandoned after her book became a bestseller. Translated into a dozen languages, "The Happy Hooker" may indeed have changed the way the world regards prostitutes and their trade, and maybe even sex in general, but this expurgated edition proves that our present attitudes toward the subject aren't as liberal as they might have been. The book is thus a window on the past, reframed with modern-day sensibilities. If you can find it, read the original first, to gauge for yourself how far we've come in three decades."
I couldn't have said that better myself. Comparing this version of the book to an original version posted online, I located the point on page 37 where the dog passage is missing, and it constitutes 10 paragraphs of excision. It's gross, yes, but not beyond the pale of being *READ about*!
So, I'm basically rating an expurgated edition here, which looks to be about 95-percent faithful to the original. It's still a great read, but not the bill of goods I was expecting. And if it hadn't been for my good GR friends here "shepherding" me--ahem--toward looking for the dog thing, I would not have known enough to investigate what appears to be another case of cultural dishonesty.
Are you sick of George Lucas monkeying around with Star Wars, adding cheesy CGI just because he only had a budget for rubber foam costumes the first time around?
Did it irk you that Steven Spielberg erased the guns out of ET because it was politically correct to do so?
Were you indignant when old films were colorized in puke tones just to pander to people who wouldn't appreciate a classic film anyway?
Does it make you shake your head when you read about prudish editors who expurgated the Bible through the centuries? Or enrage you that moral crusaders of one stripe or another decide that Huck Finn is too racist to be accessible to young readers or that Judy Blume is too explicit or that any kind of book is deemed just too transgressive for some people therefore it must be for all?
Are you, in short, just kind of tired of all the constant changing and editing and rewriting of our cultural history in whatever form? Like when the Bush administration PR people reissued the famous shot of macho flight-jacketed Dubya on the aircraft-carrier deck with the infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him Photoshopped out because--as they knew and hoped that somehow you were too stupid to have remembered--the war was far from over and the mission had failed?
Well, if you are like me--curmudgeon as I am--you are irked, and tired, and indignant about all of that.
Which brings me to The Happy Hooker, penned in 1971 by the former, notorious New York City brothel madam, Xaviera Hollander (and two "co-authors").
Before I get indignant, though, let me state that this book is a classic. A real eye-opener in its day, not just about the workings of a house of prostitution but about all manner of sexual endeavor. Hollander was a textbook nympho, and every page is action-packed with kinky nastiness and tons of wry laughs. It still holds up.
Unbeknowst to me, however, I read the so-called "30th Anniversary Edition," which, on the surface, seemed like a good thing. After all, there is a new, updated epilogue in it, written in 2002 by Hollander in which she gauges the long-term impact of the book and the various ebbs of flows of the politics of morality. It's a nice bonus. Nice until you realize that the stuff that comes before it may not quite be the same stuff that was in the book when it was first published in 1972.
Unfortunately, it is not the same book. And coming to realize that made me feel like the person who gets to page 599 of a 600-page abridgment of The Count of Monte Cristo before realizing that the novel was supposed to be 1100 pages long and I'd just spent several weeks reading the wrong edition.
The reason I know this is because more than one person here on my friends' list on Goodreads mentioned a notorious passage in the book about Hollander's lascivious encounter with a German shepherd. Now, mind you, I DID NOT read this because I had any particular interest in this encounter, but once it was put in my mind I was on the lookout for it, and by the time I'd gotten to the epilogue and realized I hadn't read it anywhere my suspicions were raised of tampering afoot for the sake of salving squeamish PC sensibilities.
Max Varazslo's review on Amazon.com best summarizes the changes that have been affected in the edition I read. I quote him here:
"This "30th Anniversary Edition" actually tones down a lot of the material found in the original. Xaviera's former "fag" friends, whom she sometimes patronizes, are now "gay," for instance, and her encounter with a German shepherd in South Africa, of which she once wrote, "I'd be a moral fraud if I ignored it," is eliminated completely. One chapter, originally entitled "Biff-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am," has been completely rewritten as "Whipped (S)cream," with its seamier elements considerably softened. Almost ten pages of material have been snipped in all, including much of the moralizing the author once did to justify her lifestyle, which, owing to the occupational hazards she describes in detail, she quickly abandoned after her book became a bestseller. Translated into a dozen languages, "The Happy Hooker" may indeed have changed the way the world regards prostitutes and their trade, and maybe even sex in general, but this expurgated edition proves that our present attitudes toward the subject aren't as liberal as they might have been. The book is thus a window on the past, reframed with modern-day sensibilities. If you can find it, read the original first, to gauge for yourself how far we've come in three decades."
I couldn't have said that better myself. Comparing this version of the book to an original version posted online, I located the point on page 37 where the dog passage is missing, and it constitutes 10 paragraphs of excision. It's gross, yes, but not beyond the pale of being *READ about*!
So, I'm basically rating an expurgated edition here, which looks to be about 95-percent faithful to the original. It's still a great read, but not the bill of goods I was expecting. And if it hadn't been for my good GR friends here "shepherding" me--ahem--toward looking for the dog thing, I would not have known enough to investigate what appears to be another case of cultural dishonesty.
January 7, 2008
Here is my question to you, dear reader: are you looking for trash? I mean, seriously serious trash with no redeeming social values but some eye-opening information about other people's sex lives that will make you say, "Get the fuckety fuck out of here. No, they did NOT. With an umbrella??" I guarantee that unless you are Xaviera Hollander or someone likewise employed, something in this book will shock you at least a little (for me, it was the man who wanted to be fed poo, but only off of Delft china. Xaviera objected because Delft china was a product of her native Holland and it's not like there's anything else wrong with that notion....)
Is any of this true? I have no idea. Wikipedia tells me she was a real person, is still alive as of this writing and once recorded a spoken word album called Xaviera! The world is a brilliant, wacky place sometimes.
I'll finish with some advice. I bought this book on a whim at a used book store. About halfway through, I started wondering what the previous owner(s) might have been doing while they handled it. If you spray a book with Lysol, it's never really the same. Perhaps you should buy this new.
Is any of this true? I have no idea. Wikipedia tells me she was a real person, is still alive as of this writing and once recorded a spoken word album called Xaviera! The world is a brilliant, wacky place sometimes.
I'll finish with some advice. I bought this book on a whim at a used book store. About halfway through, I started wondering what the previous owner(s) might have been doing while they handled it. If you spray a book with Lysol, it's never really the same. Perhaps you should buy this new.
December 10, 2007
I was young when I read this one.
I learned that some people get paid for sex.
It took me more years to understand that she got paid again for writing about it.
Cool!
I learned that some people get paid for sex.
It took me more years to understand that she got paid again for writing about it.
Cool!
October 27, 2008
I recently met Xaviera Hollander at the drug store, and not knowing who she was, I complimented her on her scarf. She responded "Would you like to see a fabulous film about my life? I'm Xaviera Hollander, the happy hooker! It's playing just down the road in half an hour." I am usually willing to consider serenipity at work, so I went. And I bought a book, which she signed and I read. Her story is interesting; I didn't know for instance that she and her family had been in a concentration camp in Indonesia when she was a child. Mainly I realized how remarkable she was in espousing sexual freedom in the 70s - and now, in her 60s she persists in being happy about sex in all its forms. A chance meeting led me to read this book, but I was glad I did.
July 30, 2007
Back in my student days it was a genuine eye-opener. Now it'd sound like Cosmo.
February 10, 2017
Between her descriptions of sex with dogs, crooked cops and schoolfriends and her descriptions of acres and acres of shag carpeting, lounges with smoked mirror walls and living room wet bars, one finds themselves asking the essential question, "Is she really happy?" Apparently so. The book ends with one of the most poignant and beautiful passages in the English language that will hopefully inspire active Dutch people everywhere:
"I would like to say that I am proud of the empire I have had. I am sorry the exciting moments of making people happy may be over, thanks to outmoded laws and dishonest maneuvers, but I guess there will always be now opportunities for an ambitious, active Dutch girl to be happy and give pleasure to others."
One can only hope.
"I would like to say that I am proud of the empire I have had. I am sorry the exciting moments of making people happy may be over, thanks to outmoded laws and dishonest maneuvers, but I guess there will always be now opportunities for an ambitious, active Dutch girl to be happy and give pleasure to others."
One can only hope.
September 5, 2008
Amazing stories of this Sensual woman who desired Sex, Sex, and more Sex! Hot stuff...... There is NO WAY I could keep up with all those things that she did!!!!!! Gotta read will have you saying WOW!
July 1, 2009
Really enjoyed this book. Things have stayed very much the same inside the 'underworld' of prostitution, this book could have been written yesterday. Love her style, flows well, applaud her honesty, quite inspirational. In fact must re-read this book.
Want to read
November 19, 2014I mean, yeah, sure, this seems like a terrific idea.
Note: according to several miffed Goodreads reviewers, the anniversary edition of this book has been sanitized, excising among other things a bit where she plays with a German shepherd which I'm sure is as wholesome as it sounds.
Note: according to several miffed Goodreads reviewers, the anniversary edition of this book has been sanitized, excising among other things a bit where she plays with a German shepherd which I'm sure is as wholesome as it sounds.
January 4, 2014
I found a very worn and well-thumbed paperback copy of this book, with yellowed pages and the binding falling to pieces, in a holiday house where I was staying after Christmas. I picked it up just for laughs but found myself devouring the entire book in a day.
The Happy Hooker is a landmark in sex-positive writing. It's still controversial that a woman will enjoy sex – let alone enjoy building a business empire out of having sex for money – without feeling ashamed or degraded. In a culture where prostitutes are still seen as immoral, shameless, lacking in dignity and deserving of abuse, Hollander's frank and blasé attitude to sex with both men and women still carries a frisson.
I enjoyed Hollander's rise from an emotionally naive, bisexual secretary who enjoys 'fun times' to a powerful New York madam in control of every aspect of her business. I liked the logistical aspects of the book best – the way she calculates how many dudes she needs to fuck per day to earn a living in Puerto Rico, and the way she arranges her brothel, organises her employees, maintains detailed client records and sets up an elaborate system of in-kind support and kickbacks. I also liked her awareness of her sexual power, and her pride in her skills.
The descriptions of bodies and sex acts are still quite explicit, and I imagine that in 1972 this would have been extraordinary in such a mainstream publication. Australia's censorship restrictions were loosened with the creation of the R rating in 1971. I imagine that The Happy Hooker would have been a formative reading experience for adolescents who'd previously passed around furtive copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover or devoured the lurid sexploits in pulp novels.
Of course, it's no literary classic. It's totally ghostwritten. Much of the atmosphere and voice was provided by Robin Moore, who pioneered a blockbuster blend of reportage and fiction in his books The Green Berets: The Amazing Story of the U. S. Army's Elite Special Forces Unit and The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy . But most of the actual writing of the book was done by Yvonne Dunleavy.
In many ways, it's not a very sophisticated book. Its racial essentialism is especially dated and problematic. Hollander, whose father was a Dutch Jewish doctor, grew up in what's now Indonesia, and explains that she spent her first three years in a WWII internment camp. When she lives in South Africa, there's a disturbing lack of attention paid to the privileges she enjoys under apartheid and the black servants who enable her pampered, hedonistic colonial life. Later, she's most attracted to Jewish men – without ever really exploring why – and reluctant to fuck African-Americans.
There's an especially cringeworthy section in which Xaviera expounds on the anatomy and sexual preferences of men of various races and nationalities. The most racist was possibly the "Orientals" in which Xaviera tells an anecdote about a Japanese man who wears a fake penis because his own is so small ("Well, rots of ruck," she wishes him as he leaves), and explains that she fucks the staff of the local Chinese restaurant in exchange for free food ("Noodles for doodles").
Some other bits of the book were so corny I had to vent my embarrassment by reading them out loud to my friends, who probably had no interest in hearing them and thought I was a complete creep. There's a terrible anecdote in which a horny, frustrated Xaviera has sex with an alsatian. Well, she only sort of frots the dog while jerking it off, but I was still disturbed by that, and the following scene in which a small boy gropes Xaviera's boob and gets a mini hard-on. Maybe I am vanilla, but I preferred the encounters between consenting adults.
Not that I found this book really titillating. It's most interesting more as a historical artefact: a time capsule of prostitution and sexual attitudes in late '60s America.
The Happy Hooker is a landmark in sex-positive writing. It's still controversial that a woman will enjoy sex – let alone enjoy building a business empire out of having sex for money – without feeling ashamed or degraded. In a culture where prostitutes are still seen as immoral, shameless, lacking in dignity and deserving of abuse, Hollander's frank and blasé attitude to sex with both men and women still carries a frisson.
I enjoyed Hollander's rise from an emotionally naive, bisexual secretary who enjoys 'fun times' to a powerful New York madam in control of every aspect of her business. I liked the logistical aspects of the book best – the way she calculates how many dudes she needs to fuck per day to earn a living in Puerto Rico, and the way she arranges her brothel, organises her employees, maintains detailed client records and sets up an elaborate system of in-kind support and kickbacks. I also liked her awareness of her sexual power, and her pride in her skills.
The descriptions of bodies and sex acts are still quite explicit, and I imagine that in 1972 this would have been extraordinary in such a mainstream publication. Australia's censorship restrictions were loosened with the creation of the R rating in 1971. I imagine that The Happy Hooker would have been a formative reading experience for adolescents who'd previously passed around furtive copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover or devoured the lurid sexploits in pulp novels.
Of course, it's no literary classic. It's totally ghostwritten. Much of the atmosphere and voice was provided by Robin Moore, who pioneered a blockbuster blend of reportage and fiction in his books The Green Berets: The Amazing Story of the U. S. Army's Elite Special Forces Unit and The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy . But most of the actual writing of the book was done by Yvonne Dunleavy.
In many ways, it's not a very sophisticated book. Its racial essentialism is especially dated and problematic. Hollander, whose father was a Dutch Jewish doctor, grew up in what's now Indonesia, and explains that she spent her first three years in a WWII internment camp. When she lives in South Africa, there's a disturbing lack of attention paid to the privileges she enjoys under apartheid and the black servants who enable her pampered, hedonistic colonial life. Later, she's most attracted to Jewish men – without ever really exploring why – and reluctant to fuck African-Americans.
There's an especially cringeworthy section in which Xaviera expounds on the anatomy and sexual preferences of men of various races and nationalities. The most racist was possibly the "Orientals" in which Xaviera tells an anecdote about a Japanese man who wears a fake penis because his own is so small ("Well, rots of ruck," she wishes him as he leaves), and explains that she fucks the staff of the local Chinese restaurant in exchange for free food ("Noodles for doodles").
Some other bits of the book were so corny I had to vent my embarrassment by reading them out loud to my friends, who probably had no interest in hearing them and thought I was a complete creep. There's a terrible anecdote in which a horny, frustrated Xaviera has sex with an alsatian. Well, she only sort of frots the dog while jerking it off, but I was still disturbed by that, and the following scene in which a small boy gropes Xaviera's boob and gets a mini hard-on. Maybe I am vanilla, but I preferred the encounters between consenting adults.
Not that I found this book really titillating. It's most interesting more as a historical artefact: a time capsule of prostitution and sexual attitudes in late '60s America.
March 31, 2008
All I remember is the scene in which she gives the German shepherd a tugjob. Arf arf!
June 21, 2021
Racist and boring.
September 22, 2024
I was told this was a controversial book when it was released in 1971. It's the candid and provocative memoir of a "high-class New York prostitute," and I understand how it may have been considered a scandalous read at the time. Both interesting and gross (that's not a typo for "engrossing;" I meant to write "gross"), if anything, my impression is that the author wanted and tried to relay a story more about personal empowerment.
Read
April 19, 2010I found this book in my attic when I was around the age of 12. I remember secretly reading it whenever I had some alone time lol. I threw it out mainly out of guilt! I have thought about that book occasionally over the years, and I just ordered it on line tonight.
June 2, 2008
Let me first say that if you see my list of reviewed books, you see that I love biographies of many different types of people. That being said, I was at an estate sale and picked up a bunch of old biographies (this was one of them).
I thought this book would be more about a woman who makes bad decisions, learns from them, changes, and makes the world a better place. Not so much. Xaviera is proud of her sexual past as a prostitute and a famous Madam in New York during the 1960s-70s and to this day believes that prostitution should be legalized.
I also had figured that the topics of sex that she would refer to would be double entendres and euphemisms. Once again, not so much. She was very, overly the top explicit and crystal clear of everything involving her chosen profession. I appreciate her honesty, but it was too much. In fact, I'm not surprised that this book is not banned off of some shelves. I don't mind frankness, but man, I know to steer away from any more autobiographical books on, about, or even suggesting hookers or anyone near their trade.
I thought this book would be more about a woman who makes bad decisions, learns from them, changes, and makes the world a better place. Not so much. Xaviera is proud of her sexual past as a prostitute and a famous Madam in New York during the 1960s-70s and to this day believes that prostitution should be legalized.
I also had figured that the topics of sex that she would refer to would be double entendres and euphemisms. Once again, not so much. She was very, overly the top explicit and crystal clear of everything involving her chosen profession. I appreciate her honesty, but it was too much. In fact, I'm not surprised that this book is not banned off of some shelves. I don't mind frankness, but man, I know to steer away from any more autobiographical books on, about, or even suggesting hookers or anyone near their trade.
November 26, 2016
In het begin vond ik het boek wel interessant, omdat de schrijfster veel vertelde over haar leven. Op een gegeven moment wordt het boek wat feitelijker. Dan gaat het vooral over hoe het er aan toe gaat in een bordeel. Zelf is ze eigenaresse geweest van een aantal bordelen. Zo af en toe vertelt ze nog wel wat over zichzelf, maar het blijft toch wat aan de oppervlakte. Toen dit boek uitkwam, was ik nog niet eens geboren, dus ik heb er dan ook niet veel over meegekregen. Als je geïnteresseerd bent in dit onderwerp is het wel een aanrader. Het boek leest vlot en heb je dan ook vrij snel uit.
June 15, 2018
Yeah you kinda can't go ten pages early on reading this without having to walk away and cool yourself down. But it's a long book! She covers a lot of ground here, and it's interesting trying to translate 7o's prices into todays money.
Gosh I wish I'd read this sooner. I would have dodged some shitty relationships because of it!
I don't know how much R. Moore and Y. Dunleavy had a hand in cultivating Xaviera's voice for the page, but I loved it. Altho' you know X's downfall is due to her workaholic nature (she can't turn a client down) this volume is warm and provocative and intense!
Gosh I wish I'd read this sooner. I would have dodged some shitty relationships because of it!
I don't know how much R. Moore and Y. Dunleavy had a hand in cultivating Xaviera's voice for the page, but I loved it. Altho' you know X's downfall is due to her workaholic nature (she can't turn a client down) this volume is warm and provocative and intense!
February 22, 2019
I guess I read this whole book when I was a teenager. When I took Criminology I thought about it when we read about "victimless crimes". I felt that prostitution should be legalized so then the police could focus on real crime. Then my friend and I read about The Green River killer which put things in a different light. She was unable to finish reading it as its so terrible.
The date I read this is a guess.
The date I read this is a guess.
January 29, 2008
I read this in 1972 when it first came out and remember liking it a lot. Today I saw it on someone's page and had to laugh, the title has always made me laugh. It would be fun to read again and see how mild it is by today's standard; in 1972 it was considered pretty raunchy. Kind of like when I re-read "Valley of the Dolls" about five years ago--boy have things changed.
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November 5, 2011I read this book when I was about 14 or 15. Unbelievable! First time I'd heard of the mile high club and her jacking a dog off at the pool, very freaky. I won't say this about any other book, but I was too young for this book. I hadn't even had sex yet and I'm learning of all this strange stuff.
May 28, 2012
Choppy as Hell and all over the place, but if you like reading about sexcapades, she delivers and then some - makes it sound delightful to not only be a hooker but a high powered madam at that! Heidi, eat your heart out!
February 22, 2008
You really have to have an open mind if reading this book. Some chapters are disturbing and perverse, but in all an good read.
August 5, 2009
I seem to remember an event with a dog!
May 29, 2012
Eens iets anders. Graag gelezen en eraan denken doet me nog steeds glimlachen
August 20, 2012
I picked this up at a library used book sale in small-town Franklin PA. This book is crazy. And crazy interesting too. I kind of felt dirty when reading it though but I don't regret it.
October 28, 2015
You start with curiosity, continue with an education of the sociology of the sex trade and end with a brief memory of an outdated story.
July 3, 2020
I found myself disgusted and intrigued, I'm not sure if this is a real story but if it is, yuck!
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