Sherry F. (sherryfair) reviewed on 9/18/2005 + 55 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

This debut novel about a girl paying her way through college working as a call girl has got a first-person narrator who starts out sounding like a female Holden Caulfield, except that she's sadder and more numbed-out. What I liked best about this book was its depiction of a wised-up, privileged Manhattan girlhood and the little vignettes of trying to get by in the city. (The little riff on how no one ever buys a futon "new" is wonderful.) It's one of those bleak books, where the author's near a breakdown. And don't expect it to be really sexy. It's more like like this, during a climactic, emotionally charged sex scene ("And we did it, and I almost sort of came.") The call girl's life isn't fun and this book strips the glamour from it. Bennington won't kiss her clients, is counting how much money she'll make, to get through it, and looks at the clock, like the prostitute Bree played by Jane Fonda in "Klute." There's a hint of redemption at the end. And a lot of wit through the book. Otherwise, a dark, often bleak read.

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