Customer Reviews

Secret Diary of a Call Girl

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First off, I'd like to offset other reviewers' claims that this book misleadingly refers to prostitution as a safe and thrilling lifestyle. I think its important to say that this is a unique portrayal of ONE woman's life in sex work. She very clearly states that there are many levels of sex work and the vast majority are not safe, enjoyable, or beneficial in anyway. She obviously enjoys much of her work and simply because her experience does not fit the mold, does not mean she should be silenced.

Secondly, there are sex scenes in the book and they are to some degree explicit. Is this too much? Well considering the nature of the book, I think not. Considering the importance of the job to the book, so much so that it is in the very title and also the importance of her pseudonym, I think its quite understandable that sex should be a key element in the book. Isn't that part of the experience we are so intrigued by when it comes to this particular author?

Also, as one reviewer mentioned the previous relationship and friend-circle is not full of an extraordinary amount of depth. What we need to remember is that this is adapted from the author's blog. For some bloggers, myself included, other people's lives are their own to tell. We just tell what relates to us. I felt that Belle's interaction with her friends and ex-lovers were covered meaningfully and naturally.

This is a diary and by definition it's not the type of writing that will be layered with back story or references. Although meant to be read in the fashion that most blogs are nowadays, it is written with immediacy and often with the intent to be brief. Perhaps some years down the line the author will be interested in adapting it as an autobiography and then she'll decide to add relevant information, a new perspective now that she is removed from it by time, etc., but the very title acknowledges what the book is: a diary.

When it comes to getting what you paid for and what was advertised, you get it in this book.

Beyond that, my own observation is that the author is intelligent, witty, and has a unique and sometimes detached view of sex which is enlightening thing to see in a female writer.

I enjoyed the book. It's not a literary masterpiece, but it is much better than a good amount of popular new fiction.

This was the second memoir of prostitution that I have read (the first being The Scorpion's Sweet Venom), and so far, here is what I've learned:

- The sex scenes will as a rule be explicitly detailed and told with implausible detachment.

- Prostitution will be conveyed as a chic and not an altogether unpleasant profession.

- Flashbacks will abound in pitiful attempts at characterization and a more literary angle.

Belle de Jour was no exception to these rules, but it was a fun if not compelling read. I really enjoyed the author's witty style, even if reading about her friends was utterly boring. By the end of the book, every man in the author's life seemed to merge into one tall-ridiculously-attractive fellow with a proclivity for rough sex and moping over ex-girlfriends.

All in all, I would like to see the genre of prostitution memoirs take a more realistic/gritty turn. But then I have to really ask myself, do I really want to read the tell-all memoir of an Atlanta crack whore? Perhaps publishers choose these high-end prostitute tell-alls for a reason...

Compelled by Showtime's ad campaign for their new series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," I picked up the book (which is based on a real call girl's award-winning blog). While the book was interesting for its (somewhat) candid view of upper-class prostitution, it also kind of fell flat.

The book works in many ways. Each chapter opens with the "ABCs" of a London call girl. These definitions, such as "Z is for Zippers," are quite funny and interesting. The anonymous author also has a knack for finding great humor in her work and interaction with clients.

On the downside, many chapters sound like they belong in a thirteen-year-old's diary. There is way too much time devoted to memories of ex-boyfriends and secret crushes. I wouldn't mind having this information if it were written about with the same attention to detail that the sexual encounters receive. It would also be bearable if the other characters were fleshed out more. Instead, we get letters for names (A1, A2, A3, A4, and N) and virtually nothing else. Why should we care about the author's relationships if she can't describe then in any real way?

If the book were written as a more focused tell-all or if the supporting characters were more fleshed out, it would be highly recommended. It has some funny moments and interesting stories about call girls, but the meaningless babble about wooden characters makes it tedious and less interesting. A good book to skim and read at random.

I really enjoyed the book. I actually read it after I watched the dvd series of the show, and I'm pleased I did. The two were nothing alike.
Though I found both enjoyable, the Showtime show was pretty "vanilla", and kind of fantasized with the character of Belle taking on a somewhat pricky and selective personality. Fun to watch and get lost in, and I imagine more acceptable to the mainstrem, but not very real.
The book was far more accurate on the life and woman who is Belle...and what one would assume a call girls life would be like. She is far more real and interesting and colorful than the showtime version. There is alot more sex, both for money and not for money, more explorative types of sex...same gener and bdsm (which on the show she does once and doesn't like and in the book, she adores!), and there is more drinking and choatic relationships then the well organized ones on the show. Even her parents are more colorful and down-to-earth.
I recommend it for people, women especially, who really like sex, are independent, and enjoy more non-traditional lifestyles.

After watching two seasons of the show I picked this up and was delightfully surprised. The book in fast paced, interesting and very real. It is also different enough from the show in many ways that it was in the same vein, but hardly the same story, I highly recommend!

What I liked about this diary was the light-hearted peak into a young woman's search for love while conducting a very practical profession that just happens to be in the sex trade. There is refreshingly little justification or apology. I would compare this account to what one would expect of the autobiography of a bomb expert. This young lady offers us a chance to watch her diffuse lust - with all the fascinating intricacies and dangers - without boring the reader with moral examinations or ruminations on whether she's self-destructive or mentally ill. As an American, the 'englishness' of the author's style is cute, sexy and irreverent: Christmas=the adoration of mince pies! Belle can be self-deprecating about her private life, her family and her series of dating partners. In this, she seems a lovely example of any young woman trying to figure it all out. And that's the most striking aspect of the story - it's healthy, frank tone, including, as she puts it: "...sex is the water that floats my boat." Who doesn't want to hear the girl-next-door tell us about what it's really like to be a call girl? This little Brit is endearing, and not a bad writer either!

The book is definitely different from the show but not in a bad way. It is raunchy but that really should be expected in a book about a call girl. The diary format of the book made it easy to read and if I needed to put it down for some reason it also made it easy to do that. All in all a good book.

This book is definitely interesting but it is a little 'all over the place'. I understand that the quthor at the time wanted to keep people anonymous but this could have been done without giving them names such as A1 and A2. I greatly appreciated the show over the book.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. Like a reviewer befor me said, some areas just lacked the details needed to make them interesting. I found myself wanting to skip over entries because I was becoming bored with the same basic descriptions of her past boyfriends and such. Overall i'm sure the book could have been worse but it still wasnt as good as I had hoped.

After having read Belle de Jour's blog, I was hoping that the book would primarily be new material. Unfortunately, the bulk of it was pulled directly from the blog with only a few new entries interspersed. Yes, the alphabet piece at the beginning of each chapter was new, but I'm not quite sure that it made the purchase worth it.

Now I'm wondering if the second book will be more of the same.