As I see It...

Callgirl – Jeanette Angell

I collect and voraciously read books about, and by, prostitutes/prostitution, strippers/exotic/nude dancers. Dominitrixes, phone sex, etc; or, what has become collectively known as Sex Work. Not all have been stellar, most have not provided me with anything I didn't already know and/or experienced, and some have been down right disappointing.

Callgirl, when I first started it, fell within the middle range; not exactly profound, but with enough amusing anecdotes and inner reflection to keep me interested. The argument that Sex Work is no different than any other profession is not a new one, nor is the revelation that most men seek out the Sex Worker more for companionship and acceptance than the actual sex. As such, this book is not what I would consider a fascinating read, as in something I just can't put down until I reach the back cover, so I have been reading it in spurts, and was about half way through when I saw the author on Oprah's After the Show.

Oprah did her standard preface to the interview, outlining Ms. Angell's education, background, and the tragic circumstances behind her decision to pursue a side career as an ‘escort', finishing up, of course, with a plug for her (Ms. Angell's) book. Then the interview started. Ms. Angell, I felt, did not carry herself well. Perhaps she was nervous, but her incessant and overblown laughter really grated on me, giving more the impression of a silly schoolgirl at her first slumber party than a confidant professional. About halfway through the interview Oprah dropped a bomb, that Ms. Angell's educational and (straight) employment claims did not pan out with her (Oprah's) researchers. Then Ms. Angell stopped laughing. An unsmiling Oprah asked why she lied. It took several minutes to get the answer, as Ms. Angell hems and haws and blathers in unfinished sentences about who knows what before finally admitting that in reality she was a high school french teacher, not a college professor as noted in the book.

This is what the book jacket claims about Jeanette Angell:

-–She lectured and gave courses and workshops in sociology, history, religion, and anthropology at some of the most prestigious universities in America and England, including Harvard, MIT, and the London School of Economics.--

Ms. Angell went on to explain that when she initially wrote the book it was a novel, a fictionalized version of her experiences working as an escort, hence, she was not really writing about herself, just retelling her story through a fictionalized character, but her publishers suggested that the book would do better if she presented it as a true life story, so she changed it accordingly, but left in her altered biography. She also claimed that she retained the altered version to protect the identities and reputations of innocent parties. Upon further questioning by Oprah–actually, it was Oprah repeating the same statement of "You did this to make yourself look better." Over and over–Ms. Angell finally admitted that, yes, she kept the fictionalized elements in the book to make her look better.

This admission has seriously changed not only my opinion of Ms. Angell, but my opinion of the book. While the author maintains that aside from her fudging on her day job, everything else (in the book) is absolutely true. Sorry, in my opinion she sacrificed her credibility in claiming an employment upgrade. And if her motives were truly about protecting the innocent then she should have been up front about her distortion of the facts; disclaimers are common in cases of biographers who don't wish to or are unable to reveal the identities of innocent parties. In not providing a few sentences in the preface, informing readers that some details, people, places, things have been altered for whatever (supposedly) protective reasons, she has sacrificed the integrity of the entire work. Maybe she is telling the truth, but if she is less than truthful about the small stuff–and, in actuality, lying about your education and job is small potatoes in comparison to the main subject of life as an escort–then how can I trust her providing the truth about the big issues? In addition, in the book she goes into heavy detail about the subject(s) of her lectures, her students and the staff at the prestigious university she was, again, supposedly, working at, when in actuality she was working as a high school french teacher, so there is seriously more ‘fictionalizing' going on than just a resume. I now seriously question everything; everything is suspect.

So, I feel decidedly cheated; like a victim of the old Bait and Switch Game. The main selling point of this book is that it is supposed to be autobiographical, take that away and all you have is a so so, run of the mill novel about being an escort.