Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: A Novel

Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: A Novel
by Tracy Quan

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Book Summary Information

Author: Tracy Quan
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-22
ISBN: 0609810103
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Book Reviews of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: A Novel

Book Review: A titillating read, with some minor flaws...
Summary: 4 Stars

If you're looking for a light but titillating read, then this is the book for you. It explores the hidden world of callgirls, and isn't afraid use racy dialogue and vocabulary, or explicitly describe the goings-on behind closed doors.

A Quick re-cap of the novel: Nancy is a 30-something callgirl who not only loves her job, but has aspired to be a prostitute since she was 10 (a little strange and far-fetched, but still fun). The book opens with Nancy performing a threesome on a client with her friend Allison, which immediately draws you into her world of sex. Nancy is also recently engaged to a handsome and loving "up-and-comer" in the banking biz who has no idea that his fiance gets paid to have sex. He thinks she's a copy-editor. The book storms through much drama as Nancy struggles with her desire to continue her callgirl exploits, and her desire to marry Matt and become the respectable wife she knows he deserves. She also has serious trouble with Matt's nosy sister, and her friend Allison's irresponsible ways.

A Few Flaws...SPOILER ALERT!

While I feel the book is overall very entertaining, there were a couple things that bothered me. One of them is Nancy's friend Allison. Allison, while her heart may be in the right place, causes trouble and grief for Nancy, and generally becomes an extrememly annoying character.

Also, there was a bit of a problem with proper closure at the end of the book. It felt a little like towards the end the action was moving along pretty well and then suddenly...the book was done. There were a few key plot-points that were never properly explored or explained. Such as, does Matt's sister, Elspeth, know about Nancy's true vocation? Why didn't Nancy ever confront Jason (Elspeth's husband, and her future brother-in-law by marriage) when she discovered he was sneaking around and seeing Allison behind his wife's back? (allegedly she didn't push the subject because she didn't want it to draw attention to her own life as a callgirl, but I feel there still couldn't have been some better closure on the subject). And finally, why wasn't the issue of Nancy's desire to be honest with her fiance Matt ever resolved? I expected her to eventually come clean and tell him about being a callgirl...but it just never happened, even though the idea was toyed with throughout the whole book.

However, the reason I gave this book 4 stars, despite its flaws, is because of it's brazen ability to bring the world of sex to light. In a country that was founded by prudes, we sometimes forget that sex, and the desire to have and enjoy sex is a natural and healthy thing. I'm not advocating prostitution, by any means, but I do want to applaud this books healthy acceptance of sex and desire. Nancy may have some problems, but at least she's very clear on her ideas of sexuality and its place in our world.

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Summary of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: A Novel

Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl is a wonderfully intelligent, sexually frank, rollicking novel that introduces us to Nancy Chan, a turn-of-the-millennium call girl who lives and works on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Nancy is full of contradictory desires; she frequently has to choose between making love and making money. On good days, she gets to do both. Surrounded by devoted, wealthy, and powerful johns, some of whom want more than just sex, and caught between two all-consuming call girl friends who complicate her life, Nancy navigates the tricky currents of the world?s oldest profession. With one foot in the bedrooms of her rich and demanding clients and one in the straight world of her unwitting fiancé, who has started to apartment-hunt and arrange a wedding, Nancy keeps her two worlds from colliding in her inimitable style.

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Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: A Novel