remember picking this up when it first came out because it seemed so racy and instead it was kind of a holy shit adventure story, only real.
The first thing that comes to mind is "Is this true" A harem in Brunei circaseems to work, but the email capability on the second trip might not.
The second trip has no date, but presumably took place beforewhen only institutions were part of the internet prototype, the NREN, All else rings true, so if a super geek did set up a form of email, I expect we can Jillian Lauren at her word.
She covers a lot of ground in this once over lightly story,
I read the book quickly, wedging it in between others, While this is not the sort of book that gets literary recognition, it touches on many substantive issues,
The first is Jillian's home life, The glimpses we have of her adoptive father show that he is not fit for this role, Her adoptive mother apparently concurred and, with her permission, Jillian moved out at age, Her also adopted brother retreated to what might be described as a sexist spirituality, It is not surprising that at ageJillian becomes a sex worker,
While she is not academically oriented, Jillian has a good intellect to add to her street smarts, She has produced a book with scope beyond a report of events, Her life is interesting, and this is a once over lightly,
There is a full length book begging to be written on what is sketched here on Jillian's life as a sex worker.
She gives glimpses of its marketing, how she relates to her clients and others in her "business" and how one lives a parallel life complete with a job and a boyfriend.
She doesn't mention, but I'd like to know the aftermath: how a former sex worker navigates the inlaws, the neighbors and eventually other parents of her children's friends.
The harem story, the heart of this book, could also use bigger treatment on its own, Jillian spots the social dynamics of the women, but what of the men What is it about the prince that makes him go to these lengths to have these "parties" that seem like an inane use of time Do these men have any real relationships, if not with the women in the harem, the women in their families, business associates or each other The harem is characterized by boredom, excess, personal jealousies and being called at a moments notice to be on display.
This book is a real page turner, It piqued my curiosity and left me wanting more, I saw this author on The View promoting this book, I immediately thoughtthings:I am about to rewrite a story that is set in a modernday harem and this would be good for research andhere is another person who got a publishing contract not because she can write, but because she happened to have a good story which in light of the recent Oprah book club memoir debacles may or may not be true.
Amid the depressing thoughts that I would perhaps have to join a harem to get a NY publishing contract, I ordered the book immediately.
Again, I was proved wrong, This woman was no sham, she can really write, It is later revealed in the text why, To keep her sanity while in this harem she would write, First a journal, later short stories, then later her memoir,
This book is very thoughtprovoking, the main question being how in the world does a girl who grew up in New Jersey end up in a Princes harem in this day and age The answer soon follows in this passage.
Besides the money, jewels, nightly parties, freeflowing champagne and gourmet food, designer clothes, lush accommodations and free international travel, there was this
begin quote
Sometimes I fell prey to fantasies of becoming a princess.
It seemed so strange that it had entered my orbit of possibilities, What Disneybrained American girl hadnt lain in bed and known deep in her heart that she was worthy of being woken from an evil spell by the kiss of a prince That she would open her eyes and, due to no effort of her own, find that she had been saved Who wouldnt consider attempting to grab that gold ring, that diamond crown from Some Girls page
The more I thought about it, the more I read, the more I realized that this modern harem was not such a phenomenon after all.
I had visions of Hugh Hefners mansion teeming with girlfriends and Playmates at nightly parties, Of ABCs The Bachelor wherewomen will claw each others eyes out for the chance to be with a man who yesterday was a complete stranger to them.
How did Lauren, an NYU student/dropout, end up there A struggling actress from an abusive family she went from stripping, to being an escort, to the harem within about a year when she wasand struggling to pay to live in NYC while waiting for her big acting break.
My impression, besides the realization that the Playboy mansion and The Bachelor were both very haremlike, was that being in a harem was far less exciting than I had imagined.
The girls wore their normal clothing, not seethru I Dream of Jeannie outfits, No one made them perform the “Dance of the Seven Veils”, Instead they disco danced. Even though this was the earlys and disco was long dead, apparently the Sultan of Brunais prince brother still liked it and he always got what he wanted.
There was no training for the girls on how to be a sexual expert, In fact, there was hardly any sex at all, Understandably. There wasprince withwives, andgirls, Hard to get to them all for any mortal man, even a prince, Some girls had sex with him once then were sent home after theirweek stint, Others became a favorite and stayed for a year, not because they were particularly good at sex, but because they added to the drama which entertained the prince, much like the crazy girls on The Bachelor always seem to hang around for a long time because they are good entertainment.
For the Disneyfied little girl in all of us Yes, the prince did eventually propose to a harem girl since he was allowed legally to takewives, and his first wife had already provided suitable heirs.
The joke was on him, The harem girl of his dreams took the money and jewels and disappeared, never to be heard from
again, She wasnt an American, apparently Disney doesnt reach Thailand and being Princessdidnt appeal to her, I'll refer to an update I made when finishing this:
"Varying degrees of disinterested while reading this, At times yawning, whyamIreadingandmoreimportantlywhatamIreading. Then thinking, this might've been interesting, but the complete lack of reflection from the author makes this a long list of things she did in her late teens.
Unimpressed by the writing too, weird analogies to jilt the prose, "
While I appreciate that this book never felt like it wanted to shock simply for the fun of it, it's devoid of emotion in the prose.
The author makes few reflections on how she feels about it now, after it happened, When reading biograpgies, I read it with that hope that the author will comment on how she/he feels now, Lauren's writing is full of strange analogies that pulls the reader out of the story, and she doesn't attach any emotion to the story.
In the end, the result was me wondering what the point was, which is rarely a good feeling to leave the reader with, This is a quick read that is not earth shattering but it interesting in a bit of a National Enquirer way, Ignore the dime store cover,
I suppose it depends what expectation you bring to the book how you feel about it, If you want to know the inner workings of a harem or juicy sex stories I think you may well be disappointed, If instead you read it for the portrait of the roots of troubled young people it's quite a road map,
Take an adopted daughter, throw her into an upper middle class Jewish New Jersey family, with a rageaholic father, an adopted brother with mental health issues, add a liberal pinch of sexual abuse at summer camp, and you have the makings of a young woman who would run away at, drop out of NYU, and a few years later leave the world of escorting to travel to Brunei's warped royalty.
Her mantra is "what would Patti Smith do" She was way into being the punk youth and you can only imagine her adopted parent's frustration trying to tame this wild child.
The writing is WAY better than I would have expected, the last part of the book needed to be better edited and one gets the sense she lost her mojo and the presses were running or perhaps the editor if there was one tired of the process.
Essentially it is more the story of a young woman who really got her compass spun and has to live with these early life choices.
I got a real huge chuckle when she thought that getting major body tattoos was the answer to rebuilding her already scarred life you swiftly gain a sense of how messed up her thinking was.
Read as JUST a story of adoption and the deep scars this early abandonment can leave on some adults is profound, The fact that she adopted a son from Ethiopia made all the caution lights go off in my mind, She had such a broken childhood and early adulthood, with rather terrible modeling for what a family life should be like I can't imagine her bringing that forth in with her own children.
I hate to think how that will play out in her son's life, She tries to describe her life as a mom, you know the one with huge tattoos who brings the cookies, as if this is normal or that she is now well adjusted and ready for the task of "bringing up baby.
" I have deep doubts this was a healthy step for mother or son but she is a clever wordsmith with a colorful past, .