The Happy Hooker: My Own Story
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Edition: 30th Anniversary ed
- Author: Xaviera Hollander
- Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
- Release Date: June 2002
- ISBN-10: 0060014164
- ISBN-13: 9780060014162
- List Price: $13.99
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryHow did you first learn about sex? If you grew up in the 1970s, it may have been from a gleefully lusty tour guide named Xaviera Hollander In the late 1960s -- that era of sexual chaos, when Playboy Clubs and love-ins were competing for national attention -- a beautiful, intelligent young Dutch secretary named Xaviera de Vries moved to New York, grew swiftly tired of her desk job . . . and soon became the most visible and glamorous madam the city had ever seen. As Xaviera Hollander, she published a shockingly candid account of her life behind the brothel door. The Happy Hooker shot straight to the top of the bestseller lists, sold more than fifteen million copies, and made this enterprising young woman an international phenomenon. Thirty years later, these delightfully explicit tales of the '60s and '70s swingers' scene -- including countless jaw-dropping stories of lesbianism, bondage, fetishism, and more -- remain as titillating as ever, charged with the mix of shrewd observation and uninhibited appetite that made Hollander an irresistible storyteller. The Happy Hooker is a classic: the world's greatest book on the world's oldest profession. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
She Sure Seems Happy To Me!
Rating:
Growing up, I would sometimes sneak peeks at my older brother's Penthouse magazines. Yeah, like any other boy, I know. One thing that struck me, even at such a young, tender and (becoming less) innocent (by the day) age was the Call Me Madam column. I mean, I had pictures - good, professional pictures - right in front of me. And yet I just couldn't help but read Xaviera Hollander's columns. Every time I struggled with myself - who wants to read words when I can just check out the fleshfest? Every time I lost the struggle, with my eyes returning to those lips at the column's heading. Man, those pages were great.
No surprise I picked up Hollander's THE HAPPY HOOKER and devoured it. Extremely entertaining, Hollander takes us through her whole sexual history, and what a history it is. After discovering sex, she just had to share the pleasure with everyone she met! The escapades in South Africa, teaching half the boys on a vacation island the ropes, experimenting with girls, the woman's whole life was a preparation for entering, and conquering, the world's oldest profession.
One thing that makes THE HAPPY HOOKER so fun is that Xaviera (may I call you by your first name, please) herself is having such a blast. So many books by those in the sex biz revolve around their pathologies, emotional traumas and daddy issues. That Xaviera did it, had a blast, and tells everyone around what a good time all that bonking really was really makes this book the classic. Give it to the sex grouches in your life and tell them to lighten up.
HOOKED ON SEX AND... LITERARY SEXCESS!
Rating: 
Anyone who can sell well over 15 million copies of their book, must have something going for them. In Xaviera Hollander's case it's SEX! SEX! SEX!
That subject always seems to sell, but what makes THE HAPPY HOOKER such a sinful delight, is just how much she enjoyed her work as the world's most famous madam and ever active prostitute. As so thoroughly and often clinically described, she really knows how to turn on both men and women and even both at the same time. And because of that she was bound to attract the attention of the not so understanding competition and the police.
In 1960's New York, police corruption was rampant to say the least, Xaviera's co-author Robin Moore certainly knows that subject from having written THE FRENCH CONNECTION. I imagine he helped with that side of the book whilst MISTRESS Hollander concentrated on what she knows best. Her customer's tales and fetishes, their needs and demands, may not be everyone's cup of tea, but theres plenty on offer here for any reader whether at bedtime or on that break from work. Numerous studies show prostitution should be fully legal, controlled and regarded as any other "service" industry. Of course we're a long way from that happening. But pornography took a while to be fully accepted and look how well thats done, specially on wall street. Don't forget illegal gambling, off-track betting and the numbers racket and interest only loans becoming legit as well.
Where would the everso righteous politicians be without the sex for sale industry. Xaviera's financial climax came in writing this book,not from running her brothel which at best had a hard job breaking even, what with all the police raids, lawyer exspenses, payoffs and bad debts she had to contend with in her business. As she saids and then there are the clothes`for the "sissy boys", the whips and chains, condoms, bed laundering and all that lubricant. With all that in mind, how how many of us can truely say we enjoy what we do? THE HAPPY HOOKER is both horny and honest about what she once did.
A genuine auto biography
Rating:
Perhaps this is my second time to read it after more than 15 years.It has always impressed me.and i wonder how how a human being could express this level of honesty to tell the most private life which most of us are ashamed even to think about telling. I feel very few tell such story and is quite natural to be like her acording Freud'view.More over it is written in splendid literary flow and i really appreciate her for the top level work she produced for the reader.
Trashy but Readable
Rating:
I read this book at a friend's house in the 1970's - so many of us high school buddies grabbed it off his bookshelf that he barely noticed. There's even an autobiography interspersed between the pages of gratuitous sex, as Ms. Hollander describes her upbringing in Holland, and her life as a prostitute and madam in New York City. Then, ofcourse, comes more descriptions of her escapades with men, women, couples, etc., in those days before most people worried about safety. This book may be less stunning in today's era of DVD and cyber-porn, but that doesn't exactly elevate it to literature. Still, it's readable style helped sell 15 million copies, leading one to surmise that trashy books have an erotic effect on more men and women than will admit it.
I could not put this book down!
Rating:
This book is a sexy classic. As a sex worker in New York, I found this book to be truthful and entertaining at the same time (although dated in many respects). You will find yourself liking her because she never feels sorry for herself and truly loves the business. She is street smart, funny, and feminine with no apologies. It's too bad they made such a bad movie adaption - I would love to see another one made!
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