First song, dress on
It sounds like an obvious statement when I say that girls dont grow up wanting to be strippers, but youd be... read full description
It sounds like an obvious statement when I say that girls dont grow up wanting to be strippers, but youd be... read full description
reviews
Apr 13, 2010
Jo
rated it: 
This book was a complete chore to get through. The narrator is so vapid and self-involved that I found myself disliking her from the beginning. For a book that sells itself as a truthful memoir of someone who works in the sex industry, this book lacked a major component - a narrator you can trust. She self-edits so much out of the book to protect her ego and make her appear more like a victim than someone who chose the path she walks - reminding the reader at every step that she is extremely int
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jun 24, 2011
David
rated it: 
I want to start out with the fact that I did enjoy this book. I wasn't sure I was going to, deciding to read it after seeing Fowler's review where she is supposed to be saying why she doesn't like Obreht's book but ends up mainly bashing the MFA system in an overgeneralized kind of way, but I did. There is some really good writing here, some moments of wonderful insight and humanity where Fowler really connects with the reader. However, there are other times where it falls apart. Some parts
More...
Jul 03, 2011
Dawn
rated it:
This wasn't a bad book, and I'd like to give it another 1/2 star. But I can't really place my finger on the exact reason I didn't particularly care for it. Fowler seems schizophrenic at times rather than living two lives, which she says is what occurred even though both lives seem rather blended. She jumps back and forth between tales of the stripping life and past experiences that don't really connect in any way most of the time. I think I would have liked it better had it been more organiz
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 13, 2010
Tom
rated it:
I was a man who worked at a strip club and the ‘insight’ that is offered by Ruth ‘Mimi’ Fowler is nothing surprising to anyone on the inside or to anyone who has spent any length of time around sex workers.
Her view is the prototypical narcissistic one that is expected of individuals in the sex industry. It is a cliché look at an industry that is ripe to be viewed through a much less narrow lens. While she does briefly touch upon the others that are not the banal, vapid, self-loathi More...
Her view is the prototypical narcissistic one that is expected of individuals in the sex industry. It is a cliché look at an industry that is ripe to be viewed through a much less narrow lens. While she does briefly touch upon the others that are not the banal, vapid, self-loathi More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 11, 2008
Mazola1
rated it:
No Man's Land is the memoir of a British Cambridge graduate with aspirations of being a writer who does a turn as a stripper in New York. It's a fairly unpleasant book, full of nasty little stories and ugly little descriptions that make everything from a cup of coffee to sex seem unbearably sordid.
The writing is sometimes interesting and edgy, but mostly it smacks of trying too hard to be original and gritty, almost to the point of seeming to be a self-conscious parody of Joycean More...
The writing is sometimes interesting and edgy, but mostly it smacks of trying too hard to be original and gritty, almost to the point of seeming to be a self-conscious parody of Joycean More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 05, 2008
Noticed the average rating isn't too good but haven't looked at the individual reviews as I want to out on my own if this is good. It appears to be my "cup of tea" as I love these kinds of personal occupational narratives.
Mar 03, 2009
Tracey
rated it:
Adult nonfiction/memoir. A stripper tells all, but rambles a bit in the process. Fowler is a writer that turned to stripping when she couldn't get work (due to visa problems)--she comes off as one of those bad spoken word poets sometimes--loves to rant, hear herself speak.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 13, 2011
Nicole
rated it:
I listened to the audiobook. It provided some interesting insight. Some of Fowler's imagery was impressive, however some of the themes seemed to get a bit repetitive by the end.
Jun 02, 2008
Flash
rated it: 
Why the hell would an obviously highly intelligent Cambridge graduate want to become a stripper? Well this book charts the authors journey into the seedy world of the sex industry. She starts out using it as an easy way to make a quick buck, with no intentions of it ever becoming a career move, but soon it becomes a way of life, it's grip getting ever tighter.
I'm not sure if this book is more disturbing for men (I can never go into a lap dancing club again after reading it) or women More...
I'm not sure if this book is more disturbing for men (I can never go into a lap dancing club again after reading it) or women More...
Aug 09, 2008
Daniel
rated it: 
This book is really not much more than a first-hand look at one person's self absorbed descent into so-called depravity of stripping/promiscuity/sexual excess as told through the looking glass of a really decent education (something you are reminded of FREQUENTLY). But if you don't mind taking your mind for a field trip through the gutter, it's a good read. Not for the squeamish. Not for the faint of heart. Not making Oprah's bookclub any time soon, but entertaining enough for a commute or a sti
More...
Oct 06, 2008
Carol
rated it:
Anyone who thinks that the stripping industry is a way to empower women should read this book for a wake-up call. I'd give it a higher rating, but I just couldn't sympathize with an illegal immigrant who really could have stayied in London with her Cambridge degree and done better for herself. "Mimi" was her perfect stripper name.
Jan 05, 2011
Warren
rated it:
Fowler loves repitition in her work to get a point across. Her stories do have some shock factor and get downright grimy - ultimately to prove the point about how stripping changes a woman. But she also drifts endlessly - the book could have been considerably shorter.
Nov 28, 2009
Darcee
rated it:
read.. or read enough of it.
I can't finish it.
I stopped caring over 50 pages ago.
I like my stripper memoirs funny. Probably my character flaw and not hers, but that's just how it is.
I can't finish it.
I stopped caring over 50 pages ago.
I like my stripper memoirs funny. Probably my character flaw and not hers, but that's just how it is.
Aug 25, 2011
Rosemary
rated it: 
What a hack. Entertaining just for the bad writing.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jul 31, 2008
Jennifer
rated it:
A gritty behind-the-scenes look at the world of strippers and clubs. It made me feel ashamed to love my pole-dancing class so much...
Jan 20, 2012
Oct 10, 2011
Oct 06, 2011
Aug 04, 2011
Aug 02, 2011
