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152nd out of 1,852 books
—
1,787 voters
The Happy Hooker: My Own Story
How 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 de...more
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 de...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
June 4th 2002
by Harper Paperbacks
(first published 1972)
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No one frolicked around with German shepherd's in my copy - and I sure as hell don't feel cheated on.
The Happy Hooker is a trainwreckalicious biography. It's plainly and poorly written, and it should be. An overly polished memoir would've failed to deliver that feeling of authenticity to Xaviera Hollander's story.
If one thing becomes clear in her biography - which describes how Xaviera grew up, took a flight to New York one day to be with a sucky boyfriend, then got a job as an escort to earn a...more
The Happy Hooker is a trainwreckalicious biography. It's plainly and poorly written, and it should be. An overly polished memoir would've failed to deliver that feeling of authenticity to Xaviera Hollander's story.
If one thing becomes clear in her biography - which describes how Xaviera grew up, took a flight to New York one day to be with a sucky boyfriend, then got a job as an escort to earn a...more
8 likes · like · see review
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Are you tired of Ridley Scott recutting Blade Runner every two years, causing you to have to pay for a super-mega 12-disc Special Edition DVD or Blu-Ray set just to get the original 1982 movie, which is all you want to see in the first place?
Are you sick of George Lucas monkeying around with Star Wars, adding cheesy CGI just because he only had a budget for rubber foam costumes the first time around?
Did it irk you that Steven Spielberg erased the guns out of ET because it was politically correct...more
Are you sick of George Lucas monkeying around with Star Wars, adding cheesy CGI just because he only had a budget for rubber foam costumes the first time around?
Did it irk you that Steven Spielberg erased the guns out of ET because it was politically correct...more
4 likes · like · see review
Amazing stories of this Sensual woman who desired Sex, Sex, and more Sex! Hot stuff...... There is NO WAY I could keep up with all those things that she did!!!!!! Gotta read will have you saying WOW!
2 likes · like · see review
Here is my question to you, dear reader: are you looking for trash? I mean, seriously serious trash with no redeeming social values but some eye-opening information about other people's sex lives that will make you say, "Get the fuckety fuck out of here. No, they did NOT. With an umbrella??" I guarantee that unless you are Xaviera Hollander or someone likewise employed, something in this book will shock you at least a little (for me, it was the man who wanted to be fed poo, but only off of Delft...more
I was in Amsterdam with a few friends and my Italian boyfriend, we had no place to stay. A young American guy we had met in a bar earlier in the week offered us rooms in a bed in breakfast. We drove to the bed and breakfast, we went inside.
We noticed erotic art on the walls. We noticed erotic books on the shelves.
A portly woman with short brown hair handed us keys and shoved us into hastily made up rooms in the upstairs of her house.
Then, she sold us her book. I had never heard of Xaviera Holl...more
We noticed erotic art on the walls. We noticed erotic books on the shelves.
A portly woman with short brown hair handed us keys and shoved us into hastily made up rooms in the upstairs of her house.
Then, she sold us her book. I had never heard of Xaviera Holl...more
4 likes · like · see review
perhaps a classic case of people confusing book reviews for endorsement of the author's character, Happy Hooker is running a 3.14 on goodreads, something akin to the Shanghai Baby which is about some Chinese girl lusting after her German boyfriend, and rejecting her impotent Chinese fiancee. (*a metaphor? ?)
HOllander is another foreigner, a Dutch Jew, as she reminds us, and the tantalizing tales of her possible criminal involvement as she ascends to run, first, the #1 Jewish-clientele brothel in...more
HOllander is another foreigner, a Dutch Jew, as she reminds us, and the tantalizing tales of her possible criminal involvement as she ascends to run, first, the #1 Jewish-clientele brothel in...more
I read this in 1972 when it first came out and remember liking it a lot. Today I saw it on someone's page and had to laugh, the title has always made me laugh. It would be fun to read again and see how mild it is by today's standard; in 1972 it was considered pretty raunchy. Kind of like when I re-read "Valley of the Dolls" about five years ago--boy have things changed.
We often do things just to say 'I did it,' 'I watched it,' or 'I ate it.' I read 'The Happy Hooker' just to say, 'I read it.'
It tells the true story of a hooker turned madam who absolutely, positively loves her job. Xaviera Hollander saw no problem with men coming to her for a good time between the sheets, even if they were attached. She even indicated there's a difference between bodily fluids and the soul of a person.
While this is a non-fiction work of erotica, many parts had me shaking my he...more
It tells the true story of a hooker turned madam who absolutely, positively loves her job. Xaviera Hollander saw no problem with men coming to her for a good time between the sheets, even if they were attached. She even indicated there's a difference between bodily fluids and the soul of a person.
While this is a non-fiction work of erotica, many parts had me shaking my he...more
The book is interesting, but poorly written. A real lack of editing here, and I can't understand why spellcheck didn't pick up these errors in the electronic edition.
The stories are interesting, though I don't know I believe all of them completely. Some seem way too exagerrated and outlandish. Things that could land questions from authorities in print (ex: "mafia" connections and being accessory to murder in one case). I also don't believe she had the balls to mouth off to her future mother-in-l...more
The stories are interesting, though I don't know I believe all of them completely. Some seem way too exagerrated and outlandish. Things that could land questions from authorities in print (ex: "mafia" connections and being accessory to murder in one case). I also don't believe she had the balls to mouth off to her future mother-in-l...more
I was young when I read this one.
I learned that some people get paid for sex.
It took me more years to understand that she got paid again for writing about it.
Cool!
I learned that some people get paid for sex.
It took me more years to understand that she got paid again for writing about it.
Cool!
Feb 22, 2008
Sara
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Open minded people
Recommended to Sara by:
Store clerk
You really have to have an open mind if reading this book. Some chapters are disturbing and perverse, but in all an good read.
All I remember is the scene in which she gives the German shepherd a tugjob. Arf arf!
2 likes · like · see review
Back in my student days it was a genuine eye-opener. Now it'd sound like Cosmo.
2 likes · like · see review
I received this book from my boyfriend's aunt, who purchased books at used bookstores and rummage sales for everyone for Christmas. I had never heard of Xaviera Hollander, or the book itself, so it was definitely a surprise read.
While I liked how the book started, which told of her upbringing, her first sexual experiences, and her subsequent love of sex which led her to her career as a prostitute-turned-madam, the second half followed a different style. While it appeared to still follow in chron...more
While I liked how the book started, which told of her upbringing, her first sexual experiences, and her subsequent love of sex which led her to her career as a prostitute-turned-madam, the second half followed a different style. While it appeared to still follow in chron...more
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Let me first say that if you see my list of reviewed books, you see that I love biographies of many different types of people. That being said, I was at an estate sale and picked up a bunch of old biographies (this was one of them).
I thought this book would be more about a woman who makes bad decisions, learns from them, changes, and makes the world a better place. Not so much. Xaviera is proud of her sexual past as a prostitute and a famous Madam in New York during the 1960s-70s and to this da...more
I thought this book would be more about a woman who makes bad decisions, learns from them, changes, and makes the world a better place. Not so much. Xaviera is proud of her sexual past as a prostitute and a famous Madam in New York during the 1960s-70s and to this da...more
I love this book. I skimmed it several times when I was younger (much too young for this book to be considered appropriate), but I never read it cover to cover until this year. As a note though, the original edition is better. The newer editions have been edited pretty heavily. Anyway, this book is the autobiography of one New York’s most notorious madams of the 70s, Xaviera Hollander. Hollander details her life from childhood in Europe to her eventual rise to infamy in America’s sex trade. It i...more
Oh my gosh, I just came across the title of this book! I read this in the ninth or tenth grade on a dare - out of the sight of my mom or dad or even my sister. From what I remember, there was a lot I didn't understand but yep, I DO remember this one. Pure trash. This is one book that I wouldn't want my grown daughter to read. And another reason you won't be catching me reading Fifty Shades of Grey. I'm disgusted that I read this one!
Part memoir, part erotica, part believable and part questionable. This autobiography of one of New York City's most successful Madames stretches the boundaries of belief and negates the theory that you need a decent copyeditor to get a book published. Xaviera Hollander is well known and continues on as a "Business Woman" in Holland today. It's a train wreck book - you don't want to look but it's hard to turn your eyes away.
SO much fun to read something written when the world was still being shocked by the sexual revolution, when there just wasn't the exhaustive level of sexual literacy that there is today. This book was really risqué for it's time an actually a very sexy read though you will get some laughs over the at times dated language and perspective. I say if you see it for a quarter at a yard sale ( and you will!), go for it.
Light, relatively interesting. Maybe one of the most redeeming qualities is the funny use of language; it is quite dated in its use of slang. I could almost hear a 'Laugh-In' era Goldie Hahn narrating aloud in my head. "Goovy! Turn on to the scene!" Funny for a throwback, but the updated epilogue in this edition is far too reaching in its theories, I believe.
i think i read this when i was about 14...it was one of those naughty books you read on the sly. i remember it was kind of silly...i mean, i think in some ways she was trying to defend the position of sex worker, which has come a long way since the 70's. but i sensed even then that the book was self-exploitative, and that it was largely written for voyuers.
I'm torn as to how many stars this gets. I read it when I was 16 and I took it to heart on one or two issues. Sometimes, looking back on my life, I think maybe that was a terrible mistake. Other times I'm sure I did the right thing....Maybe the fair thing to do, in a few weeks' time, is to give it a whole lot of stars for a while.
If you are afraid of sexual content....then don't read this book.....it's just about a madame in a cathouse and all the particulars that occur with other than the sex content at most.....that gets covered to in the book but it is a colorful and funny look into the world of organized prostitution at the highest ranks!
Between her descriptions of sex with dogs, crooked cops and schoolfriends and her descriptions of acres and acres of shag carpeting, lounges with smoked mirror walls and living room wet bars, one finds themselves asking the essential question, "Is she really happy?" Apparently so. The book ends with one of the most poignant and beautiful passages in the English language that will hopefully inspire active Dutch people everywhere:
"I would like to say that I am proud of the empire I have had. I am...more
"I would like to say that I am proud of the empire I have had. I am...more
I found this book in my attic when I was around the age of 12. I remember secretly reading it whenever I had some alone time lol. I threw it out mainly out of guilt! I have thought about that book occasionally over the years, and I just ordered it on line tonight.
I recently met Xaviera Hollander at the drug store, and not knowing who she was, I complimented her on her scarf. She responded "Would you like to see a fabulous film about my life? I'm Xaviera Hollander, the happy hooker! It's playing just down the road in half an hour." I am usually willing to consider serenipity at work, so I went. And I bought a book, which she signed and I read. Her story is interesting; I didn't know for instance that she and her family had been in a concentration camp in...more
The biography of Xaviera Hollander, a madam in New York in the 60's. It was eh. For a book about a hooker, the sex was very benign. Almost professional...and on second thought, I guess that makes sense. Sex for Xaviera was often not about passion, but about business.
Repetitive and unbelievable in parts, simple writing if you ever wanted to hear someone talk anout their conquests over and over this is the book. Found it lacked in its promise to show what it was like to be a 'madam' purely down to the terrible writing.
I was 16. I found it in my parent's room. I was intrigued, aroused, and couldn't put it down. I am not proud.
I don't plan to reread The Happy Hooker in order to give a more detailed review. Though I am interested in what others think about the book.
I don't plan to reread The Happy Hooker in order to give a more detailed review. Though I am interested in what others think about the book.
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Former prostitute and brothel keeper.
She was born in Indonesia to a Jewish father and a Dutch mother. After world war II she moved to Amsterdam.
She later moved to South Africa and New York city where she became a prostitute
More about Xaviera Hollander...
She was born in Indonesia to a Jewish father and a Dutch mother. After world war II she moved to Amsterdam.
She later moved to South Africa and New York city where she became a prostitute
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