Working Girl (New Yorker)
Jul 3rd, 2008 by Viviane
A British take on the world’s oldest profession.
. . .when a number of high-profile memoirs have turned out to be, to some degree or in their entirety, not what they professed to be. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them in the Ho section of my local Barnes & Noble (the subtitle of the American edition, earnest and accurate, is “Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl”), so I’ve seen only the Telegraph columns and short passages from the books. The writing I have come across seems not just fictional but false; there’s a lazy archness to the tone, a superficial intelligence, and a mere pose of thoughtfulness—all of which may be intentional, part of the joke. The diaries aren’t trying for greatness; they’re trying to make the cash register ring, and that they have done.
. . .Issues of authenticity fade away, however, when it comes to the TV series, because it’s not at pains to sell itself as the real deal. You don’t have to believe that the story comes from a true-life prostitute, just that the character you’re watching is believable.
. . .It’s not that much fun to watch an actress who, except for the occasional times when she lets loose one of her charmingly loud second-soprano laughs, seems always to be asking more of us than she’s giving, but “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” does get better as it goes along, although it doesn’t greatly distinguish itself from most other shows you’ve seen about young single women in the big city.
Tags: media
hi viviane! the internet cafe i was using in europe would not let me through to yr blog!! — so naturally i’ve been eager to get back to it.
hello….
– mimi
mimi of sexagenarian and the citys last blog post..middle-aged lovers in europe, summer 2008