Excellent book -- more philosophy than psychology

books:


	• Assuming the Position: A Memoir of Hustling Rick Whitaker Da Capo Press, 2001 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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Excellent book -- more philosophy than psychology

This book is extremely thoughtful in its insights, and cautious in the drawing of conclusions. If you are looking for a tightly-plotted page-turner, or a humorous romp a la Augusten Burroughs, you have come to the wrong writer. However, I much prefer Whitaker's clear, careful consideration of his past, which leaves one with more to think about and less to know. Most of all, Whitaker wants wants us to consider our own lives, our own hustles, our own self-denial in light of his near-miss with self-destructive oblivion. My favorite sentence: "If hell is other people, I like to think that the time I spent with all those men, and their often bizarre idiosyncrasies, gave me some knowledge that, if only by way of contrast, hints at some qualities of heaven."

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Monsters

I met Rick 13 years ago when I was only 17 years old. I was living in a very small town at the time, and was not out of the closet. I also was a virgin. I went to high school with his sister. She wanted me to go out to New York with her the summer before my junior year of high school to visit Rick.

Rick and I hit it off, I came out, and then had a 3 week whirlwind "romance" with him in NYC. I had no idea he was doing any of the stuff in this book. What I thought to be a harmless man actually seems like a monster now. When we had sex, he would use lotion instead of lube. I was not aware that there were less painful methods of lubrication. It hurt badly.

Rick had told me that he was in NAMBLA, or going to a convention. I thought it might have been just a fetish for older men and younger men, not teenagers. I read his book. I thought it was pathetic. If even half of it was true, then the book would make him look like an angel compared to what he really is. Sodomizing young boys with lotion instead of lube is about as bad as being raped. Why didn't he write about that?

If you want a more colorful story of a New Yorker who was on lots of drugs , I would read "Party Monster" by James St. James. It follows the life of Michael Alig up until his incarceration for murdering a drug dealer.

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great read

I enjoyed the book. Thought it was well written and edgy. I was never a hustler, but it inspired me to reflect on my own misdeeds. His is a story worth sharing and I'd like to see more biographical work from Rick.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Rick Whitaker divulges the complex reasons that drove him to prostitution and reflects on the cost of a life of half-truths and emotional lies. With an unsentimental eye, Whitaker chronicles his descent and eventual resolution.