The Dildo

Reader Comments about
100 Whores:

“100 Whores” and the short stories following are like two different works done by the same writer -- with different styles. The first 100 vignettes are quite short, just like the experiences of the protagonist. Then come five short stories, more developed in style and length.

As I see it, the trouble with episodic stories is concluding them. I found the endings here perfect, particularly “Christmas Whore.” This story comes out as an incredibly clever and hilarious takeoff on O’Henry’s style -- in fact I think it surpasses it! You have an insurmountable conflict between the two betrayed and angry women, and the fellow -- a depraved, run-of-the-mill 42^nd Street habitant who secretly wonders at twisted acts that frighten him. Then in a perverse flip-flop, the women wind up acting with a cheery holiday generosity -- while the guy wanders off bravely, despite his fears, to self-discovery and a new kind of behavior that the women have choreographed for him in play-vengefulness.

How did the author do this? He certainly has some sense of the mutability of behavior and emotion, which maybe makes him into a brilliant writer, with an editor brilliant enough to follow his train of development and not try to make it into something simpler and easier.

If Holden Caulfield (the protagonist in JD Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye”) had read this book before venturing out into the American demimonde, he would not have required the services of a psychiatrist afterwards. He might not even have come back.

I think every conscientious parent ought to give a copy of this book to their 10-year-old son for Christmas!

The short stories in the volume display sexual and orientation conflict, where the gender of the characters is sometimes obscured. As in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," all is revealed by the end of the stories -- who is hetero, who is bisexual, who is male or female, who thinks they are male or female -- you name it if you can.

 -- Phil, laboratory coordinator

"100 Whores" gives readers the rare perspective of seeing life through the eyes of a john rather than a prostitute. These stories give you an intense view of what it is like on the streets of NYC. These prostitutes are not your Hollywood version, but rather more true-to-life than what I have seen in my travels through the City at the end of a long night. Excellent, edgy read that you can follow straight through or pick and choose which whore you want to read about next.

-- Jay, truck driver and student

I began reading 100 Whores the day I received it, but for reasons too numerous to list I haven't finished it yet. I did want to say, though, it's not only a fascinating read, it's also an important book, the only one I know of that presents the many types of women who become prostitutes and the many reasons for that decision.

If you haven't already done so, I urge you to send a copy to Liana Zhou, director of the library at the Kinsey Institute. It will be used by many researchers into prostitution.

What makes this special is its insight and honesty. I think virtually all teenage boys and young men have sadistic sex fantasies, simply because they need to feel superior when fucking, which is, after all, an aggressive act on the part of the male, and a submissive one by the female. (There are always exceptions to generalities, of course.) Since this is not a politically correct view, we hear/see/read little about it. This story is the exception.
 
Did I like it? No. The brutality distracts from the possibility of erotic response. My pity for the girl overwhelmed me--I, who in my youth had fantasies of cutting off tits while fucking my victim! (There's something less real for me when fantasizing than while reading someone else's fantasies.)
 
But the writing was fine--perhaps a bit too much philosophizing (made that one up). Definitely literature, and certainly deserves to be published.

Congratulations to both the author and you.

-- Bob Bahr, Factor Press