Reviews for All the girls

The average rating for All the girls based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-04-03 00:00:00 Neil Esangga Martin O'Brien is a British Journalist who travels the world and has recorded his experiences dealing with the underworld of sex, from street prostitutes to bordellos. His book is less porn or titillation, and more sociological study, with keenly observed stories and descriptive incidents that focus on the surrounding factors, and the girls, rather than the sex itself. Written in 1982 it's a bit of a time piece, as O'Brien traveled to over 20 cities and covered South America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe Before ending his travels in America. The book was dated, but interesting and O'Brien proved himself a good story teller who showed an oversized amount of empathy for the world he was writing about. He ignored legal and ethical issues and focused on the human side of these businesses. The best part of the book was Abby, a girl O'Brien meets in Chicago and interviews over the course of several days. Her story and personality were captivating and insightful. Many of the stories, especially in the beginning of the book were far less so. It wasn't a bad book.....as I rated it, it was O K. It wasn't sleazy and remained moderately interesting, but never really went anywhere. As i said, it was a well written, but dated account of a world that still exists, I'm sure, but has changed in the 40 years since this was published. I found the book in a library 'sale room' for $1 and think the price was about right.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-04-19 00:00:00 Alexander Platt At first I didn’t warm to the protagonist nor his plan to tour the world and sleep with prostitutes as I thought it was too self-centered and I wondered what I could glean from his experience. But the authors writing is good and as you travel with him his characters becoming more fleshed out and interesting. Then I was hooked and I really wanted to learn more, hear more and have him do and see more. It was brave of Martin to do this and then write about it with such honesty. It is an oft ignored topic reserved for “Bro” talk and usually not described with such humanity for the women involved. Or a topic the author writes about with hidden contempt although they believe they are being compassionate, with a hope to get the women out of their situation. Martin doesn’t look down upon these women, although he does usually see them as a means to his ends, but even so he comes across as respecting them so much more than someone wanting to “save” them. By the end of the book I realized I had had a really good time even if there were times when his descriptions of event could have been fuller (I still am trying to figure out what he did in that Las Vegas VIP room passion chair.) I was hoping there was a sequel, a round Two.