A review by ala2134
Assuming the Position: A Memoir of Hustling by Rick Whitaker

2.0

Read this over the course of 3 hours after it was given to me by a friend (who also just stumbled upon it). Very short and straightforward account of the author’s time as a prostitute and drug addict. It seems he wrote it almost immediately after deciding to stop hustling (as he puts it), since there seems to be little introspection. From my perspective, and I think anyone else who reads it, it seems like he had a traumatic and tumultuous upbringing and was looking for love and excitement in all the wrong places. He didn’t seem to connect those dots though, which I wonder if more time and therapy would change his feelings. I personally was shocked at how ubiquitous escort services were - this was in the 90’s, so I wonder how that’s changed with the rise of social media and online dating apps. Ultimately didn’t take much away from this since it felt more like a therapeutic journal versus a story an audience could connect to. I hope the author has since found inner peace!