More of a Pepys show than a peep show. (Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl - Belle De Jour)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl - Belle De Jour
Date:	05/10/05 (673 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting and well written .

Disadvantages: Subject matter might not be to everyone's taste. Might not be "real".

Belle* seems like a cool girl; she's smart, has a wide range of interests, goes to the gym, has a decent social life, drinks pints and she listens to decent music... In short, Belle is a person I could easily find myself being friends with (and she could bully me into going to the gym more often). Did I mention that she's also a prostitute?

"Belle de Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl" covers a period in Belle's life between November 2003 and late June, 2004. In her 'diary' entries, she gives us an insight into her world. While Belle may have a titillating career, it's not the only topic that you'll read about. You'll read about trips north to visit the family, social engagements with her (predominantly male) friends and her relationship with 'The Boy' as he is affectionately known as well as a few peeks into her past (like how and why she chose this particular career path).

By the end of the book, you'll be familiar with the four As, N, The Boy and the rest of Belle's acquaintances (no-one that Belle knows personally is ever named outright). Certainly, as the book drew to a close, I was wishing that I had the kind of lifestyle where I didn't have to work a nine-to-five job and could spend my days down at the gym, shopping and meeting up with similarly cool friends who didn't have normal jobs.

Belle might well be a prostitute, but her diary entries are written in that matter-of-fact style that any of us would use describing something that's not out of the ordinary for us. There is talk of sex, her customers and the trials of getting a cab from her flat to a hotel without giving away her occupation to the driver, despite being all 'glammed up' at all hours of the day and night. The content might well put off some people (which is understandable), but I never once found it off-putting. The taxi dilemma is described in the same relaxed manner as her conversations with N at the gym or situations with her customers, and I found this style extremely easy to read.

There are entries that have an almost cinematic quality to them, too. I remember one particular entry where Belle discovers a rack of books outside a closed bookshop, selects a book from the rack and drops some money through the door. After reading this, I couldn't help but think of some of those films like "Before Sunrise" where impossibly cool things that would never (or rarely) happen in real life.

With the book being in diary form, it's broken up into easily digestible chunks. It would be a book that you easily to pick up and read, on and off, if that's how you do things, but I was a constant reader and finished the whole thing in a day or so. I'd say that the book is as accessible if you read it in small chunks as if you read it as a novel for prolonged periods. Belle comes across as neither a complete 'girly girl' nor a complete tomboy. This means that her diary should be as interesting or readable to males as it would to females. It doesn't read like a typical diary, though. With the weblog origins and the style that goes along with it, it reads as if it was written for an audience, rather than being your typical, introspective diary entries, but I felt that this style added to the enjoyment.

There are two ways to look at this book. You can decide whether or not you think that this is an honest, accurate account of an intelligent Jewish woman in her mid-twenties who is a prostitute or, as others have been quick to point out, a complete work of fiction written by a professional author. To be perfectly honest, it didn't matter to me either way. I read the book the first time under the impression it was 100% real and I enjoyed it a lot. I've re-read it since I became aware that it might not be all that it seems, and I still found it to be an interesting, entertaining book.

This is essentially a printed version of Belle's weblog found at http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/. If you've read the blog before then it might be that the book isn't for you as it repeats most of what's been posted online during the duration of the blog, but adds more to it, too. That might not be enough for those of you who would be willing to hand over your nine pounds and nine pence (current Amazon.co.uk price for the hardback edition) or three pounds, ninety-nine pence for the paperback version (but I prefer the hardback's design). If you've not read any of it before or are concerned about the content, then you could do worse than to read a few entries to see if it's up your street, before buying the book.

From the blog, doors have opened for Belle and I believe that, while she's not really active on her blog any more, she does post on the internet and will soon be writing a column for a Sunday paper, too.

ISBN: 0297847821 (Hardback version)

*Not her real name.

Summary: Belle is a call girl and this is an extended version of her weblog.