Girl, Undressed: On Stripping in New York City

by Ruth Fowler

Book Overview

A young British woman-broke and out of luck-does battle with Manhattan's underworld of dancers, drugs, and the sex industry

Ruth Fowler is a twenty-five-year-old Brit with a Cambridge degree and a middle-class background who arrives in New York City with dreams of becoming a journalist. But getting a work visa in post-9/11 America proves to be tricky. It doesn't take long for funds and incentive to run out-sending Fowler to the heart...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143115650
• ISBN13: 9780143115656
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

anatomy of the strip club regular

A well-written deconstruction of many strip club myths. To wit: that attendance is healthy, that one's soul does not blacken, and that it's all about empowerment. It's not an indictment of the scene, but Ms. Fowler is certainly no apologist for it either. The book is an excellent modern coming-of-age story as well, about an extraordinary young woman facing herself and the delusions she's constructed -- delusions which have simply stopped working. The author ends with a refreshingly honest look at herself and what she's selling her customers: "the something more men always want because monogamy is just not in their sex." Allusions to the Wizard of Oz, mushrooms, and rampant alcohol abuse add to the entertainment.

Great book

Girl, Undressed is an interesting read. It took a lot of preconceptions I had about strippers, Brits, drugs, and turned them inside out and upside down. I loved having to think outside my self-made box. I enjoyed the book immensely

Naked Truth

A smart, trenchant, witty, mortifyingly honest story, told with grace, humor and pathos. It's about stripping, sure, but mostly about a young woman's search for a place in the world. Girl Undressed also dares to bare (so to speak) the way we use our bodies and how they're commodified; how we become our own Other. And the book also has lots of neat stuff about New York, before it was prettified, and restaurants and yachts, drinking, drugs!

Compelling

Despite being a bit uncomfortable with the subject matter from time to time, Fowler's lively prose kept drawing me deeper into her vividly-described world. She excels at turning a string of unsettling experiences into a compelling story that left me feeling raw and exposed. NYC will have a different texture the next time I visit, now that I've read about it from her perspective.

A Dark, Poignant and Cautionary Tale for Those Who Would Venture Into the Underbelly of New York

Ruth Fowler has written a deeply disturbing, thoroughly engrossing memoir that chronicles a promising young woman's descent into an unsightly field of sex, drugs and indecency. Full of subtext, this gripping tale hits on a number of significant themes (intimacy, abuse, immigration reform, finding one's self, etc.) all while Fowler unapologetically paints those who've crossed her path in their true colors. While brutally honest, this tale of sidetracked ambition elicits compassion and concern from the reader, as it's easy to imagine the countless women still stuck in such a deplorable world. Do pick up a copy, as it's truly a remarkable memoir that's flawlessly written, but don't be surprised if it sticks with you long after you've finished.