I know, I know, it’s Diablo Cody. But listen, I am no big fan of hers. And this book occasionally contains lines like “Love is mysterious and rad, like Steve Perry from Journey”. BUT. This book was actually pretty freaking funny, and Cody (mostly) stays out of her own way with the text.
At the age of 24, after moving to Minnesota for a boy, Cody decides that she wants to try out stripping. You know, for fun. In her own words: “For me, stripping was an unusual kind of escape. I had nothing to escape but privilege, but I claimed asylum anyway. At twenty-four, it was my last chance to reject something and become nothing. I wanted to terrify myself. Mission accomplished.” I had a similar upbringing and have no desire to strip, but ok.
Once she gets the idea into her head, Cody runs with it. And I had a ton of fun watching. She marches into a strip club, gets hired immediately and gets to work. For about a year, she works in several different clubs while simultaneously maintaining a 9-5 office job. No one knows about her after hours activities except for her boyfriend and a couple guys from her office IT department who recognize her one night.
This book answers a lot of questions I never knew I had about stripping. For one thing, stripping is hardly a glamorous job. For every girl who banks $3k in one night by dancing for a football player, there’s hundred who ending up owing the club at the end of the night. The girls routinely give half of the pay to the boss, in addition to being required to sell a certain number of drinks, VIP room tickets, etc. or risk being docked.
I feel the exact same way about ol’ Ms Cody, except I read this before I saw any of her other work. This book was really cute and fun, but everything else she does feels so contrived (with the exception of United States of Tara, but I attribute that to her not doing all the writing).
Diablo Cody wrote a book? About her experiences as a stripper? I love stumbling across books I would never have thought existed, like the graphic novel they made of Colbert’s Tek Jansen segment I randomly came across at Barnes & Noble, or this. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!