In My Skin

This was an interesting read - to hear the thoughts of a habitual heroin user, and prostitute. I am not convinced the author is a particularly likeable person, as she comes across as having a high opinion of herself, despite the lows she reached. This isn't however a book looking for pity, and tried to give an understanding of her decisions, although for me it stops short of providing that. I would even go so far as to say she shows a lot of pride in her decisions, and pride in performing her job well.

Set in Melbourne, mostly in St Kilda, it is far from a fantasy, which adds a familiarity to the settings. Not that I know Melbourne well, but I have been there three or four times, and stayed in St Kilda few times.

Certainly a sad read at times - her inability to make a conscious decision to stop taking heroin given all the assistance and opportunities, she repeatedly states that she wasn't ready, or didn't really want to stop (until she did), and the terrible situation she put her family - especially her parents - through show the self centred way drug users live. You can't help but have more sympathy for her family than for the author herself, with the lies, disappointments and thievery they were party to.

Prostitution was really the means to earn the money to support her drug addiction, and those of her loser boyfriends - boyfriends who never had jobs and were solely supported by her - I can't understand the appeal of her pathetic boyfriends - but then, I don't understand many of the motivations in the story told.

The author certainly didn't shy from sharing details, with page after page of detail on her clients, the way the brothels work, and the interactions with the other girls. If anything, she probably spends too many pages recounting the customers and the services she provided, as there is a point where is stops being interesting and becomes a bit desensitising.

I think the strangest aspect of the book however is how she got clean - it was really quite an anticlimax how she just made the decision - helped a little by loser boyfriend breaking into her room and stealing her stash. I suppose the ease of breaking the cycle reinforces her suggestion that previously she wasn't ready to give up heroin, and that finally the time was right for her.

Ultimately the book is polarising, as the reviews show. People either love it for its rawness and honesty, or they dislike it and consider it dishonest, and glorifying the heroin and prostitution. I fell in the middle, and return to my original comment - and interesting read, which did little to endear met to the author.

3 stars