Whitaker, not that detached

[Rod Hagen]

I read "Assuming The Position" on the way to and from Mexico this weekend (it's a really quick read). The reviewers convinced me that it would be another study in detachment along the lines of "Less Than Zero", but it wasn't even a "Picture Palace". It was quite obvious he had feelings, for himself and the people he was with. Sometimes, often, actually, those feelings were hostile, but to me anger and detachment are by definition, not the same.

 

Did anybody else note that, good or bad, the character, Rick, was anything but unaffected?

 

Also, I would very much like to have lunch with him. If anybody here is connected to Rick Whitaker by any degrees of separation, please put him in contact with me. Thank You. [email protected]

[Rod Hagen]

Come on, none of you read "Assuming The Position"?

[Guest sdmuscl4hire]

too busy assmuning the position to read abut it

[Guest sdmuscl4hire]

Yikes, "assuming"

[DaninWA]

Michael,

 

I like "assmuning" better. Much more descriptive.:-)

 

Dan

[chrismac]

>Come on, none of you read "Assuming The Position"?

 

I'll check it out. While I haven't read that book yet, I did read a book by Mike Albo titled, "Hornito, My Lie Life" - a very good read. I read it in my book club last year.

[Guest DevonSFescort]

>I read "Assuming The Position" on the way to and from Mexico

>this weekend (it's a really quick read).

 

I read it while it was still out in hardcover, before I started escorting. I recall it as one of those "cautionary" tales by someone for whom escorting probably was NOT the right career that had the effect of encouraging me that it WAS the right career for me.

 

>The reviewers convinced me that it would be another study in >detachment along the lines of "Less Than Zero", but it wasn't even a

>"Picture Palace".

 

In the only reviews I remember prior to reading it (which, come to think of it, may have been the blurbs on the back cover), Whitaker tended to benefit from minimal expectations. You know, something like, "It's not every day you read a book by a prostitute that quotes (insert literary luminary here)." In other words, he was given, I felt, too much credit for leaping clear of a low bar. I did see a negative review after I read it which expressed that he should have waited longer after his retirement to write the book; that he was still too confused to be able really to make sense of his experience for himself, let alone for his readers. I didn't quite agree with that judgement but I saw its point. (That said, this was his first book, and I think he shows potential as a writer.)

 

>It was quite obvious he had feelings, for

>himself and the people he was with...Did anybody else note that, >good or bad, the character,

>Rick, was anything but unaffected?

 

I agree. The tone, though, often had a numbness to it -- numbness, after all, is also a feeling -- which could, I guess, be confused by some readers as detachemnt.

 

>Also, I would very much like to have lunch with him.

 

Me too.