Kate Holden is used to being summed up at a glance- arts graduate, history buff, middle-class daughter, dreamer, innocent. But she is a young woman who understands most the secrets that people keep hidden. This astonishing debut follows her journey from the safe and leafy suburbs of Melbourne to the all-consuming attractions of heroin and the sex industry.This is a story - confronting and utterly compelling - of survival and resourcefulness; an unflinching look at the consequences of addiction and the struggle of power and control that addicts face. Holden's journey leads her to a world of sex for money, from the seedy netherworld of back lanes and backseats to the security, both real and imagined, provided by brothels.This is a moving, at times brutal, memoir from a prodigiously talented new voice. Kate Holden has produced a searingly honest and wonderfully written account of a life on the streets, on drugs and on the skids.
Kate Holden is used to being summed up at a glance- arts graduate, history buff, middle-class daughter, dreamer, innocent. But she is a young woman who understands most the secrets that people keep hidden. This astonishing debut follows her journey from the safe and leafy suburbs of Melbourne to the all-consuming attractions of heroin and the sex industry.This is a story - confronting and utterly compelling - of survival and resourcefulness; an unflinching look at the consequences of addiction and the struggle of power and control that addicts face. Holden's journey leads her to a world of sex for money, from the seedy netherworld of back lanes and backseats to the security, both real and imagined, provided by brothels.This is a moving, at times brutal, memoir from a prodigiously talented new voice. Kate Holden has produced a searingly honest and wonderfully written account of a life on the streets, on drugs and on the skids.
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The elevated, poetic language of Aussie writer Holden's debut memoir vibrates with passion as she tells the story of the small victories and great obstacles she encountered as a heroin addict who turned to prostitution as a way of supporting her habit. The middle-class Holden, a carefree, artistic bohemian who scraped by selling books, is introduced to the drug in her early twenties by her boyfriend in the small Australian town of St. Kilda at a time when the grunge band Nirvana reigned and heroin was at the peak of its glamour. Holden finds the strength to recover through the help of her supportive family and, ironically, through her struggle with the very hardships she finally escapes. Her acutely vivid prose is a revelation, even if the subject matter is not. Recommended for all public libraries. [Holden's draft manuscript of this book won the Judy Duffy Award for literary excellence. Ed.] Elizabeth Brinkley, Granite Falls, WA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
What happens when a bright, well-loved young woman gets hooked on heroin and turns to prostitution to keep up her habit? Hopefully, she eventually shakes free, as Australian Holden does, but most likely a lot goes wrong first. In this vivid and riveting account of her own sudden fall and slow recovery, Holden describes the slow pull toward heroin as her friends and her lover are hooked. Mild, almost bored temptation turns into obsession after she gives it a try. As the drug and the life compromises it encourages take over Holden's universe, she loses her job and rarely sees her family and clean friends. Eventually, desperate for cash for the daily fixes for herself and her inept boyfriend, she starts turning tricks on the street. When, one night, a john turns out to be a scout for temps at a brothel, Holden's story turns. The relative stability of the brothel, and the accompanying relationships with sister prostitutes and even some johns, revives Holden's sense of self and self-worth. Throughout, she tells it like it is. Her depictions of the dark realities she lived through are at times graphic, especially in some of the more difficult scenes with johns, but always clear-eyed. She lets the readers see and judge the situation for themselves. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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