Assuming the Position: A Memoir of Hustling

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Although Assuming the Position is, as Rick Whitaker describes it, "a memoir of hustling," don't expect it to be particularly erotic. Whitaker thoroughly deglamorizes male prostitution, depicting it as banal and emotionally numbing rather than sexy or transgressive. Any potential arousal to be gleaned from his exploits is further dampened by the book's highly mannered tone and the rather ordinary quality of Whitaker's psychological discoveries: "I was always pretending to be somebody's friend when I really only wanted his money," runs one such moment of self-reflection. "Of course this is just an extreme form of something we all do in order to get ahead, but such seeming friendliness is never good or heartfelt and it is always a cause, at least for me, of mental and emotional fatigue." Readers may also find themselves frustrated by the memoir's lack of narrative tension: Whitaker did drugs and had sex with men for money for a while, then he stopped, then he wrote a book about how it made him feel. Unfortunately, being able to write grammatically correct sentences about his unusual experiences isn't enough to make Assuming the Position an interesting book. --Ron Hogan

Book Description

Rick Whitaker divulges the complex reasons that drove him to prostitution and reflects on the cost of a life of half-truths and emotional lies. With an unsentimental eye, Whitaker chronicles his descent and eventual resolution.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book -- more philosophy than psychology.......2007-09-13

This book is extremely thoughtful in its insights, and cautious in the drawing of conclusions. If you are looking for a tightly-plotted page-turner, or a humorous romp a la Augusten Burroughs, you have come to the wrong writer. However, I much prefer Whitaker's clear, careful consideration of his past, which leaves one with more to think about and less to know. Most of all, Whitaker wants wants us to consider our own lives, our own hustles, our own self-denial in light of his near-miss with self-destructive oblivion. My favorite sentence: "If hell is other people, I like to think that the time I spent with all those men, and their often bizarre idiosyncrasies, gave me some knowledge that, if only by way of contrast, hints at some qualities of heaven."

Monsters.......2007-06-14

I met Rick 13 years ago when I was only 17 years old. I was living in a very small town at the time, and was not out of the closet. I also was a virgin. I went to high school with his sister. She wanted me to go out to New York with her the summer before my junior year of high school to visit Rick.

Rick and I hit it off, I came out, and then had a 3 week whirlwind "romance" with him in NYC. I had no idea he was doing any of the stuff in this book. What I thought to be a harmless man actually seems like a monster now. When we had sex, he would use lotion instead of lube. I was not aware that there were less painful methods of lubrication. It hurt badly.

Rick had told me that he was in NAMBLA, or going to a convention. I thought it might have been just a fetish for older men and younger men, not teenagers. I read his book. I thought it was pathetic. If even half of it was true, then the book would make him look like an angel compared to what he really is. Sodomizing young boys with lotion instead of lube is about as bad as being raped. Why didn't he write about that?

If you want a more colorful story of a New Yorker who was on lots of drugs , I would read "Party Monster" by James St. James. It follows the life of Michael Alig up until his incarceration for murdering a drug dealer.

Demons made me do it.......2007-02-21

Short and an easy read. The author puts in his own diary submissions. The book didn't have an easy flow.

great read.......2006-02-27

I enjoyed the book. Thought it was well written and edgy. I was never a hustler, but it inspired me to reflect on my own misdeeds. His is a story worth sharing and I'd like to see more biographical work from Rick.

A bit insincere.......2004-06-21

Normally writers try to evoke certain feelings through their writings. I was left wondering, at the end of the book, what feelings Mr. Whitaker was actually trying to evoke. Pity, sympathy, understanding, forgiveness...? Franky, I felt none of that for him. I did feel, however, a bit of disgust. I am not going to assume the position of a moralist and so I won't judge what the author did.

Aside from this, the book itself is not what I would call "quality prose". At times, it reads like a pompous college paper. I found particularly annoying Whitaker's propensity for throwing in quotes from famous figures and for using fancy words (e.g. mendacity, censorious, ennui, modus operandi, etc.) It seemed to me that he was trying to sort of compensate for his "dirty" past by showing off his intellectual side, which he indomitably possesses. What I also found annoying was the fact that the book lacked a clear well-crafted structure. Basically, we have an alternation of quasi-erotic storis with ramblings, masquerading as honest self-revelations, on the author's struggle with his own feelings. To that, you can also add a bunch of diary entries that serve as mere "filler". Frankly, this book is just another cheap commercial trick. On one hand, it aims at pandering to people's desire for quick trills. On the other hand, it aims at achieving the required, in the publishing world, dose of sentimentality taken for honesty. I think that the book would have had a different, more "acceptable" effect had the author reveled the TRUE extent of his hustling, with its nature, as ugly and unpalatable as it mihgt be, being unspared. He doesn't really do so. Either the publisher did not desire too much inappropriate information to come out or the author himself saved it so that it wouldn't completely (it already does to some degree) jar with, or obscure, his cultivated interests (classical music, philosophy, and literature).

Though some people find the book "disarmingly frank", I find it a bit insincere at certain points. Towards the end of it, the author says that he has become "less promiscious" than he was before. That, I guess, implies that there was still some promiscuity going on around the time the book was released. So did Rick Whitaker completely change? The author wants us to think he did that. Do I think he did that? I don't know. I also still don't know why he really went into hustling. To make money or to spite his former boyfriend, Tom (we never found out why Tom left him)? Or perhaps Rick Whitaker was just a narcissistic self-indulgent gay man who craved attention and compliments. If that is so, then the whole book would have a different spin. Sex would be no longer a way for the author to satisfy his "needs" but rather a way for him to feed his ego. This is my take on the book. (...)

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Anecdotes and advice

Keeping It Real

Assuming the Position
Rob Mancuso
Manufacturer: Houndstooth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0965846202

Book Description

This compilation of anecdotal advice on surviving in a family business is based on the author's own experience of over 20 years and offers step-by-step instructions on maximizing the chances for fiscal and family success.

Customer Reviews:

Anecdotes and advice.......2002-10-16

Mancuso tells great anecdotes about working with his late, great dealer father, Jim Mancuso. He also tells of finding his own place in the family business, and overcoming the trials and tribulations of being the boss' son. He offers practical advice on how to handle what can be a tough situation for the unprepared.

Keeping It Real.......2002-05-07

"Assuming the Position" is an authentic view from the trenches. It offers real-world insights on operating and maintaining a family business, from the experienced perspective of a third-generation auto dealer with more than 20 years' experience in vehicle retailing.

Book Description

Winner of the 1999 Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize for outstanding research publication in the field of teaching English language, literature, rhetoric and composition.

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Miller resurrects the forgotten importance of commonplace.......1998-12-12

Miller looks at commonplace books as sites of identity construction and gender formation. Miller recognizes their pedagogical value as both a mneumotechnical tool as well as a vehicle for enlightenment through self-reflexivity and critical thinking. Miller suggests through this 300+ page book many interesting concepts invlovling researching outside the canon in order to locate sources of identity and cultural stimulus. Also, according to Miller, commonplace books contain important historical information. For a more detailed report email me.

Guideposts on Assuming a City Manager Position

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Guideposts on Assuming a City Manager Position
The International City Managers' Association
Manufacturer: International City Managers' Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RHKZWE

You're next in line for the top.(preparations for assuming the chief elected officer position): An article from: Association Management

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You're next in line for the top.(preparations for assuming the chief elected officer position): An article from: Association Management
Gale S. Wood
Manufacturer: American Society of Association Executives
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Association Management, published by American Society of Association Executives on January 1, 1999. The length of the article is 2107 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Officers next in line must prepare before assuming the top position in any organization. For soon to be chief elected officers of associations or nonprofit organizations, a 12-month program can be followed. First, they must closely work with the outgoing chief. This involves assisting in the chief's duties, discussing potential committee leaders and establishing a smooth transition of power. Considerable time should also be given to reviewing the association's strategic plan and financial status.

Citation Details
Title: You're next in line for the top.(preparations for assuming the chief elected officer position)
Author: Gale S. Wood
Publication: Association Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1999
Publisher: American Society of Association Executives
Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Page: 71(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Assuming Positions
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Manufacturer: Institute of Contemporary Arts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1900300109

Relationships between state and society in South Africa: Inaugural lecture on assuming the position as professor in the Department of Sociology at the ... of South Africa, delivered on 4 August 1994

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Relationships between state and society in South Africa: Inaugural lecture on assuming the position as professor in the Department of Sociology at the ... of South Africa, delivered on 4 August 1994
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Manufacturer: L. Pretorius
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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