Kamensky’s ambitious project... is a challenging one; she is at pains to avoid ascribing pat reasons for Royalle’s choices, while still providing ample context. At times the shifting focus can be disorienting ... Though the language remains playful and clear even when saturated with information, the resulting density can nonetheless turn the experience into homework. But that is likely the author’s point: Her rigor and thoroughness demand that the reader take seriously an underdog who made her name in a stigmatized industry.
A frank and unexpectedly lively biography. The book’s virtues include its melding of history with diaristic intimacy and clever, often incandescent prose.
Kamensky’s deft portrait of Royalle undercuts... the tale of feminism’s decline ... It is hard to overstate how moving this portion of the book is, and how surprising.
Following Vadala’s lead, Kamensky’s biography refuses the binary between a pleasure-driven feminism and a victim-driven one to show how sex work and its cultures can be both liberating and oppressive.
