N.B.

In many ways, it is everything: my source of amusement and diversion, my recreation, my sex, my identity, the most illuminating form of engagement, the most heightened form of contact. . . In this lyric, meditative collection, Charlotte Shane details five challenging and isolating years of her sex work career with sensitivity and intelligence. Against a backdrop of some of the 21st century's most significant events-terrorist attacks, the recession-she navigates her exoticized and stigmatized work while preoccupied with perennial concerns: the meaning of intimacy, fidelity, love, and integrity. Here, abortion, sexual connection, and the ancient antagonism between men and women are starkly, rigorously examined to yield penetrating insight. N.B. is a work of uncommon honesty and sincerity that revitalizes a topic much discussed yet rarely understood. Originally available online under the title "Nightmare Brunette," these fiercely loved entries have been condensed and edited to remain as powerful as they were in their earlier incarnation.