Pretentious, self-centered, and soul-less sums up this one.
Based on a blog written for Salon.com, it's a pseudo-autobiography by Dr. Brooke Magnanti, a child research scientist who reportedly supported herself through college by prostituting.
Written in diary form with headings in French and additional personal anecdotes from A to Z, Magnanti took the nomme de plume of Belle de Jour, a 1967 French film starring Catherine Deneuve, which may explain the chapter headings but doesn't explain why a born and raised Brit would incorporate a foreign persona into the authorship of this book. Nowhere does it mention anything whatsoever of a French experience, save taking a language course once in school.
Having watched a few episodes of the HBO series 'Diary of a Call Girl' I assumed the book would be funny, insightful, and entertaining (considering the subject matter), but found it difficult to read. Belle's heartless treatment of associates (whom she calls A1, A2, N, the Boy, etc.) and in-depth graphic depictions of sexual experiences left me cold.
Summing up, for once the TV series rates higher in my view than the book.
