Title: I Was a Stripper Librarian
Author: Kristy Cooper
Rating: n/a (I don’t usually rate memoirs because it feels like I’m rating someone’s lived experience)
Favorite Quote: “It’s funny how shame works. I was never actually ashamed of stripping, but I was ashamed of how others might perceive me if they knew.” Cooper, Kristy. I Was a Stripper Librarian. Olivier, 2021.
Review: Thank you to the publisher, Olivier, and the NetGalley platform, for the free e-ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.
Even though I didn’t rate this book (rating memoirs just doesn’t sit right with me), I do have to say that I truly enjoyed this book. Cooper weaves a fascinating story of her time struggling through grad school and becoming a stripper with interesting insights. The narrative is also brimming with unexpected parallels - Cooper was a stripper and a fledgling librarian at a time of significant, destabilizing change in both professions, and her book does a great job showing her struggles with both.
One potential criticism I have of this book is that it doesn’t offer much insight into the experiences of BIPOC strippers and trans or non-binary strippers, although Cooper does acknowledge that these experiences are different than her own. I did appreciate that acknowledgement.
I also would have liked to see more of an exploration of her decision not to branch out into different forms of sex work. She briefly mentions that as a regret, noting that her relationship with “The Architect” was her reason for not doing so, but (and perhaps this is me being too nosy), I wanted to know more about that regret. Was it the financial aspect that she regretted not participating in? Or the type of work itself? While much of this book is pretty well developed, creating a balance between her life as a student, her life as a stripper, and her life as a librarian, I thought this aspect of her experience would have been an interesting route to explore further.
This memoir was also incredibly relatable, even for someone like me who has never engaged in sex work. When Cooper was detailing her struggles with graduate work and a lack of fulfillment that came from that level of schooling, I 100% felt that. I also struggled in my graduate studies because I was really questioning whether I was where I wanted to be (and worried that I was doing a whole lot of work if it wasn’t going to culminate in a job that I wanted). I stuck with it, and though I often am stressed at work, I do believe I made the right choice, sticking with my chosen educational and professional path. But I definitely struggled and Cooper does an impeccable job capturing that feeling on the page. (Side note - I also did not attend my graduate school graduation, but unlike Cooper, my reason had less to do with that feeling of disillusionment and significantly more to do with the global pandemic.)
Finally, the ending was another aspect of the memoir that I really appreciated. Her focus turned more towards advocacy, both in regard to her own library workers advocacy, as well as advocacy groups that are looking to protect the rights of sex workers.
About that Quote: This quote was towards the beginning of Cooper’s memoir, and it really sets the tone for the rest of it. With regard to her stripping, there were two different perspectives that were sometimes at odds and sometimes in sync - her own feelings and how she perceived the feelings of people around her. She writes in great detail about strategically choosing her location, at first to minimize the risk of running into people from her school life. And then later, when she does end up getting clients from her university, and at least one from her specific school, her attitude has changed by that point, but there is still the remnants of nervousness and this emphasis on how those individuals will perceive her.
I Was a Stripper is out now! If you’ve read it, share your thoughts below!
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