BOOKRE Stiletto: My Lewe in die Seksbedryf deur Karin Eloff en medeskrywer Carel F. Cronjé By Marie Straub Eloff is what Cronjé describes as an educated ‘Boeremeisie’ – she has an Honours degree in Psychology after all. She has also worked as a stripper, erotic masseuse, prostitute, editor of Loslyf, a journalist and is mother to a little girl. How does that happen exactly? Coming from a fairly conservative background, Eloff (with the help of Cronjé) tracks her journey from Hoérskool Linden to Hillbrow and onwards. With an engaging frankness, Eloff shares her experiences of sexuality – her own and others – never shying away from, er, the hard stuff (if you will). This includes a refreshingly honest discussion about the inane obsession with women’s virginity, harrowing accounts of rape and a very clear sense of responsibility for her actions. Ready to give her take on what brings good Afrikaans sons and husbands – dead ordinary ‘Boerseuns’ as she calls them – to the doors of establishments of ill repute, she doesn’t see her past as deep and dark and is ready to jump into it. Kicking off with an account of how she lost her ‘virginity’ at age 35 (not because that was the first time she had sex, but because that was the first time she made love). Eloff’s account is more remarkable because it seems so human because it is not salacious (although it is that, at times, too). She’s left out names to protect the not-soinnocent, although Chris Chameleon features momentarily (albeit entirely innocently as a high school crush). The lure of money and attention, the boob job, drugs, and why it’s the ones with the small penis syndrome you have to watch out for, this book was a richer and more eye-opening read than I expected. It is in Afrikaans so unless you’re fluent in that language, you’ll have problems. 47 FEBRUARY 2011 COUP