Publisher's Synopsis
Free-spirited Jolette can't abide by the rigid conformities of traditional society. As a young Midwestern teen, she defies her parents and teachers, runs away from home, and becomes pregnant at sixteen, forcing her to make difficult decisions.
As a young woman in 1980s Seattle, Jolette works as an escort in an outcall massage agency, a job that gives her personal freedom, but makes her vulnerable to arrest and the Green River killer, who eluded police for twenty years, murdering numerous young female prostitutes in his hunting grounds of the Northwest.
In her quest to find her place in the world, Jolette also enlists in the army, works as a fishing boat deckhand in Alaska, and as a mule in a Colombian drug smuggling trip. In her need to find love, she begins an obsessive relationship with a man who accepts her unconventional work, traveling with him through Europe and Northern Africa.
All the while Jolette nurtures his lifelong dream to work as a foreign correspondent. But while she doggedly pursues this goal despite many challenges, it is the sudden diagnosis of epilepsy that derails Jolette and sends her into a downward spiral of self-destructive behavior.
Jolette is a candid memoir of resilience and a revelatory and fresh perspective into the life of a sex worker. It is a deeply moving and unflinching story of a young woman's quest to find her own voice and true love despite her feelings of uncertainty, pain, and loneliness, and how she ultimately finds her inner strength and courage.
