Chapter 9, Call Me Madam Summary and Analysis

After Xaviera returns to New York from Puerto Rico, she spends two months as an independent call girl, but eventually decides to become a madam and run her own brothel. She rents a one-bedroom apartment in the East Fifties and begins to recruit prostitutes for her staff. She hires a street hooker named Misty but finds that she treats the customers badly and dismisses her. She hires a girl named Leonora who is the only girl with a pimp who Xaviera ever felt it was not a mistake on her part to hire. She explains that it is best to avoid girls with pimps because "sooner or later they try to move in on your business" (p. 148). She recalls the story of a girl named Greta whose pimp was sent to jail but who still...