Paying for it

This is a great graphic novel and deserves to be in any serious collector's bookshelf. The book deals with taboo topics: sex and prostitution. Chester Brown deftly tackles the topics which could very well provoke a staunch feminist.

The story is quite simple: Chester Brown is a 30 something who finds romantic love too much of a burden to carry on his shoulders and investing heavily on a relationship wears him out and makes him less content and happy. He also finds that sex in a romantic relationship is less fulfulling. So, in order to feel more content, he finds solace in having sex with prostitutes – plenty of them – in different shapes and sizes. We find out that he has a preference for women with bustier breast, a dangerous notion that is propogated by mainstream pornography.

The illustrations and panels, especially the steamy stuff, are tastefully drawn without going over the top. My only gripe, which is why I've given it only 4 out of 5 stars, is that the most panels feel re-used and plot started to get repetitive.

The best part, as always is the case with Chester's books, is the afterword where he delves into a lenghty worded discourse on the prostitution and whether to legalise it or not, the morals of having sex with prostitutes, slut shaming, etc,.

Of course, sex and prostitution is a polarising issue, and I can envision readers either agreeing or disagreeing with Chester's views. There are clearly no shades of grey. And that's precisely the point of this book – to provoke readers, albeit with a noble intention, to open up and talk about taboo topics.

the gigantic, confrontational appendix turns the entire thing into a bizarre libertarian polemic.

Very interesting. A perspective I have never in my life explored... Talk about a gutsy memoir. Opened it in a bookstore not knowing what it was, sat down on the floor and read it straight through.