Graphic Novel Review: Paying For It (May 2011)

 Paying For It 

(A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John)

Written and Illustrated by Chester Brown

 Published by Drawn and Quarterly

Few autobiographical novels have made an impact on me mainly because of their boring stories full of self-justification. But Chester Brown's autobiographical novel "Paying For It" is one of those many exceptions.

His intelligent, excuse-free, brutally honest, and thought-provoking defense on the subject of "prostitution" as a viable replacement for romantic love - which he describes as "possessive monogamy" - is certainly going to raise some eyebrows, but at the same time, will make others do a double-take on the very subject of "paid sex" and the people who engage in such arrangements, and maybe, even persuade them to agree with his writing genius.