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Book Cover for: Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir about Being a John, Chester Brown

Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir about Being a John

Chester Brown

The critically lauded memoir about being a john, available in paperback for the first time!

Paying for It was easily the most talked-about and controversial graphic novel of 2011, a critical success so innovative and complex that it received two rave reviews in The New York Times and sold out of its first print run in just six months. Chester Brown's eloquent, spare artwork stands out in this paperback edition.
Paying for It combines the personal and sexual aspects of Brown's autobiographical work (I Never Liked You, The Playboy) with the polemical drive of Louis Riel. He calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but also a vocal proponent of one of the world's most hot-button topics--prostitution. While this may appear overly sensational and just plain implausible to some, Brown's story stands for itself. Paying for It offers an entirely contemporary exploration of sex work--from the timid john who rides his bike to his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice, to the modern-day transactions complete with online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of clichéd street corners, drugs, or pimps.
Complete with a surprise ending, Paying for It continues to provide endless debate and conversation about sex work.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
  • Publish Date: May 28th, 2013
  • Pages: 292
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.36in - 5.68in - 0.93in - 0.68lb
  • EAN: 9781770461192
  • Categories: LiteraryNonfiction - Biography & Memoir

About the Author

Brown, Chester: - Chester Brown was born in Montreal in 1960. He is the author of seven books and is best known for the non-fiction graphic novels Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (2003) and Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John (2011). In 2024, Brown created a Louis Riel stamp for Canada Post as part of a set honouring Canadian cartoonists. He lives in Toronto.

Praise for this book

"[Brown] makes as convincing a case for the decriminalization and destigmatization of prostitution as anyone I've ever come across in the prostitutes' rights movement." --Annie Sprinkle, The New York Times

"Paying for It [is a] body-and-soul-baring memoir that is sure to stimulate strong reactions." --Heller McAlpin, NPR