Paying For It

I was recently at TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival) and when I bumped into a friend they mentioned Chester Brown to me, and what this book was about - his autobiographical tale of being with prostitutes (or escorts, if that word is offensive to you).  I find sex, the nature of sex, how people deal with it emotionally and mentally, to be pretty fascinating stuff so it didn't take much for me to pick this up.  At the very surface of this book it's essentially an argument for decriminalizing prostitution (not legalizing it though - which is an interesting argument in which the book goes into great passionate detail).  There is a rather large appendices where the argument becomes much more one sided (albeit entertaining!), but the comic is that in which I can't imagine someone (anyone) reading this and it not 'causing them to think differently about something than before.  It's the kind of book that makes you question your own thoughts and beliefs on such a subject.  This book isn't trying to answer questiions, but to ask them.  You may not like what he's saying - you might hate it - but you can't deny that it's interesting - and for some people - the thoughts hold true.  The main character's journey begins when they decide that romantic love is bullshit and that all they really need to do is pay for sex when they want it and the rest of the time they can just be enjoying their friend ships.  Brown makes a solid argument when he says that more people are are made miserable by romantic relationships than they are happy.  As a happily married man I do agree that couples such as my wife and myself are in the minority.  Relationships are hard things to do - but also like is pointed out in the book - isn't how that how you know something is worth doing?  By it being hard?
I picked this book up at TCAF but I'm pretty sure it's available now.  I know that I for one will be attempting to pick up more of this man's stuff in the very near future.  If you're even remotely interesting seek it out and support Canadian literature!
Paying for It