Rent Girl

“Rent Girl” is an unconventional memoir written by Michelle Tea with extraordinary illustrations by Lauren McCubbin. The author documents her whimsical foray into the world of prostitution, while building upon and revealing the secrets (and not so secrets) of her lesbian lifestyle. She boldly enters the “magical mental territory” of prostitutes and relates the experience with stark honesty and overwhelming creativity.Early on she confesses, “I wanted to try things, everything, especially things that are illegal and have a faint whiff of glamour.” And she proceeds to do just that delving into a forbidden world that is foreign to most and is populated by a cast of complex and inventive characters of questionable authenticity. Brilliant descriptions of whores and their customers are augmented by the colorful illustrations.The work was on and off and she hated it much of the time. But the money was great, and she found some very creative ways to deal with the distasteful work. She writes about “. . . how it makes you mean, makes you vengeful; how it turns you into a greedy monster because no matter how much money they are giving you it is never enough, and you start to want their blood, their homes, their self esteem lying wet in the wastebasket like a shucked condom.” She would forget how much she hated it because she made so much money.Obviously, this book is not for everyone. But if you like the unconventional and have an open mind about sex, sexuality, and alternative lifestyles, it should suit you very well.

Michelle Tea’s look back on her past life as a sex worker, and the friends, lovers, and colleagues who inhabited that world along with her, are showcased in an incredibly raw and tender way.

This is illustrated fiction. It isn't your average graphic novel. Imagine a book where most pages have their own illustrations. If you're looking for a titillating tale with hard-core lesbian "action" then this isn't the book for you.This reads like a true story and is told from the perspective of a flawed, vulnerable and entirely human prostitute. The writing is so intimate and unguarded that reading it felt almost voyeuristic. The writing is brutal, honest and beautiful. The illustrations frame the story in an equally brutal, honest and beautiful way. They serve to compliment the narrative and do not distract you from the story. It's clear to me that the illustrator and the writer shared the same vision here.The only detractor from what I would otherwise recommend as a "must buy" is the large number of typos. I'm not sure whether this was intentional, but it was extremely distracting. The typos made the book feel a little unpolished.

Love Michelle Tea's honesty

Ultimately, this book leaves me cold. The premise sounds good, a lesbian hooker's kiss and tell plus pictures but after a promising beginning, describing an invite-only party her madame throws the story falters. The main reason for this is that the narrator appears to have only one attitude towards other people: sneering contempt. This doesn't say much about these other people but it says a lot about the narrator. And thus one loses interest in her rapidly.Add atrocious (i.e. non-existent) editing, numerous spelling errors and the constant substitution of `than' with `then' and the picture that emerges is that of an author who appears to think that a memoir is worth reading simply because the author happens to be a part of the queer community. I am sorry, but it is not. Being self-absorbed and condescending doesn't make you a good writer, queer or not. I'd much rather read Dorothy Allison or Patrick Califia for that matter.A shame, really, because the idea does sound good and the illustrations by Laurenn McGubbin are quite nice.

love this

I got this book because I've been exploring the graphic novel/comics medium for a while. I don't think it really fits in that medium. I'm not sure it fits anywhere.There are way too many words for this to be a graphic novel or comic, IMHO. It's a so-so story about a dyke hooker with a nice picture on every page. One gets the feeling the pictures are what makes this sale-able--I can't imagine any house publishing the words alone. (Though if they were to do so, they might at least edit the really annoying grammatical errors throughout.)I'm giving it three as a sort of benefit of the doubt--maybe I'm approaching it too narrowly and the picture book for grownups is coming back. The pictures are neat and do seem to flesh out (no pun intended) the fairly mundane narrative.Characters--there are some. You don't really care about them very much. Conflicts aplenty, but of the "then this happened" variety. The plot seems to wrap itself up tritely and in a hurry as if the author were just tired of the pointless exercise. To presume themes or metaphor or anything literary would be overdoing it.There are some charming narrative moments, however. And it's easy to read if you can ignore the dreadful lack of editing. (e.g. "Than" is always spelled "then", and sometimes it's as if the spellcheck stuck in the wrong word while trying to decipher a typo.)Going into the book, I had some guesses: a dyke prostitute probably hates the johns, will probably have a hard time being girlfriends with the woman who got her into the game, will probably have some interesting insights into the oldest profession. The last guess was dead wrong--nothing here showed me anything hollywood hasn't already. I thought a memoir of a dyke would at least present a complex portrait of the sex trade, but the portrait of the prostitute was a callous as any a man would write.When you buy a rent girl, you get sex. When you buy Rent Girl, you get a lackluster treatment of the lamest possible prostitute memoir.

There are lots of books about call girls and their ilk but this one is different as it is superbly illustrated by Laurenn McCubbin; evocative line drawings on every page enhance Michelle Tea's comedy approach beautifully. These, sometimes saucy drawings, take up at least as much space as the text and jump out at you from every page. I was somewhat reluctant to spend over £10 on a paperback but it is in a quite large square format and is better described as a softback as it is printed on quality paper with fully varnished cover and well worth every penny. Once I started reading I realised I had a big smile on my face and that stayed with me all the way through. I have a feeling I will return time and again to this book for both the text and drawings.