Pandora's Box

For starters, Rent Girl has a gorgeous cover - a lovely graphic novel illustration of Michelle Tea sitting on the edge of a bed, a john laying down behind her. In fact, Laurenn McCubbin's illustrations throughout this graphic novel are gorgeous and are done with great skill. And in general, I want to state that I have a lot of respect for Michelle Tea as a writer. The content of the story-line however, leaves a bit to be desired.

Michelle Tea has broached the subject of her history as a sex worker in a prior publication, Valencia, which I actually liked significantly better. I was surprised - being fond of graphic novels and being fascinating by the sex work industry, I thought, "How could this book lose?" I think if the book hadn't been focused so intently on prostitution, it might have fared better. Towards the end of the book, it felt like the storyline was reaching to maintain its focus and could have had more depth had it allowed itself to veer away more from the title.

It is clear that in retrospect, Michelle views prostition as unglamorous and demoralizing. I find it fascinating that Michelle, in contrast, remains more neutral on the subject of drugs, focusing on how fun they are. She has clearly given a lot of thought to the implications of sex work, however, less thought to the potential negative effects of mind-altering substances. I felt a tendency to ponder on my own morals when reading this novel. That thoughtful introspection, however, kind of took away from what otherwise seemed to be a book meant to entertain. I think if she had remained neutral on both prostition and drugs, I might have enjoyed this book more as entertainment. Or if she had intellectualized both prostitution and drugs, I would have found it more thought-provoking and insightful. But the contrast between the two just felt uncomfortable. Though I will admit some of this may be due to the fact that my views are in opposition to hers - I have much more respect for the sex industry than I have for substance abuse. And those views admittedly come from my own issues with substance abuse - my own history with it as well as seeing the devastations of addiction in my family.

That criticism said, however, and that bias acknowledged, I could relate to the conflict Michelle expresses throughout the novel - between the money and at times glamor of the sex industry and her diminished sense of self-worth after each encounter. And it is not that Michelle seems jaded from the work - unless one can be jaded the moment someone first engages in an activity. She instead seems conflicted from the get-go - seemingly between a sense of feminism and conviction with a need to survive. This sense of moral confliction is certainly not the popular attitude found in most blogs that I read relating to the sex industry. But it is simultaneously powerful and real - an enlightening alternate view-point in amongst most of the others.

I am definitely glad I read the book and would recommend it to others with that qualifier - don't necessarily expect to be entertained nor to be left feeling satisfied by a clean resolution to the storyline. But life rarely resembles stories with clean endings. And as conflicting as this book is, so is my opinion of it.