Synopses & Reviews
Publishers Weekly called Michelle Tea "a modern-day Beat, a kind of pop ambassador to the world of the tattooed, pierced, politicized and sex-radical queer-grrls of San Francisco. [She] dramatizes the hopes and hurts, apathies and ambitions of young lesbians looking for love in the Mission District." Rent Girl continues Tea's graphic and uncompromising autobiographical bender, telling the story of her years as a prostitute, with provocative and richly illustrated work by Laurenn McCubbin.
Synopsis
Rent Girl is the illustrated saga of one broke baby dyke trying to make a buck in the surreal world of the sex industry. Avoiding the stereotypes of prostitute as victim or superhero, Tea instead explores the complicated occupation in all its nuances - absurd, somber, hilarious, disturbing. When Michelle, a young Boston baby dyke, needs money, her adventuresome girlfriend suggests taking up a secretive career in the world of escort services. Her misadventures through her years in the sex trade are at times, humorous, tantalizing, and heartbreaking. Constantly struggling between the worlds of poverty and prostitution, Michelle must make the eventual decision to stay in the business with its financial freedoms or quit for spiritual serenity.
About the Author
Michelle Tea is the author of four memoirs, including the Lambda-award winning
Valencia and the illustrated
Rent Girl, which is currently being developed for television.
Rose of No Man's Land is her first novel.
Laurenn McCubbin is the author and illustrator of the Xeric Award Winning XXXLiveNudeGirls and XXXLNG: Pretty Like A Princess (with Nikki Coffman); and the Creative Director of Kitchen Sink. Her work appears widely, from On Our Backs to the New York Times.