The Patrons

What if you got the chance to be everyone's fantasy?When she fled to DC following a divorce, the last thing Joanie Price expected was that she'd become a courtesan, but this is exactly what happens. Along with Joanie, we are drawn into the pleasures and benefits, nuances and norms of the patrons who support her. In modern society this idea has attained a negative connotation--like so many other uncomfortable realities, we prefer to hide it behind closed doors simply because we can. Against the backdrop of the 2008 Obama presidential campaign and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the questions her new lifestyle raises about who Americans have become and where they're headed are evocative and engrossing.In some societies, such as Paris's second Napoleonic era, and during many royal reigns before, lovely, enchanting women were seen as artists in their own right, and protected and cherished by their patrons in order that they may flourish. In our society, where both relationships and artisans have lost their strongholds in the sacrifice toward progress and humanity, where would a modern-day courtesan--an artist of love--fit in? Equally confronting and alluring, Joanie's somewhat naïve deviation from the rules makes us consider why we ever followed them in the first place. No matter what your view, there's one thing for certain: Joanie's experiment hurtles us through a story of self-discovery that's raw, transformative, and enduring.