Merrill Markoe

Four charming canine characters and a less charming 47-year-old adolescent named Gil form the family unit of this often very funny novel. One day, itinerant handyman Gil discovers his beloved flat-coated retriever Jimmy conducting a workshop of sorts for the neighborhood pooches--and he's understanding every word said. (A running, but not over-played joke is that Gil's girlfriend Sara is a professional animal communicator, very sincere, who always gets things wrong--the dogs complain she show more doesn't really listen.) Three of the dogs are rescues: Cheney, whose whole life revolves around fetch; sweet abused Fruity, who's always certain she'll be beaten or thrown out in the road; and Dink, a goofy dachsund(sp), who just can't get the human rules straight--inside/outside, before/after (Gil complains it's like talking to a drunk). The star, though, is Jimmy, who, raised from puppyhood by Gil, suffers a rude awakening that he's not in fact a dog/human hybrid, but has an actual family somewhere (with Gil's ex-wife, as it happens).

Gil's a jerk--his most appealing quality, beyond his love for his dogs, is his self-awareness, though. He's lousy to his girlfriend, can't keep his hands off his ex, can't keep his eyes of his dog groomer's tits, etc., etc. His life's a spectacular mess for a reason: him. But there are lots of fun riffs here, on family, the frivolous rich, animal blogs (in particular, that I can has cheeseburger crowd), seventies' pop--pretty much you name it. Fun, fast read. show less

I first remembered Merrill Markoe as the head writer for David Letterman's Late Night with David Letterman. She was also in a romantic relationship with Letterman for years. In her collection of humorous essays Cool Calm and Contentious, she recounts in one essay her relationship with an unnamed talk show and how she learned that he had been cheating on her with young staff members. As someone who remembered this scandal, I found how she handled it in the essay brilliant.
She also has essays show more about her narcassistic mother (oh wow, that woman is something), and maybe growing up with her mother helped her deal with a life in show business, and all the difficult personalities she encounters in her work.
I picked this book up because I saw Markoe on HBO's Hacks this season and she is hilarious in her deadpan delivery. It was a good afternoon spent reading it. show less

There may be many (emphasis on "man") people who won't find anything charming or profound in found diaries from 1960s middle school girlhood. If so, bye. But if you relished Alison Bechdel's Fun Home memoir, here's another for you. This graphic novel is so honest and unique that it's a perfect read for any woman, girl, or even grandmother - we have all lived through these times, even if not in the same country or with the same hostile parents and miserable sibling. If you don’t see show more yourself in Merrill, then you could be her mom or her ever-changing best friends or someone who thought her life would truly begin once she moved from Miami to golden San Francisco (where the adolescent problems persisted but just in a cooler setting). Markoe's sometimes disturbing illustrations, her adult perspective on her diaries and on the seemingly unique circumstances of her upbringing - probably more common that she could know at the time - create a remarkable and unsettling reading experience. show less

We Saw Scenery: The Early Diaries of Merrill Markoe is a hilarious and poignant graphic memoir. The situations, while specific to her and the era, will still be relatable to any adult reflecting on their own youth.

I am just a tad younger than her so I could relate fairly well to a lot of what she went through. In addition to the basic idea that as children and adolescents we blow everything out of proportion, it was also fun to remember the big differences in life then versus now. For show more instance, without even commenting directly on the current trend of putting every detail of one's life on social media, she still makes the comparison when she emphasizes the need for a key to protect her very private diaries. The very same type of information used nowadays to get followers and likes. Is it any wonder that people are so fragile today? What could break us if even a portion got out years ago is now broadcast on various forms of toxic social media, then people are surprised when the cruelty starts.

But I digress. Markoe really makes this a fun trip even through the painful parts, and when she speaks with her younger self the banter is just about what one would expect. Those were perhaps my favorite parts of the book.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss. show less