Daniel Clowes

A sad and funny look at the lives of teenage gen-xers. These kids are terrified of the future and adulthood, terrified of emotions, have lots of unresolved trauma that no-one has allowed them to recognise, and are desperate for people to like them for the right reasons. Of course, they don't really know what the right reasons are. They hate everyone who seems to be happier than them, they are cynical about deep interests, and despise anyone who appears unhappier. Enid is our cool hero but show more she's also deeply flawed, doomed to be unhappy unless she can work out how to maintain relationships and treat herself like she's important. Her cynicism, often presented uncritically as coolness, is based on fear and alienation, and a history of always getting hurt. Becky desperately wants to be normal, but neither Enid nor the rest of the world will let her be. In the end she and Enid push each other away rather than risk disappointment. Is this how the world is for kids these days too? A great work of sadness! show less

What a weird and difficult book.

Monica is unloved and hard to live. She's abandoned by her mother (Penny). Genre bendingly weird stuff keeps happening, but somehow Monica never realizes that she might be attuned to the supernatural in profound and dangerous ways.

Maybe the most relatable part of the novel is how badly Monica wants to be normal. But she expresses this by chasing her mothers ghost across the country as though answers will provide closure. Monica's never ending obsession with show more her mother even leads her to join the same cult her mother had once belonged to.

Clowes plays with pulp genres and styles in really enjoyable ways. show less

My husband gave me this book and about halfway through he noticed I was reading it and asked me if I liked it. I had to answer honestly—it really isn’t my cuppa. I usually enjoy graphics, but first of all this is a set of short pieces, and I generally don’t connect to short fiction as a genre. Secondly, these pieces ooze a masculinity that could be described as toxic if the characters didn’t seem so hangdog and pathetic. The narrator’s voice in my head (in every story, even the one show more where the protagonist is a woman) sounded like a kind of nasally monotone, droning on about the random nothingness of his life. I shouldn’t be surprised that all the stories touched on aspects of sexuality, some more graphic than others, but a frustrated or repressed or just fucked up sex life seems to be a central preoccupation for most of these men. All in all it was fairly dreary, and even though it is a slim volume, it took me a while to read because I had to intersperse the reading with other stuff to get through it. I did it because I love my husband and I’m touched when he buys books for me. show less

"No quiero ir a ninguna parte ni hacer nada ¡Sólo quiero que todo siga como en el instituto!"

Terminar este libro me dejo con una sensación de vacío. Sí ya pasaste por la época en que sales de la preparatoria y no tienes idea de que hacer con tu vida, este cómic lo único que hará será recordarte esa desolación. Sí haz visto la película lo más seguro es que recuerdes un halo de comedia, pero aquí es mucho menos notorio, la historia se centra más n el abandono, la desesperanza, show more la decepción, la amistad, los celos y la dificultad para saber que hacer cuando aún no eres un adulto formado pero ya dejaste la niñez muy atrás.

"Creo que sigo sin saber lo que voy a hacer"

"No lo entenderías porque no te desprecias a ti misma [...] Yo odio todo lo que soy"

Sin duda te sentirás identificado en algún momento y sabrás que pasas o haz pasado por al menos una de las situaciones aquí retratadas y te haáa recordar como la superaste, o bien te hundirá por que 1. aquí no se dan soluciones, y 2. en estos casos el sindicalismo no nos ayuda para nada.

"Me cabrea saber exactamente lo que quiero y no poder encontrarlo"

Muy recomendada sí es que gustas de algo que no sea fantasía, no sea feliz (más bien extremadamente realista) y no de esperanza de que todo saldrá bien con poco esfuerzo, pero que te hace revalorar lo que te han dicho en tu vida y aquello con lo que te recibió el "futuro".

"Me he hartado de contribuir a esta amistad más de lo que sacó"

Tal vez dentro de unos 15 años (puede que menos) vuelva a leer este libro y la sensación que me transmite será muy distinta, todo dependerá de como han salido las cosas, pero se que sin duda me hará nuevamente recordar aquella época en que la duda es ley, el sarcasmo es la mejor defensa y amistades se ganan/amistades se pierden

"Sería enfermizo seguirte así [...] sí lo piensas resulta un poco triste" show less