And the Pursuit of Happiness

This book could not have crossed my path at a better time. It is a celebration of America, its founding, its growth, its successes, its challenges. "Written" (so much of it is illustrated) in 2010, it is organized by months of the year, with one historical figure per month. But beyond that it is a far-ranging examination of places and ideals and tradition and possibility. She visits the Library of Congress, Mt. Vernon, the Pentagon, Lincoln's log cabin birth place, Ft. Campbell, Susan B. Anthony's home, an organic farm in CA, meets RBG (sigh), the supervisor of the Newton Creek Sewage Plant in Brooklyn, various US senators and representatives, a farm-to-table chef, and on and on, some named and famous, some unknown, but all important by show more virtue of their contributions to our nation. The drawings and photographs are relevant, beautiful, evocative and either complement the text or inspire it. The whole collection made me smile. show less

A gorgeous, fun and eclectic graphic tour of significant people and places in early American history, with thoughtful commentary on democracy as well as numerous other random and charming observations. I'm surprised I hadn't encountered Kalman's work previously, as she is quite prolific. I like the insightful way she thinks, and it seems like she'd be fun to hang out with.

This book is a graphic novel, illustrated poem, love letter to democracy, etc. Call it what you will, I just loved it. It’s a sweet look at our government and the world around us. It’s simple and joyful. The goal is not to give you a history lesson, but it manages to share some wonderful bits about our fore father in a playful way. The hefty book is over 400 pages, but it’s mainly illustrations and so it’s a quick afternoon read.

Kalman seems to find joy in the simplest things, like the funny quirks of the people she meets or the signs she sees above a public restroom in the Capital building. Her drawings and thoughts are so endearing. She talks about the food she ate on her trip and the people she met, even if they aren’t show more essential to what she’s saying. She gets sidetracked, but that’s part of the charm.

The book is split into 12 chapters, one devoted to each month of the year. It explores the lives of a few of our well-known presidents (Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington), including tidbits about their marriages and personal lives. The whole thing is done in such a lovely, whimsical way that each page is a treat.

p.s. For some reason I thought the drawing on the front was suppose to be some Russian guy, it’s not, it’s Ben Franklin. show less

Maira Kalman is an illustrator, an artist with a whimsical eye for the stuff of everyday life. "And The Pursuit of Happiness" is basically a book of her richly colored, Matisse-ish art with a sprinkling of commentary about American life and governmental functions. That sounds a bit dull, and I feel ashamed of myself for not being able to put it better, because nothing about Kalman - her personality,her art, or her writing - is in any way dull. On the contrary, she brings a delightfully fresh perspective to everything in this book - from the sewage plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn ("And there is no smell. WHAT?") to the Jell-o Mold Competition (also in Brooklyn) "run by this ENTERPRISING, BEAUTIFUL WOMAN in a GREEN JACKET and YELLOW show more BLOUSE", to the complexities of Thomas Jefferson's character ("Imagine the elegant evenings of brilliant discourse and fine wine and the best of everything. Thomas playing the violin, Martha playing the pianoforte. Alongside that, evening of endless labor and deprivation and freezing in pitifully small rooms, each on of which housed an ENTIRE FAMILY. Jefferson was a kinder master than most. And he was greatly conflicted.")

I loved the gentleness of this book, and I loved Kalman's ability to see beyond complexity to simplicity, and beyond simplicity to complexity. And most of all, I loved her deceptively primitve, brilliantly colored art, which I cannot help but think is a direct expression of the artist herself - who knows what to look at when she travels, sees a glorious pageant of wonder and excitement in the most simple things, and knows how to convey it to her readers. show less

If Matisse were a woman who lived in modern-day Manhattan and made colorful picture books for both children and adults, s/he would be Maira Kalman. "And the Pursuit of Happiness" is a kind of painted journal, originally made for the New York Times, that Kalman made while wandering through her affection for America and its history. She has a crush on Abraham Lincoln. She wanders in marvel through the houses of Jefferson and Washington. She notices and paints ladies with extraordinary hats, hotel rooms of vivid color. Kalman has a great capacity for delight and enthusiasm, appreciation of quirk. It's a pleasure to see the world through her wide-open eyes.

Sort of a graphic novel, sort of a prose poem, mostly a love letter to democracy, And the Pursuit of Happiness is Maira Kalman's story of her journey from coast to coast to discover what democracy means.

This is a gorgeous book - as weighty in feel and heft as its contents are light and spontaneous. Kalman combines handwritten typography, her own illustrations, and photographs into an intimate picture of her thoughts and meditations on subjects as diverse as fast food, mushrooms, Alexis de Tocqueville, and why we should all be in love with Abraham Lincoln.

This is a book that made me smile (and want breakfast at a diner on the way to Mount Vernon). In the midst of our more typical pessimistic screeds about the futility of governing by the show more people, Ms. Kalman reminds us in her own way just how simple it can all be. show less

Expectations! They are a bitch.

About a week ago, I read Maira Kalman's other book The Principles of Uncertainty and loved it. It is full of charming joyful paintings, paintings of all manner of things/couches/hairstyles/hats, lists and photos of people's backs, etc. All strung together in the loosest wandering free-form way possible, which is part of the charm. Afterwards, I read online about her newest book 'And the Pursuit of Happiness':

"Inspired by the 2008 elections, artist Maira Kalman set out across these great states with pen and paper in hand to explore facets of American democracy that many Americans only contemplate on the Fourth of July."

So what I expected was this: Maira stops in rest areas and gas stations, painting weird show more southern ephemera, philosophizes about the South and our history of slavery, suddenly she spots a duck-shaped hat and goes berserk and paints 20 pages straight of this same hat from different angles! Then she gets sidetracked and starts talking about the variety of trees beside the highway, then she follows an old abandoned train track to see where it goes, meets some hillbillies and talks with them about 'America', shoots a few deer, paints them, hitchhikes with a single mom in her yellow Honda civic hatchback to California while painting exquisite reproductions of her right ear as seen from the passenger seat, then paints some lean-tos in Nevada, paints the interior of several houses where she stayed on the floor on her epic roadtrip across the country, people-watches in a mall, paints a well manicured poodle, paints someone's sequined shoes, wonders to herself "Could the meaning of America be sequined shoes?" and there you have it THE END!

Instead, I got: Maira, filled with optimism after Barack Obama's inauguration, decides to write a book about the beginnings of this country. She doesn't do much travelling (though she does some) or meeting of regular people. Instead, she dives into history books and history museums... OK, already not as exciting a concept to me as what I had imagined... but let's give it a shot anyway.

Most of this information is common knowledge about our forefathers. History that seems to brush the surface, history that seems like myth (i.e. what they want you to believe happened). The book is filled with paintings, but most of them are paintings of oil paintings of dead white men. These paintings lack the kind of verve and observation of the paintings in her other book... Because in her paintings of regular people, you can tell by the way she paints them how she feels exactly about this person's nose, or how much she loves this woman's hair, or how the squirrelly quality of that man on the street comes out in full color. Here, we have reproductions that seem stale by comparison. I find posed oil portraits so boring, and though she tried her best, she was basically just reproducing them in this book, without adding much of her own character or interpretation into the mix (there are exceptions, of course).

Later, when she shows real people (like the kids involved in the organic farms) she opts to show photographs of them instead of paintings. Why she decided to paint oil reproductions of Thomas Jefferson while photographing the kids is a mystery to me. It seems like the opposite choice would've produced much better results, with more room for interpretation. We've all seen Thomas Jefferson a million times, in that same pose!

Then, instead of traveling to the little known spots to discover the spirit of what America is now, she goes straight to Washington D.C. What follows are portraits of government workers and congresspeople, sitting in their offices, in their business suits. All pretty boring to me. What's more, it's not like she gets below the surface of who these people are. Example: on one page we see a painting of a woman against a yellow background and the words say "I meet Haeda Mihaltses, the director of the office of intergovernmental affairs." Then the very next page, she tells you of some other people she met. OK... so what's the point of introducing the reader to Haeda Mihaltses for a page if it's not going to be followed up by anything? Who cares? She's some director or other, I didn't need to know that!

I know I've been focusing on the negatives so far, but that is because I was so disappointed. I wanted so much more from this. I don't want to mislead you though: there is a lot of good stuff in here as well. It's just spaced further apart. There is still a number of humorous, witty, quirky things sprinkled throughout. But if you've never read Maira Kalman before, DEFINITELY read The Principles of Uncertainty first, instead of this book!

Also: I found the first half of the book to be much better, visually; it felt like she stopped trying in the last half. Her brushstrokes were less subtle and the detail seemed to go away. show less