Daniel Clowes

Ghost World came out in a different time. I think teens and young adults were just getting the hang of being angsty and aimless. I thing this graphic novel got the angsty and aimless down well - but either it didn't age well, or I didn't and I'm not the right audience anymore. Honestly, I think it just tried too hard. I think had I read it back 20 years ago, I would have thought the same. Plus, I think by the time Ghost World was released, it was just riding the coat tails of other books and films that did it first and did it better.… (mais)

I like that the Clampetts from The Beverly Hillbillies made it into the summary of the history of the Earth included on the title page. That was the first and last thing I enjoyed in this book. The rest of it is just a bunch of absurd nonsense of the sort that critics seem to love (see below) but that just leaves me cold.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Foxhole -- Pretty Penny -- The Glow Infernal -- Demonica -- The Incident -- Success -- The Opening the Way -- Krugg -- Doomsday

(Best of 2023 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto one or more of these lists:
• Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2023
• Publishers Weekly 2023 Graphic Novel Critics Poll

This book made both lists.)… (mais)

A woman named, yes, Monica, is the central character in this story, which follows her from birth to old age. Monica’s mother decides to stop waiting for her boyfriend to return from Vietnam and jumps deep into the counterculture of that time. Monica is soon born and spends a tumultuous few years before she is dumped with her grandparents while her mother disappears for decades.

Her life is told through a series of interconnected stories involving a cult, a coma, a successful interlude as a businesswoman; but mainly a life a seeking, trying to nail down her origins. She finally tracks down most of the people she’s looking for, with varying degrees of satisfaction, and seemingly settles down into something approaching almost contentment, waiting for social security. But one last quest leads to an ambiguous Pandora’s Box of an ending that leaves you, me at least, confused and wondering what it all means.… (mais)