CRUDDY: An Illustrated Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)I had never heard of Lynda Barry before getting a tip about this book from another Amazon reader. For some reason I was expecting something along the lines of Phoebe Gloeckner's "Diary of a Teenage Girl"...graphic novel about girl coming of age in the 70's, etc.
But this is no memoir--at least, I hope not! It isn't really even a graphic novel in the traditional sense; Barry's crude paintings (done with charcoal? paint? hard to tell) interspersed throughout the narrative evoke the dark and ugly mood of the book perfectly, but they're miles away from comic-book realism.
This is a wildly-imaginative, horrifying book about Roberta Rohbeson, the story itself made even more surreal by the copious amounts of drugs and alcohol she as the narrator consumes, both as an 11 and 16 year old.
Roberta is tormented and abused at the hands of her nomadic father, who takes her on a roadtrip littered with corpses and who calls her Clyde and introduces her as a mute mongoloid. This is a girl who considers herself so ugly as a result of his violence, she becomes uncomfortable when people even glance her way. She's pitiable in the most obvious sense, but she's also smart and tough--and carries a knife named "Little Debbie" to protect her from the evil she (rightly) expects to encounter at every turn.
There's shenanigans and drug-and-alcohol induced exploits, of course, which drew comparisons to "Fear and Loathing" on the jacket cover, if I remember correctly. But it's not a one-trick pony, as Barry's character development skills are stunning. There's Roberta herself, her dim-witted and hysterical sidekick Vicky Talluso, the Father (referred to only as such), an erstwhile druggie hookup named Turtle, the flabby abusive hillbilly bartender Pammy, and many more. I can't make this stuff up, but Lynda Barry can.
Read it!!! Read it in the dark before you fall asleep. Read it when you're feeling sad. Read it in the most incongruous of settings--in the park, at the beach, on a sunny day. Despite its ugliness, it will make you smile.

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Tony and Susan Review

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The late Austin Wright gave readers a beautiful gift with Tony and Susan. He presented parallel stories, ushering us into two fictional worlds both of which are irresistibly compelling.
We first meet Susan Morrow who is surprised to hear from her first husband after 20 years - he has written a book, and would she like to read it? "Damn! But this book is good. How much he had learned about life and craft. He wanted to show her, let her read and see, judge for herself. " When they were married this had been a touchy subject; she was a harsh critic and he was a nascent writer.
She receives the manuscript shortly, but sets it aside for some three months. Susan is a worrier. In addition to household chores and looking after the children, she spends time in worry, not always certain what it is that keeps crossing her mind although Arnold, her husband, is often in those plaguing thoughts.
Nonetheless, at last she picks up Edward's manuscript titled Nocturnal Animals, and soon finds herself totally engrossed in the story of Tony Hastings. Married to Laura with one daughter, Helen, "He was a mathematics professor who took pride in reliability and good sense." They were traveling by car in northern Pennsylvania on their way to their summer cottage in Maine. On a lark they decide to drive all night rather than stopping to rest. Tony "was liberated by the irresponsibility of not having to hunt for a place to stay...."
That feeling of freedom was short lived as the Hastings family suddenly and irrevocably loses every shred of the safety and serenity they once enjoyed. At the same time as Susan continues her reading of Edward's manuscript she is forced to face the truth about herself, a truth she does not like at all.
So perfectly written, so imaginatively conceived Tony & Susan will stay with you long after reading the last page.
- Gail Cooke

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Geek Love: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)I couldn't put this book down, and carried it around for about a week, deeply and happily immersed. But, just for comparison, when I showed it to my boyfriend and he read the back cover, he physically recoiled and hastily handed it back to me. Funnily enough, he enjoys true-crime books/programs, and I can't stand the things. I think it's the same impulse though: we feel that these things, though repulsive to many, have things to teach us about human nature. With that in mind, I have to commend Katherine Dunn for a very well written, memorable, and thought-provoking book -- with the disclaimer it is absolutely not for everyone.
Basically, if you are armed with the knowledge that the book is about a family of circus freaks (including a fish-boy with no real limbs, siamese twins, and an albino dwarf, all purposely bred for birth defects with the use of drugs and radiation), and you are assured that ***it only gets worse from there***, and you still find yourself curious, then for goodness sake go out and get the book right now, because it delivers everything you would want except perhaps for a happy ending.
While I find writers like Chuck Palanuik and Bret Easton Ellis to be smug and shallow (there goes my reviewer rating!) I find them to be the only comparison to this book for actual shock value. I can't remember the last time I was actually shocked, not disturbed but shocked, at a book, and without being inclined to throw it out the window. The amount of humanity and vibrancy in these characters despite their ugly and often cruel natures kept me riveted. Highly recommended, for those with strong stomachs.

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