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sandphin's review against another edition
5.0
Loved her snarky sense of humor. I will be reading more by this author. The first part is about her various jobs, largely in the food-service industry and then as a comic-book writer and artist. The second part is about being diagnosed with systemic lupus at age 20. The short 3rd part is a love letter to her hometown library. Wertz keenly draws characters around her and makes sharp observations. I loved her relationship with her brother in particular.
Content notes: rude language, alcoholism, sexual harassment.
Content notes: rude language, alcoholism, sexual harassment.
skolastic's review against another edition
5.0
I've never really been someone who seeks out memoir comics, but a friend (literally) pressed this into my hands and I was really charmed by it (and even had, uh, a little revelation of my own about a personal life thing along the way). Really good stuff.
avadore's review against another edition
5.0
It was great to sit down and finally finish this over the weekend, and of course the last story about libraries really hit me in the chest. Fart Party was one of the first web comics I ever read and I've really enjoyed the... maturing-without-loosing-the-fart-jokes that Julia has done over the years.
gelbot5000's review against another edition
5.0
At this re-read, still a 5 for 5. Everyone should read this damn book.
hamikka's review against another edition
5.0
Even though I'm at least a decade older, I believe that Julia Wertz and I were conjoined twins separated at birth. She got the talent though.
🤘🏼🖤🤘🏼
🤘🏼🖤🤘🏼
otterno11's review against another edition
5.0
I have really enjoyed the work of cartoonist Julia Wertz online and in print, and having seen some of these comics posted on her blog, I was looking forward to seeing them in their entirety in “The Infinite Wait and Other Stories.” This is, I feel, her strongest work yet. Wertz’s self deprecating, detail orientated reflections on 20 something life is one of the best and most accurate depictions I have seen. I love her meticulous maps of her various cramped apartments, and I’ve not found many other comics that can express amusing anecdotes of daily life so well, or one so adept at funny insults!
Discussing, in unsparing and hilarious detail, her various employments over the years, her struggle with the chronic disease Lupus, and the influence her local public library had on her life, Wertz shows how memoir comics can elevate the human condition. Or something. Really, it’s just a lot of fun, even as she writes on the more difficult aspects of her life. As someone born in the same year, sharing a certain bookish mentality, anti-social tendencies, and a close relationship with my sibling, there was a lot here that really resonated with me, but Wertz’s sarcastic and acerbic wit expresses it far better than I could.
It is the last story, “A Strange and Curious Place,” that enjoyed most strongly; as a kid who loved visits to the library, who got most of my books through the annual booksale, and who dreamed of having a book on the shelf there someday, this was evocative stuff. Wertz’ reflection the place the library had on her life, and now that I find myself working in a public library (even occasionally at my own, old hometown library), is great publicity for the place and would recommend it to any librarian, library worker, or library patron!
Discussing, in unsparing and hilarious detail, her various employments over the years, her struggle with the chronic disease Lupus, and the influence her local public library had on her life, Wertz shows how memoir comics can elevate the human condition. Or something. Really, it’s just a lot of fun, even as she writes on the more difficult aspects of her life. As someone born in the same year, sharing a certain bookish mentality, anti-social tendencies, and a close relationship with my sibling, there was a lot here that really resonated with me, but Wertz’s sarcastic and acerbic wit expresses it far better than I could.
It is the last story, “A Strange and Curious Place,” that enjoyed most strongly; as a kid who loved visits to the library, who got most of my books through the annual booksale, and who dreamed of having a book on the shelf there someday, this was evocative stuff. Wertz’ reflection the place the library had on her life, and now that I find myself working in a public library (even occasionally at my own, old hometown library), is great publicity for the place and would recommend it to any librarian, library worker, or library patron!
will_sargent's review against another edition
5.0
There's a lot in common here between Wertz and Keith Knight, the guy who does the K Chronicles, but where K does comics, Wertz does stories.
I think what I like about this is that it's the story of an ordinary life. The books you read when you were growing up, moving into a new place, finding out what you don't and don't like... little bits and pieces that are all immediately knowable by everyone.
And then she gets lupus, and it just gets sad. And she goes out on dates with people who take her to parties that she hates, and she discovers the Internet ("cute bear pictures" does not Google for what you think) and she finds out about comic books... and she's a real person. A cartoon image of a real person, mind you, but who doesn't have that.
Recommended.
I think what I like about this is that it's the story of an ordinary life. The books you read when you were growing up, moving into a new place, finding out what you don't and don't like... little bits and pieces that are all immediately knowable by everyone.
And then she gets lupus, and it just gets sad. And she goes out on dates with people who take her to parties that she hates, and she discovers the Internet ("cute bear pictures" does not Google for what you think) and she finds out about comic books... and she's a real person. A cartoon image of a real person, mind you, but who doesn't have that.
Recommended.
manogirl's review against another edition
4.0
Liked it, but it was a little draggy at the end of each of the stories.
lookingmuchimproved's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
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