Scan barcode
jeanetterenee's review against another edition
3.0
This is told in the voice of 12-year-old Edna Arkins, somewhat like Ellen Foster except that Edna's life is not as troubled as Ellen's.
The voice here is quite convincing, dwelling on just the sort of things you'd expect a 12-year-old girl in the 1960s to be concerned about.
The most interesting part of the book for me was the Music Notebook at the back. It gives brief histories of the various music styles of the South and some musician bios. Not a lot of detail, but it was surprising how much I learned. And it has some fine and funky mixed media artwork.
The version I read was the original from 1988, so it looks different than the 1999 one pictured here. This more recent version may not have the Music Notebook in the back, which would be a bummer. Look for the one with a blue cover and a picture of houses and upside down angels on the front.
The voice here is quite convincing, dwelling on just the sort of things you'd expect a 12-year-old girl in the 1960s to be concerned about.
The most interesting part of the book for me was the Music Notebook at the back. It gives brief histories of the various music styles of the South and some musician bios. Not a lot of detail, but it was surprising how much I learned. And it has some fine and funky mixed media artwork.
The version I read was the original from 1988, so it looks different than the 1999 one pictured here. This more recent version may not have the Music Notebook in the back, which would be a bummer. Look for the one with a blue cover and a picture of houses and upside down angels on the front.
stevendedalus's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe this felt more groundbreaking when it was first published, but the autobiographicalish novellette with the impossibly naive narrator just seems kind of old hat now.
The frankness of addressing race and poverty is solid, but none of the insights or stories are that compelling, it all just sort of is.
Girl grew up poor and uncool and reflects back on it all in a faux-naïf voice to boldly state all the subtext. It just feels like there's no depth or mystery beneath it all. It's all plainly presented on the page, easily accessible to you. It's not bad, but it's just a solid execution of a story your gran may tell. Good for a light afternoon quick read.
The frankness of addressing race and poverty is solid, but none of the insights or stories are that compelling, it all just sort of is.
Girl grew up poor and uncool and reflects back on it all in a faux-naïf voice to boldly state all the subtext. It just feels like there's no depth or mystery beneath it all. It's all plainly presented on the page, easily accessible to you. It's not bad, but it's just a solid execution of a story your gran may tell. Good for a light afternoon quick read.
nadinekc's review against another edition
4.0
It was fun to be inside the head of a 12 year old girl at around the same time I was a 12 year old girl. She felt very real. So real that calling this a novel, as the publisher blurb does, just feels wrong. Edna's music notebook at the end was great too.
schwalove's review against another edition
5.0
I don’t know how to say anything about Lynda Barry without sounding like an idiot with no grasp of language, because maybe language just won’t do. She makes things that are very real and very magical.
bluepigeon's review against another edition
5.0
Lynda Barry's The Good Times Are Killing Me is different than One Hundered Demons; the latter is entirely comic/art based, while the former is mostly prose with a small drawing to start each vignette and the art work (collage, drawing, etc) more in the music album and afterword at the end of the book. The story in Good Times is threaded through with music, especially that special place music plays in young people's lives before things felt are properly named, before adulthood "defines" everything. From the lullabies to first songs to corny music to music only some people listen to, the judgements and joys of life and society are focused through the lens of music and told from the point of view of a young (white) girl who's best friend, for a time, is a feisty, black girl. The friendship, from its rocky, rule-breaking start to its sad, heart-breaking end is the definition of coming-of-age. The innocence and naiveté is balanced with spunk, intensity, and energy particular to younger people.
Recommended for those who like kickball, hillbilly music, kicking ass, and piano lessons.
Recommended for those who like kickball, hillbilly music, kicking ass, and piano lessons.
ederwin's review against another edition
5.0
This is a prose novel, with small black-and-white sketch illustrations. I state this right away because the majority of Lynda Barry's publications are comics. (I'm shelving this as a "comic", just because....)
It is a bittersweet novel of a lonely 6th grader Edna in the late 60s in Seattle, dealing with the usual growing-up stuff with a special emphasis on her love of music, making friends, and changing race relations.
The Edna in this book feels very much like Barry's character "Marlys". Both are probably partly auto-biographical to some extent.
All editions have reproductions of Barry's mixed-media portraits of musicians at the end, after the story. The musicians include artists from blues, country, and Cajun music, and aren't ones mentioned in the story, but must be ones that the real Lynda Barry is interested in. Example, Ma Rainey:
The 2017 edition includes a short new afterword, also in the mixed-media collage style that Barry uses now, memorializing the girl who inspired one of the characters in the semi-autobiographical story.
These days Lynda Barry spends much of her time teaching classes on creativity. I'm sure she is excellent at it. But I would love more prose novels from her.
It is a bittersweet novel of a lonely 6th grader Edna in the late 60s in Seattle, dealing with the usual growing-up stuff with a special emphasis on her love of music, making friends, and changing race relations.
How can a song do that? Be like a net that catches a whole entire day, even a day whose guts you hate? You hear it and all of a sudden everything comes hanging back in front of you, all tangled up in that music.I had read this already, probably 20 years ago, and was let down because it wasn't as fantastic as my (perhaps) favorite book of all time: [b:Cruddy|29015|Cruddy|Lynda Barry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442887874s/29015.jpg|1170873], also by Lynda Barry. I only read it again because I found a copy randomly. I'm so glad I gave it another chance. It really is as good as Cruddy, but so very different. While they are both stories told from the point of view of a young girl, in this one the girl is not on an LSD trip or murder spree! (Cruddy is a very dark book.)
The Edna in this book feels very much like Barry's character "Marlys". Both are probably partly auto-biographical to some extent.
All editions have reproductions of Barry's mixed-media portraits of musicians at the end, after the story. The musicians include artists from blues, country, and Cajun music, and aren't ones mentioned in the story, but must be ones that the real Lynda Barry is interested in. Example, Ma Rainey:
The 2017 edition includes a short new afterword, also in the mixed-media collage style that Barry uses now, memorializing the girl who inspired one of the characters in the semi-autobiographical story.
In real life we had no idea what we were talking about and we knew exactly what we were talking about: life, liberty and justice for all. Equality, peace and the right to play kickball together no matter what our people thought of each other.
These days Lynda Barry spends much of her time teaching classes on creativity. I'm sure she is excellent at it. But I would love more prose novels from her.
kathrynje's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed the book, but the first Lynda Barry book I read was "Cruddy". That was a spectacular novel. I guess my expectations were a little too high for this one. I would recommend the book though.
satyridae's review against another edition
4.0
Loved this! Barry is brilliant. One of her especial gifts, I think, is that she's retained the ability to pull out what her protagonist is focusing on with perfect tone. Sweat-stained armpits. Octopus furnace. Details that evoke age/time/place in a way that's entirely compelling. I loved the mini biographies at the end. My favorite part was the heartbreakingly poignant afterword.
garleighc's review against another edition
5.0
This was heartbreaking, plain and simple. The book is short, I read it in about a day, but this doesn't make the ending any less powerful.
More...