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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like my review is problematic right out of the gate because the fact that this just wasn't a book for me has nothing to do with Chris Ware's artistic talent (astounding), writing (witty, world weary, and downright lovely), or storytelling (solid). Its just so goddamn depressing I couldn't wade through it after awhile.
Ware examines, in minute fucking detail, a day in the life of several different characters at a midwestern school. All of them are in one way or another outsiders in their own lives, disconnected from each other and themselves. And they're all so goddamn depressed and lonely it almost killed me. There's the titular Rusty Brown, a fat, unpopular, intellectually challenged little boy who is horribly abused and bullied by everyone, his African American teacher who flashbacks reveal is just as bullied, and one of the bullies himself who pays for his treatment of Rusty by having a real fucking depressing life when he grows up.
There's just such an impenetrable layer of deep depression here that is totally impossible to break out of. Even the setting, for the most part the bleak midwinter, is heavy and painful. I don't need everything I read to be sunshine and puppies but when there's no catharsis of any kind I end up just floating in this sea of pointless sadness that isn't even mine.
I'm not sure who this book is for but you've got to have a high tolerance for misery.
Ware examines, in minute fucking detail, a day in the life of several different characters at a midwestern school. All of them are in one way or another outsiders in their own lives, disconnected from each other and themselves. And they're all so goddamn depressed and lonely it almost killed me. There's the titular Rusty Brown, a fat, unpopular, intellectually challenged little boy who is horribly abused and bullied by everyone, his African American teacher who flashbacks reveal is just as bullied, and one of the bullies himself who pays for his treatment of Rusty by having a real fucking depressing life when he grows up.
There's just such an impenetrable layer of deep depression here that is totally impossible to break out of. Even the setting, for the most part the bleak midwinter, is heavy and painful. I don't need everything I read to be sunshine and puppies but when there's no catharsis of any kind I end up just floating in this sea of pointless sadness that isn't even mine.
I'm not sure who this book is for but you've got to have a high tolerance for misery.
Chock full of good stuff!! 356 pages of graphic novel -- it was a very thick book.
Sometimes I forget just how good Chris Ware is. This is an incredible work—something like a Paul Thomas Anderson ensemble movie (Boogie Nights or Magnolia) set in a Catholic school in Omaha in the 1970s. Rusty Brown is both more restrained and less fussy than Ware’s other work. He relies more on his storytelling and characters to do the heavy lifting rather than on flashy layouts or unusual book design.
Each of the book’s chapters focuses on a single character’s inner life and has a distinct visual style that sets it apart from the other chapters. As is the norm for Chris Ware, his characters are all repressed and awkward Midwesterners whose lives are dominated by guilt and regret. But where Jimmy Corrigan experimented with obsessive design and Building Stories with the form of the book, Rusty Brown experiments with narrative structure. One chapter uses simultaneous and parallel storylines. Another is a comic adaptation of a short story from a science-fiction magazine. Another is a Joycean cradle-to-grave tale. And the final chapter (and the book’s highlight) is a jumble of fragments of memories with long sections being told without dialogue or narration.
It’s also only the first half of an intended six chapters, so this volume ends with an “intermission” (the whole book is presented as a teleplay). Considering that Ware started working on this book almost 20 years ago, it will be a while before we see the second part, so I wouldn’t wait for the full thing before reading this. Also, this reads like a complete work on its own so there’s really no reason to hold out.
Each of the book’s chapters focuses on a single character’s inner life and has a distinct visual style that sets it apart from the other chapters. As is the norm for Chris Ware, his characters are all repressed and awkward Midwesterners whose lives are dominated by guilt and regret. But where Jimmy Corrigan experimented with obsessive design and Building Stories with the form of the book, Rusty Brown experiments with narrative structure. One chapter uses simultaneous and parallel storylines. Another is a comic adaptation of a short story from a science-fiction magazine. Another is a Joycean cradle-to-grave tale. And the final chapter (and the book’s highlight) is a jumble of fragments of memories with long sections being told without dialogue or narration.
It’s also only the first half of an intended six chapters, so this volume ends with an “intermission” (the whole book is presented as a teleplay). Considering that Ware started working on this book almost 20 years ago, it will be a while before we see the second part, so I wouldn’t wait for the full thing before reading this. Also, this reads like a complete work on its own so there’s really no reason to hold out.
Another super depressing, but very interesting graphic novel. The stories felt a little disjointed sometimes and when I found out they were all written separately, I got why. However, they are still all great, the drawings were amazing as always and I love how reading Ware's work is so much of a puzzle.