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A review by redrocketpanda
Notes on a Thesis by Tiphaine Rivière, Francesca Barrie
3.0
I stumbled across Notes on a Thesis a few years ago at some point during my undergraduate and loved the look of it - a graphic novel about academia sounded perfect, especially one that seemingly dealt with the stress of academia in a light-hearted way. So, there seemed no better time to read it than a couple of months into the start of my PhD after my partner bought me a hardcover for for Christmas.
Sadly though, Notes on a Thesis really missed the mark for me. I'm not sure if a large element of this is down to differences in cultural humor (a British reader reading a translated French graphic novel) but I really didn't enjoy the humor of this book - a lot of it I didn't find funny and found the protagonist entirely insufferable; very self-involved, always complaining, very little redeeming qualities.
The pacing of the book was also off-putting with lots devoted to the first two years, less to the following years, and then almost nothing to the final year of her PhD. The final section was very rushed and ended on a low note. To be honest, I found the entire thing really depressing and not something I would recommend people doing their PhD to read, especially those early in their journey.
Sadly though, Notes on a Thesis really missed the mark for me. I'm not sure if a large element of this is down to differences in cultural humor (a British reader reading a translated French graphic novel) but I really didn't enjoy the humor of this book - a lot of it I didn't find funny and found the protagonist entirely insufferable; very self-involved, always complaining, very little redeeming qualities.
The pacing of the book was also off-putting with lots devoted to the first two years, less to the following years, and then almost nothing to the final year of her PhD. The final section was very rushed and ended on a low note. To be honest, I found the entire thing really depressing and not something I would recommend people doing their PhD to read, especially those early in their journey.