A review by ablaine
The Pleasure of the Text by Sami Alwani

5.0

“If you’re trying to convince me that reality exists — let me just warn you, you’re going to have a hard time.” This is the most 2021 book of all. This collection of comics from Sami Alwani is rigorous and radical. Complex thoughts, feelings, emotions bleed onto the page and echo like manic laughter. “There is no bottom to the depths of which I will not sink … *churlish disquieting laughter* my anguish is foundationless and eternal.” The pandemic, politics, racism, capitalism, sexuality, identity … this book covers so much with expertly drafted panels and dense captions. The humor in these comics walks a fine line between hysterical laughing and sobbing and I was bursting with laughter. “The discourse of the culture I subsist in subsumes me.”