It's a Good Life, If You Don't WeakenBy Seth
1996
Available now from Islington Libraries
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This book has been basted like a turkey with plaudits, praise and critical acclaim. It's been voted one of the best Comics of the 20th Century. And serious comic professionals and intellects have declared it to be smart, funny and wise. I am not one of these people. Keeping in mind that you may love this book - I have to say that I found it dreary, uninspiring, predictable, lame and lacking any spark of real human emotions or life. Plus: it's boring. Boring in that way that only someone who thinks that they are really smart can be. As I was reading it I wanted to tell it to leave me alone and go and bother someone else: I don't care what you have to say: other, better, smarter, livelier, more attractive people have already said exactly the same things in a much more interesting, funnier and deeper way. But like an idiot I kept on reading till the end... (and - no - it doesn't get any better). It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken (and credit where it's due: good title) tells the story of it's author - Seth - bumbling around - having wanna-be deep conversations about surpassingly deep thoughts about existence and (yawn) old comic strips from the New Yorker - the artwork is barely passable - the story goes nowhere - and the dialogue is stilted and embarrassing. If you want to know the mind-set you're dealing with on the front cover it describes itself as a "picture-novella" - (good grief). Life is too short: read something else.
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Further reading: Hicksville, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, City of Glass, Quimby the Mouse, Jar of Fools, Why I Hate Saturn, Clumsy, Make Me A Woman.
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