Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.91 You Save: $8.04 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.98 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Our Cancer Year
Book Review: A better look at Joyce
Summary: 4 Stars
Those of us who only knew Joyce from the American Splendor film will be impressed by her depth. Hope Davis as Joyce seemed sarcastic but shallow: sleeping all day, flying out to do some sort of activism, then finally latching on to a friend's little girl to fulfill her maternal instincts. And "Real Joyce" seemed content to smile and stay in the background.
There is little of that Joyce here. Whether you like her politics or not, she is can-do all the way. I was puzzled that Danielle is not in this book. Perhaps she's edited out for simplicity, or perhaps the film's timeline was idealized to bring her in during the cancer year.
I, too, was initially put off by the artwork, especially the asymmetrical and misshapen faces, but I came to feel that the drawing style supported the story well. They needed a little more white-out over the cut-and-paste spots, though.
I especially enjoyed the problems with Slim, having run into the same sense of entitlement with PTL contractors.
Book Review: Learn to read the art as well
Summary: 4 Stars
It's very important to emphasize here that Frank Stack's artwork is not "sloppy" or "crude" in any sense. He and Bill Griffith probably have the strongest straight-art chops of anybody doing comics now. But Stack isn't just technically accomplished. Once you learn to follow his deceptively simple lines, he's profoundly expressive in his impressionist manner. Especially dealing with the tough stuff in this story, he finds the exact unsentimental tone. If he was a more prolific storyteller (or had just a bit more vivid sense of humor) his work would be mentioned right with Griffith, Crumb, Sheldon, Williams, Woodring -- the likes of those. Barbner and Pekar's single finest stroke may have been choose Stack to do the art for "Our Cancer Year."Book Review: A great book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an incredible book. This comic-book remarkably and vividly portrays real lives--some lives torn apart by cancer, and some by war. I loved this book, and I've read it twice, several years apart.
The second time I read it, something "hit me over the head" that hadn't struck me before. That's probably because since my first reading, I've done extensive research on the relationship between cancer and IGF-1 in dairy foods. (I've collected the full-text of hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles while co-authoring a book on rBGH.) Upon this reading of Our Cancer Year, I noticed that dairy figured prominantly among mentioned foods in the book. Most readers of this review will view this paragraph as more quack than quirk, but I invite serious-minded researchers to check out PubMed for "IGF-1" (found in cow's milk) and "neoplasms," for instance. This book was written before rBGH was introduced into cows, which has resulted in even higher levels of the IGF-1 hormone in our diet.
Another thing that struck me while re-reading this is that people are still killing each other in the Middle East, even this many years later. Not surprising, I guess, but tragic, nevertheless. I admire Joyce B. for her challenging peace work. And I admire Harvey P. for this honest, insightful portrayal of their struggle with cancer.
I think the artist did a fine job, too. An all-around great book, whether you've had cancer or not. (I have not.)
Book Review: Fine Work
Summary: 5 Stars
A fine work of autobiography. Understand, however, that Harvey is critical of everything, himself included, and his unflinching eye depicts his personal agony alongside the state-of-the-world at the time. As in many of his extended works, Harvey uses his story to get up on a soap-box, but if you think of his comics as an extension of his life, you might be begining to appreciate what he really is. Harvey IS his stories. I was struck by the relationship between Harvey and his wife Joyce: if there is a better depiction of the difficulty in love in the midst of illness, I don't know it. Their relationship is loving and it touched me deeply.
Book Review: For Pekar fans and people struggling with illness
Summary: 4 Stars
I found this book interesting since I'm a fan of Pekar's American Splendor series and his appearances on David Letterman's shows (apparently at an end, unfortunately for Pekar, even more unfortunately for Letterman). This book's an in depth look at Pekar's struggle with lymphoma. Given the subject matter, it's probably no surprise that this isn't as amusing as the American Splendor anthologies. But for fans, or for people struggling with illness, it's probably a worthwhile read.