Whether or not Pekar has exhausted the storytelling possibilities of his own life, fans will appreciate this change of pace.
The latest from the renowned graphic memoirist offers a fascinating character study of a character who isn’t Harvey Pekar.
Though Cleveland’s Pekar (American Splendor, 2004, etc.) has mined his own life for stories that have taken him from the comic-book pages to late-night TV to the big screen, the writer here turns the spotlight on another character. Meet Michael Malice, whose issues with authority, ambition and political correctness will strike a familiar chord with Pekar’s readers. Through the illustrations of Gary Dumm, the reader enters the world of this Brooklyn-raised son of Russian immigrants, a young man who quickly realizes that the American dream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. From grade school through college and into the workforce (where he finds his comfort level as a temp), he always seems to be something of a misfit or an outcast, feeling that he’s so much brighter than those who would attempt to teach him or judge him. As the title of the book suggests, Michael might be a little too smart for his own good—quick to reject conventional wisdom and common sense in favor of an intellectual rigidity that puts him in a league with the likes of Ayn Rand. Pekar and Dumm invite the reader to identify with Malice, telling his story through his eyes in his words, yet the course of his life puts his vaunted intelligence at odds with the realities of the world around him. The narrative has all the deadpan realism of Pekar’s autobiographical work, and even has some sort of happy—or at least optimistic—ending that the writer has never previously permitted himself.
Whether or not Pekar has exhausted the storytelling possibilities of his own life, fans will appreciate this change of pace.Pub Date: March 28, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-47939-4
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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