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alivemagdolene) wrote2011-11-13 02:56 am
alivemagdolene) wrote2011-11-13 02:56 am
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Book-It 'o11! Book #52
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one and two, just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: Mister Wonderful: A Love Story by Daniel Clowes
Details: Copyright 2011, Pantheon Books
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Information): " Meet Marshall. Sitting alone in the local coffee place. He’s been set up by his friend Tim on a blind date with someone named Natalie, and now he’s just feeling set up. She’s nine minutes late and counting. Who was he kidding anyway? Divorced, middle-aged, newly unemployed, with next to no prospects, Marshall isn’t exactly what you’d call a catch. Twenty minutes pass.
A half hour. Marshall orders a scotch. (He wasn’t going to drink!) Forty minutes.
Then, after nearly an hour, when he’s long since given up hope, Natalie appears, breathless, apologizing profusely that she went to the wrong place. She takes a seat, to Marshall’s utter amazement.
She’s too good to be true: attractive, young, intelligent, and she seems to be seriously engaged with what Marshall has to say. There has to be a catch.
And, of course, there is.
During the extremely long night that follows, Marshall and Natalie are emotionally tested in ways that two people who just met really should not be. Not, at least, if they want the prospect of a second date.
A captivating, bittersweet, and hilarious look at the potential for human connection in an increasingly hopeless world, Mister Wonderful more than lives up to its name."
Why I Wanted to Read It: In my fevered search for more graphic novels from my local library, I stumbled across this book. I remembered Clowes from Ghost World and thought this might be as enjoyable.
How I Liked It: The book has a deceptively engaging package: the inside covers feature the main character and his love interest pictured in a variety of different romantic vignettes. The catch is the style, which is about early '60s cartoony. I'd hoped this was a book on several levels of illustration, ala Strangers in Paradise.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. Sure, the main character's inner voice is illustrated in the same fashion as the inside cover sketches, but even if it had a sweeping mosaic, it probably wouldn't be enough to save this story.
The story's main protagonist is a nebbish, nervous, middle-aged loser who would wear his neurosis on his sleeve, but that'd be too healthy. Instead, he middles through a calamitous blind date, his inner monolog literally blocking out the dialog from other characters.
Unlike the films that contain this premise that have been Woody Allen's bread and butter, the main character is utterly charmless. Largely, there isn't enough interaction with other characters (and thus the quirky characters of Allen invention to help distract the audience from the lead nebbish) and what little there is is either blocked out entirely (see above) or the characters are so bland the attention is forced to divert back to Marshall.
In now third year of this little reading experiment, I find too frequently the books I loathe the most are the ones with the most promising premises that utterly fail. Be it a failed celebration of creativity, an expose that's not just complete lies-- it's completely BORING lies, a half-assed book barely on the fascinating topic, or a poorly written biography of a complicated and fascinating person, a failed concept hurts much more when you can visualize the success it could've been.
Clowes is certainly no stranger to this medium and to "off-beat" storytelling. In a world where rom-coms still find funding no matter how goddawful the quality, the world of fiction could always use another happily quirky love story. Even if this one, correctly done, might resemble a Woody Allen (in his heyday) flick, the ending is almost sincere enough that the resemblance would've been a touch of homage to an endearingly offbeat tale.
As it is, the book is just flat-out awful.
Notable: A curious note is included the publishing information:
Given that the word "goddamn" is fully typed out in several instances, one wonders what the aesthetic reasons would be for spelling that out.
Title: Mister Wonderful: A Love Story by Daniel Clowes
Details: Copyright 2011, Pantheon Books
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Information): " Meet Marshall. Sitting alone in the local coffee place. He’s been set up by his friend Tim on a blind date with someone named Natalie, and now he’s just feeling set up. She’s nine minutes late and counting. Who was he kidding anyway? Divorced, middle-aged, newly unemployed, with next to no prospects, Marshall isn’t exactly what you’d call a catch. Twenty minutes pass.
A half hour. Marshall orders a scotch. (He wasn’t going to drink!) Forty minutes.
Then, after nearly an hour, when he’s long since given up hope, Natalie appears, breathless, apologizing profusely that she went to the wrong place. She takes a seat, to Marshall’s utter amazement.
She’s too good to be true: attractive, young, intelligent, and she seems to be seriously engaged with what Marshall has to say. There has to be a catch.
And, of course, there is.
During the extremely long night that follows, Marshall and Natalie are emotionally tested in ways that two people who just met really should not be. Not, at least, if they want the prospect of a second date.
A captivating, bittersweet, and hilarious look at the potential for human connection in an increasingly hopeless world, Mister Wonderful more than lives up to its name."
Why I Wanted to Read It: In my fevered search for more graphic novels from my local library, I stumbled across this book. I remembered Clowes from Ghost World and thought this might be as enjoyable.
How I Liked It: The book has a deceptively engaging package: the inside covers feature the main character and his love interest pictured in a variety of different romantic vignettes. The catch is the style, which is about early '60s cartoony. I'd hoped this was a book on several levels of illustration, ala Strangers in Paradise.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. Sure, the main character's inner voice is illustrated in the same fashion as the inside cover sketches, but even if it had a sweeping mosaic, it probably wouldn't be enough to save this story.
The story's main protagonist is a nebbish, nervous, middle-aged loser who would wear his neurosis on his sleeve, but that'd be too healthy. Instead, he middles through a calamitous blind date, his inner monolog literally blocking out the dialog from other characters.
Unlike the films that contain this premise that have been Woody Allen's bread and butter, the main character is utterly charmless. Largely, there isn't enough interaction with other characters (and thus the quirky characters of Allen invention to help distract the audience from the lead nebbish) and what little there is is either blocked out entirely (see above) or the characters are so bland the attention is forced to divert back to Marshall.
In now third year of this little reading experiment, I find too frequently the books I loathe the most are the ones with the most promising premises that utterly fail. Be it a failed celebration of creativity, an expose that's not just complete lies-- it's completely BORING lies, a half-assed book barely on the fascinating topic, or a poorly written biography of a complicated and fascinating person, a failed concept hurts much more when you can visualize the success it could've been.
Clowes is certainly no stranger to this medium and to "off-beat" storytelling. In a world where rom-coms still find funding no matter how goddawful the quality, the world of fiction could always use another happily quirky love story. Even if this one, correctly done, might resemble a Woody Allen (in his heyday) flick, the ending is almost sincere enough that the resemblance would've been a touch of homage to an endearingly offbeat tale.
As it is, the book is just flat-out awful.
Notable: A curious note is included the publishing information:
“"Portions of this work originally appeared in The New York Times Magazine. It has been modified and expanded for this edition. The swearing has been left in #@$* form for aesthetic reasons.”
Given that the word "goddamn" is fully typed out in several instances, one wonders what the aesthetic reasons would be for spelling that out.