Phoebe GloecknerRezensionen

don't at all read this book in one sitting. it wants to make you do that, but resist if you can. the kind of intense that can make you crazy. especially if that one sitting happens to start at 8 pm and end at 6 am and then you can't sleep and then, finally, you sleep all day.

:o

It's good to see all the different styles in the form. But I can't say anything in this particular selection moved me or made me interested enough to seek out more of the author's work.

Holy shit, what a book! Not a young adult novel in the traditional sense but a really complex, densely textured coming of age novel that explores some seriously complicated dynamics between kids and adults. Also a really sympathetic look at promiscuity and the ways in which it might begin as kind of a pathology in very young girls but it is by no means any kind of life sentence. I've always been frustrated by the ways in which girls' books are already at a disadvantage because the male gaze is the default, the way we explore universal truths and abstractions and blah blah blah; tell the same story with a female narrator and it's all of a sudden "...from the perspective of a girl" like it's a handicap, like it might as well be from the dog's point of view. And if the narrator is female, and isn't pre-pubescent or sexless or otherwise "neutral," then it's suddenly loaded. Trust me, I went to college, I know! So it's SO NICE and SO REFRESHING to have a book about a promiscuous young girl that is not "about" promiscuity, or "about" being a girl, but a coming of age book in the same tradition as Catcher in the Rye, about something bigger, more universal, abstract. Excellent, I loved it so much.

I feel like I just survived a mashup of Looking for Alaska with Edward St Aubyn.

I don't think I can rate this book. Seems to be a note by note chronicle of a nervous breakdown caused by a personality disorder. No wonder Riley Anderson was afraid of San Francisco.

Um, wow.

I approached this volume with trepidation after last year's disastrous entry, but I'm pleased to see some selections in here from books I might actually consider putting on a best-of list myself, especially Guy Delisle's Hostage or Sarah Glidden's Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. (It wasn't good for me, but the critically-acclaimed My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1 is also included.)

There is still too much fixation on being an alternative comix sampler or indie publisher showcase for my taste, but I can forgive that if I at least discover something interesting of which I was not previously aware. The excerpted gem from this volume for which I'll be seeking out the full work: Playground of My Mind by Julia Jacquette.

(Via Goodreads)
I need to choose my words carefully for this review. I need to choose my words carefully because I do not really know what to think of this book, whether to like it or hate it. I bought the book following Phoebe Gloeckner's interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Please know, I do not wish to give spoilers, but I think at least one spoiler might occur. I will try to choose my words carefully.

In the Fresh Air interview, Gross broached the subject of the affair between Gloeckner and Gloeckner's mother's sometimes boyfriend. This diary is based on Gloeckner's actual diaries and the demarcation between real and fiction is impossible to distinguish. Gloeckner has admitted to this affair, so the realness of this event, at least, is not in question. Gross's interview stated that most adults would consider what the boyfriend did was, at best, molestation and, at worst, repeated sexual assault. Gloeckner denies either of those extremes stating she was a sexually cognizant and eager participant. Here is where I need to choose my words carefully because I will not speak for Gloeckner or discount her reality.

The boyfriend, nearly 10-15 years older than Gloeckner at the time, did take advantage of Gloeckner. I think that much Gloeckner would agree with. The boyfriend, unable, unwilling, or incapable of acting like a responsible adult (I wonder if the shit ever grew up - somehow, I doubt it), took advantage of the willing situation, that is, Gloeckner's willingness placed in front of him. But, see, he wasn't the only shithead to do this. As far as I can tell, nearly every adult encountered in the book seemingly took the same advantage of Gloeckner's willingness. This included her mother and the sick college-educated step-father/molester. I think Gloeckner's ability to snap out of it (obviously with some bumps along the road) and take care of herself where every adult decided their needs came above what was best for Gloeckner is nothing short of stupendous. Go, Phoebe!

I couldn't say if Gloeckner would want to be congratulated. I get the impression from the Gross interview, she wouldn't. That's fair. Again, this is her reality and I'm just an onlooker. Still, I congratulate her.

Even while I hate the shithead adults in the book (and they are truly shitty adults), what I appreciate so much about the book is that Gloeckner was what I was: a sexually desirous and active teenager. Here is a character that didn't give audiences a puritanical teenager, the kind that surrounded me in the YA literature of my time, but a young woman who enjoyed sex and was adventurous with her sexuality. I grew up in a small town so the only identity for me was slut. At 45 years old, I've made peace with that but I still know I acted outside what was publicly correct or proper. So be it. I did enjoy myself and am not ashamed of that. Thus, well done, Phoebe Gloeckner. I wish I had found your book much earlier. Maybe it wouldn't have taken me until I was 35 to not feel guilty about who I was and, quite frankly, who I am now.

I need to choose my words carefully for this review. I need to choose my words carefully because I do not really know what to think of this book, whether to like it or hate it. I bought the book following Phoebe Gloeckner's interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Please know, I do not wish to give spoilers, but I think at least one spoiler might occur. I will try to choose my words carefully.

In the Fresh Air interview, Gross broached the subject of the affair between Gloeckner and Gloeckner's mother's sometimes boyfriend. This diary is based on Gloeckner's actual diaries and the demarcation between real and fiction is impossible to distinguish. Gloeckner has admitted to this affair, so the realness of this event, at least, is not in question. Gross's interview stated that most adults would consider what the boyfriend did was, at best, molestation and, at worst, repeated sexual assault. Gloeckner denies either of those extremes stating she was a sexually cognizant and eager participant. Here is where I need to choose my words carefully because I will not speak for Gloeckner or discount her reality.

The boyfriend, nearly 10-15 years older than Gloeckner at the time, did take advantage of Gloeckner. I think that much Gloeckner would agree with. The boyfriend, unable, unwilling, or incapable of acting like a responsible adult (I wonder if the shit ever grew up - somehow, I doubt it), took advantage of the willing situation, that is, Gloeckner's willingness placed in front of him. But, see, he wasn't the only shithead to do this. As far as I can tell, nearly every adult encountered in the book seemingly took the same advantage of Gloeckner's willingness. This included her mother and the sick college-educated step-father/molester. I think Gloeckner's ability to snap out of it (obviously with some bumps along the road) and take care of herself where every adult decided their needs came above what was best for Gloeckner is nothing short of stupendous. Go, Phoebe!

I couldn't say if Gloeckner would want to be congratulated. I get the impression from the Gross interview, she wouldn't. That's fair. Again, this is her reality and I'm just an onlooker. Still, I congratulate her.

Even while I hate the shithead adults in the book (and they are truly shitty adults), what I appreciate so much about the book is that Gloeckner was what I was: a sexually desirous and active teenager. Here is a character that didn't give audiences a puritanical teenager, the kind that surrounded me in the YA literature of my time, but a young woman who enjoyed sex and was adventurous with her sexuality. I grew up in a small town so the only identity for me was slut. At 45 years old, I've made peace with that but I still know I acted outside what was publicly correct or proper. So be it. I did enjoy myself and am not ashamed of that. Thus, well done, Phoebe Gloeckner. I wish I had found your book much earlier. Maybe it wouldn't have taken me until I was 35 to not feel guilty about who I was and, quite frankly, who I am now.

My own teenage years were nothing like those on display in this book, which is perhaps why I enjoyed it so much. It was everything that I thought I both wanted to do and avoid in high school and much, much more. However, despite my own vastly difference experiences of adolescence, it appears loneliness, wanting to belong, and wanting to find yourself are universal themes.
I didn't much like the protagonist of Minnie most of the time but I was still rooting for her, wanting her to sort her sh*t out and leave a certain few men behind, perhaps even get out of home and make a place for herself. I enjoyed the subtlety of the ending far more than anything I would have designed.

I rarely go with two stars - mostly because I feel it's misleading. This was NOT a bad book. "It was ok" is basically how I have described it to friends, so I'll go with that.

Minne Goetz is a 15 year old girl, growing up in San Fransisco in the 1970's. She experiences her sexual awakening by hooking up with her mother's boyfriend. Ookie? Yeah, but not earth-shattering by today's standards. This "relationship" continues throughout the book, and Minnie experiences disappointment after disappointment, chases poor decisions with riskier decisions, until... nothing. Nothing happens. She is a year and change older, but essentially the same person she was. Her comics are cool and she may or may not be happier, but her behaviors are the same so the reader can't really predict a better future for Minnie after the back cover closes. Are some of Minnie's choices and feelings relatable? Sure. But not enough to make me recommend this title over other coming of age stories.

In a nutshell:
* About a teenage girl, but not necessarily for a teenage girl
* Angst-o-ramma
* Read in anticipation of the film
* Had to ILL through university library because NONE of the local libraries carry this title½

excellent!

i love love love phoebe gloeckner.

This is so different from your average growing-up story, so startling, so true - and also so painful to watch bad choices on top of bad choices driven by the need to be loved - that I'm giving it five stars even though I couldn't read every word of it. It was like watching a slow motion train wreck; sometimes I had to turn my head. The graphics are simply amazing in their skill and their honesty. It takes place in San Francisco in the 1970's and it's dead-on - I was there. I feel like I've spent a week visiting a dysfunctional family who I love, but I'm glad that the visit is over. A remarkable book.

I read this book for a seminar I'm taking on the graphic novel, but it's one-quarter comics at best.  Most of it is a diary written by a girl who is sleeping with her mother's boyfriend, doing drugs, and other various shenanigans.  At times it is harrowing and/or touching (especially in the last section), but it is mostly an unremitting stream of problematic behavior with no clear motivation or self-reflection, which gets old after a while.  Also I feel like this is one of those books that wants to be about "real" teenagers when it's no such thing at all.

The comics were the best part.  They're clearly not the work of the book's narrator, Minnie, seemingly drawn by some third-person omniscient narrator instead. There's no overt narrative voice-- the only captions just give locations-- letting us step outside of Minnie momentarily, and thus actually feel for her.  We can reflect even if she can't.

Two of the comics were even better than that: they were Minnie's "own" work, crude comics resembling the "comix" she loves so much and showing what she thinks about sex, women, her family, and herself.  I felt like these brief strips were much more potent looks into her thoughts than the other 300-something pages of the book.  Had there been more of these, I'd've been more interested all along, I think.

To put it bluntly, A Child's Life is a visual assault that needs to happen. When there are news reports of sexual abuse, rape, incest, drugs either on television or the radio we viewers are shielded from what that really means. We allow our imaginations to blunt the sharp edges of reality. We cringe, but we don't go there with the truth. Gloeckner doesn't allow this. You don't have permission to soften this horrific reality. As a graphic novel the pictures tell the stories of an abused childhood better than any words in a novel. In a word, it was painful and when I finished I had words of my own; words like harsh, gritty, shocking, tragic yet truthful rang in my ears.

That more can be said than, pictures tell a 1000 words. This books art displays the joy, sadness, and confusion of teenage years. It also shows the intellegence and of a mind forced grow-up in the 70's.½

I picked up this book randomly and it was not what I expected at all. While the graphics were certainly the highlight, overall the book left me disturbed and rather unimpressed. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but it wasn't all that great either.½

A remarkable and innovative work that combines memoir and graphic art to astounding effect. Gloeckner beautifully portrays this brave and bewildered heart.
-- Eric

http://nhw.livejournal.com/855628.html

Our fifteen-year-old heroine has sex with lots of people and writes it all up in her diary (though not with any degree of explicit detail). Rather depressing, and really pales into insignificance compared to Fun Home.