Customer Reviews

Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story

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I have followed and rated Pekar's work for years -- writers like Pekar, Crumb,Clowes and a handful of others reach the heights of Chekov and even -- perhaps -- Dostoyevsky at their best, and they have contributed to the comic genre being taken seriously.

However, I have found that as Pekar gets older, his work has become more dull, and his illness has perhaps ( understandably of course ) made his work a little more self indulgent and introspective, but in a rather pedestrian, boring way.

I haven't really enjoyed his recent work that much. A certain edge is gone now, and of course, so much of his work has been packaged, repackaged and sold off in different volumes since his movie success. The idea seems to be "cash in" rather than innovation nowadays with Harvey. (But no one could say he doesn't deserve cash in after all his years as a file clerk).

So, I approached this book with caution, expecting a book cashing in on his recent cinema success, or perhaps rehashing old themes and ideas.

How wrong I was -- this is like a new beginning for Harvey -- a close study , not of himself, and his own inner demons, which he has done admirably for years, though he has started to grow a little tired of late -- but a study of the shortcomings, failings, flawed aspirations, intelligence and eccentricities of others.

It tells the story of one Michael Malice, a Russian Jewish immigrant to the USA. He is an atheist, and feels no affinity with his Jewish ness, (an "identity" which he considers preposterous, scripturally and socially) or his "Russian-ness" (an ethnic identity he considers parochial and primitive). Neither does he see much value in being an American. He loathes his family, loathes his co workers in all the jobs he gets sacked from, loathes his college mates and school mates because he is (unpleasantly and probably erroneously) convinced he is "smarter than all of them." He doesn't seem to have any friends or lovers, and is lost in his own projections about the world -- projections in which he is always the smartest, and the one most hard done by.

Of course, much of American Splendour always included analysis of others, but mostly either in brief studies, or in relation to Harvey's own visions and daily life -- this work however, is very much an in depth study of another quirky loser character, a personality that one doesn't quite know whether to like, loathe, admire or feel sorry for. And that is why the book is so compelling. It is difficult to tell whether the main character deserves more from life and has been overlooked unfairly -- or if he is a miserable, annoying loser with unfounded pretensions and delusions of grandeur.

Either way, the book expresses and investigates significant insights, and whilst reading it, one can't help but think about the way one perceives others, and in turn, reflect on the way one is seen by fellow workmates, family etc. Like a lot of Pekar's work, it enables the reader to see gems of insight in the mundane, the dull and in the apparently banal events of daily life.

Another good point is the length of the book -- it isn't one of those graphic novels you shell out lot of money for, and is grandly dressed up in a flashy sleeve -- but then you read and finish in half and hour. It is a good, reasonable length, and one can savour it and read it for about a week or two.

Harvey is really back on form after a string of rather mundane, repetitive editions of his comic. One of the most enjoyable comic books/short stories of the last few years, and Pekar STILL leaves most other graphic novel authors in the shade.

So many other graphic novels have pretentions of greatness -- but let you down, every time. This one doesn't.

This is one of the most intriguing autobiographies I've ever read. Its subject, one Michael Malice, could've come straight out of an overdone piece of fiction. He's a rather talentless loser with a mile-wide mean streak. He chalks up his continuous failure in life to bad parents, stupid teachers, dogmatic professors, and idiotic bosses. Malice is smarter than everyone else--he tells us that he was a brilliant child, and defiantly demands to know why he should be modest--and obviously believes that the world neither appreciates nor deserves his genius. It's the stupidity of others, not his own blemishes, that are to blame for anything in his life that dissatisfies him.

But the reality of the situation (as he rather ingenuously confesses) is that he's lazy and a cad. He's manipulative and cruel, sneaky, and duplicitous. He makes fun of a troubled classmate who kills himself. He's vindictive, fantasizing about murdering a teacher's children or wishing that the 9/11 horror had murdered some of his co-workers. He panders to influential people (such as Senator Bob Dole), lying through his teeth to suck up to them, while all the while disdaining them. Curiously, he tells us that he values his integrity above all else. Needless to say, he's working on a pretty idiosyncratic notion of integrity.

Pekar's presentation of him is nothing short of brilliant. Malice obviously thinks of himself as a sort of Nietzschean ubermensch. But in telling his story to Pekar, a cumulative portrait of something far less comes through. Malice suffers from what Nietzsche called "ressentiment," a malicious envy of others that seeks self-promotion through destruction.

Pekar has focused for most of his artistic career on chronicling the ordinary. In Ego & Hubris, he's achieved something rather different. He's given us a chilling account of a man who is wicked in the most banal of ways, a one-dimensional self-promoter who has little to promote--rather like Donleavy's Ginger Man, but with none of the latter's positive qualities. Gary Dumm's wooden, lifeless artwork perfectly depicts Mr. Malice.

This is a very hard book to recommend or explain, but I quite enjoyed it nonetheless. Harvey Pekar simply relates the life story of one of his eccentric acquaintances (a conservative anarchist named Michael Malice) in a very deadpan, matter-of-fact first person perspective. A quick summary of Malice's narrative would be: "I am smart and under-appreciated, all of my bosses and coworkers are idiots, here is how I told them off and got fired." Don't expect it to go anywhere - it doesn't. At least not anymore than real life "goes somewhere." Despite his willful obnoxiousness and condescending attitude, Michael Malice still somehow comes out a champion of sorts because he lives life his own way without compromise - always striving to learn and create, and he seems genuinely satisfied with his unorthodox lifestyle choices. You may not want him talking your ear off at a bar, but most people will probably see a little bit of themselves and a LOT of their acquaintances reflected back in Michael Malice's inner thoughts. Pekar is VERY astute at capturing these sorts of universal elements and situations, allowing the reader to identify with someone they might not normally be fond of. By the grace of this man's incredible gift, we are able to understand ourselves and others from new perspectives... which is the real the key to human progress. If you already enjoy American Splendor, you will likely find something to love (or hate) about Michael Malice.

Harvey Pekar captures a character so disturbing I'm glad I never met the guy in person. As for Pekar himself, the man should be recognized as one of the great American writers of the 20th-21st centuries. He's real, man. I called him up one night and he was really nice to me. He could've told me to screw off, but he was polite. Harvey's got another fan for life. I just wish we could convince him that he's worthy of praise.

"I was raised as a dog," Michael begins. He proceeds to give an account of his life in a Book-of-the-Dead/Judgment Day style, except that he is the judge, and in his judgment he was right and everyone else was weak and jealous and wrong. I wish I had followed through on starting a book club, because I could gossip about Michael for a month.

First of all, Michael Malice is real. Michael Malice even appears to be his real name. I thought it was a snarky pseudonym because the review I first read had excerpted a bit where Michael recounts the suicide of an acquaintance and ends, "Now if you were going to kill yourself, I don't see why you wouldn't sleep in. And for God's sake, practice your penmanship! His parents showed me his suicide note, and it was embarrassing!"

He's maniacally self-centered and a brilliant conversationalist. He's lazy and has no mercy for the weak -- Michael doesn't play well with others and takes joy in getting people fired. He's criticizes everyone's ethical structure and sees the world in black and white. I mean to say he's deeply principled in a Randist sort of way: arrogantly principled, very bright, no empathy whatsoever, with a wisdom deficit the size of the Marianas Trench. He's proud and proud of being proud.

Harvey Pekar has edited Michael brilliantly. Michael says his family doesn't matter, that he has given up that ghost, but the monologue circles back to them obsessively, and the final sign of his success is that he is suddenly not bothered by his family's criticisms. He's proud of his outsized confidence but mentions a study that showed that when people were asked to estimate their own intelligence, smart individuals tended to get it accurate or slightly underestimate, whereas dumb individuals would overestimate dramatically. Michael proudly relates trivial instances when he stood his ground (for no particular reason that the reader can discern), but when the only girl he's ever loved was diagnosed with one-month-to-live cancer, and his college friends ganged up and pressured him to dump her, he dumped her.

The clean line illustrations are a neat, black-and-white counterpoint to Michael's pseudo-honest autobiography. The story is filled with Michael's judgments and just begs for the reader's judgments of the same facts. I wish I had a book club! It'd be the funnest evening of playing amateur psychiatrist.

This should have been titled "Loser" to go with Pekar's autobiographical "Quitter." One wonders why Pekar was interested in the project, perhaps seeing it paralleling his own story. Not! Anyway, while the artwork is well done and there are good moments, this is way too repetitious. Yes, we've all suffered from those who plague MM's life. Yes, we all know someone like him whose delusions of grandeur are pitiable and yet funny. But the details of his many triumphs over co-workers and bosses, parents and teachers, are, well, too detailed. One gets bored. And the ending--of course, he will succeed in his generation's world, Media Universe. A novel (Ayn Rand, how dated though), a song, a band, a video, etc. etc. I have just visited MM's latest website (after the one mentioned in the book). In it he explores Our Universe and runs back to his own to comment on us. Yee-ha. Pekar's great talents are somewhat wasted here. I recommend this because one wants to read anything Pekar has written. That's the best I can say.

so here we have pekar's second graphic story after "the quitter." the story is told first-person by a guy whose actual name is michael malice. mr. malice has an extremely high IQ, and boy, does he ever know it. he has no time to waste on people he thinks are dumb or trying to hinder his wishes. in this sense, malice is a superhero just like pekar. i found myself asking the question, why is pekar interested in malice? i think the answer is, they're opposites. pekar is smart, but seems to feel no need to be intellectually superior to any other working stiff. pekar is a supreme creature of habit, staying in the same job, city and apartment for years and years. malice is the opposite, quitting jobs on a whim or because he dislikes how he's being treated. malice gives real-life action to those temptations inside of us to get revenge on the people we hate. strangely, malice seems to get screwed over A LOT. is this because he draws negative situations to his life, or sees things negatively? or are we all getting screwed over and malice just does something about it? as you can see, this book can bring up a lot of questions. oddly enough, i found myself able to connect with malice's personality quite a bit. i'm also intelligent and highly at odds with society at large. but i think the difference is, malice has a pretty big ego! malice always gets his way in the end, and has no regrets. most of his conflicts seem to be with evil women, which brings up another question. does malice have issues with women, or are there simply a lot of evil women (or both?) i found myself a bit mystified at the end, not sure what to think about this guy. so i'm glad pekar included a small note on why he chose to write the story. in the end i sympathize with malice to a great degree.. as arrogant as it sounds, it's just not easy to be a smart guy in a nation full of idiots. i think malice's main character flaw is that he doesn't see the GOOD sides of other people. but i refuse to demonize malice. the fact is, i've had so many experiences with extremely DUMB people who THINK they're smart.. these types of people are absolutely the worst, most disgusting wastes of life on earth. malice thinks he's smart, but he is, so it's much more forgivable!

anyway, the very fact i'm thinking about this guy just proves that pekar is a great storyteller. i look forward to the next pekar book.

A friend suggested I read this book, and it is the first I've heard of Harvey Pekar (I know, I live under a rock). I had a hard time putting this book down, and I found myself laughing out loud at the "ego and hubris" of Michael Malice. Everyone knows a guy like this -- and would probably prefer they didn't. Fun reading.

I had fun with this one. Thanks to Harvey Pekar and Gary Dunn for bringing Malice's story to light. My advice is to try not to think too hard about how it might be....um....not so much fun to be in the same room as Malice, but enjoy his life story, at least the version that was told to Pekar, which is all we, as readers, can go by. Since this is a graphic novel that is meant mostly to entertain imo, I hope that the "professional" reviewers from the mass media will cut Malice and Pekar some slack and not hold it up to the scrutiny that that poor sap James Frey has been put through. In the same way that I doubt that Frey's stories were 100% truthful (as has been proven ad nauseum by The Smoking Gun, then Oprah, etc. etc.), I don't expect that Malice's stories are always spot on truthful; but so what? They made me laugh.... Hope they do the same for you.

Some of Pekar's books I have started and really wanted to continue. I find some of his work to be a treat. But the Malice story comes across to me as sort of factual, lacking emotional content. I simply could care less about the Michael Malice as portrayed in this book. I found myself reading it to see if it would get better; it didn't.

Malice almost always is portrayed as having arrived, and rarely struggling. There are no surprises. No moments of doubt. No vulnerability. Malice simply sees the world in black and white, right and wrong, intelligent and stupid. Sounds like Rush Limbaugh in a way, doesn't it? But Malice is more liberal than Rush, but not much.

All in all, this is a story about someone who is overbearing. The only upside of the book for me is to see how another person views the world.