| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Deceptively simple,
This review is from: The Funnies (Hardcover)
Engaging first-person fiction told by a thirtyish unsuccessful artist whose father's onerous will pushes him into a reluctant attempt to take over authorship of a nationally syndicated comic. The comic strip, a fictional image of Family Circle called Family Funnies, is, to the real life family of its creator but a mockery of the reality of their dysfunctional household. As the narrator goes through a private tutelage tantamount to a comic-strip boot camp, he also comes to grips with his family relationships, love life, self-image, and artistic ambitions.The author's thoroughly engaging style is deceptively simple. The observations about life and family in the 90's are presented in a realistic, subtle way. Reviewers who longed for a more vivid portrayal of the abusive father are missing the point. For the father to be an ambiguous, and mostly mysterious, character, who was an uptight heavy drinker with some skeletons in the closet, is entirely realistic. You can complain about not understanding why the siblings are not closer, but real life presents situations even more inexplicable. This book is an easy, fun read, that is also thought-provoking, memorable, realistic, and heart-warming.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No Humor, but a Well-Written Story,
By
This review is from: The Funnies: A Novel (Paperback)
This was billed as an hilarious novel by J. Robert Lennon, and since it is based on the hokey comic strip "Family Circus" and takes as its premise one character's attempt to take over the lame enterprise, I was very interested to read it.
I was genuinely surprised to find that there isn't a laugh in this book, which is not to say that I didn't like it. The family dynamics are complex and interesting, and the dialog is intelligent. Tim Mix is left nothing by his father, except the expectation that he take over the family comic strip, the embarrassing "Family Funnies." What ensues is Tim's attempt to become a cartoonist, and his interactions with difficult family members who all have their burdens from a very difficult past. Anyone who has parents or siblings will understand the deeper meanings here. However, hilarity did not ensue for me. I found the story challenging and a bit sad in places, and there were complexities that one wouldn't expect to find in what is billed as a comedic novel. Other people find it very funny, so perhaps what is missing is my gene for dark humor. In any event, I recommend The Funnies simply because it is a good story well told. Your mileage may vary with regard to any laughs.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and Quite Well-Written,
By Deacon Brodie (Livonia, MI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Funnies: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
In this second novel by J. Robert Lennon, we meet Tim Mix, whose father has just passed away and left his middle son nothing --- except the chance to humiliate himself, and possibly find out something in the process. His father is the longtime cartoonist and creator of "The Family Funnies", which is uncannily like "The Family Circus" of the real funny papers. The hitch is the fact that the Mix family is not the sweet and sugar-coated family with the "aw-shucks" sense of humor as for many years portrayed in the patriarch's creation. Instead, they are a good old fashioned American family of the twenty-first century---- that's right, disfunctional! And it just so happens that the fact that Carl Mix (the creator) has frozen his children in time and has portrayed them as they perhaps never were. In fact, he has alienated and angered each of the Mixes with his different portrayals of each in his skewed comic strip, even going so far as to skip one of his children altogether, never including him within its pages. As if that doesn't make things bad enough, Tim Mix, the middle of the five children and failed artist, now just past the thirty mark, is left with the strip to continue in his father's absence. He immediately becomes angry and says no. But, of course, he changes his mind, or else there wouldn't be a book. There are many problems along the way, like the fact that he isn't a definite choice. He needs to prove himself in the alotted ninetydays, lest the strip be given to a more able (and willing) artist. Along the way, we also meet fictional versions of the creators of such strips as "Cathy," "Garfield," and "The Simpsons" (sort of). A Fictional Charles Schultz is portrayed as an avuncular patriarch of all of cartoondom. The book is very well-written and, throughout most every page, very funny, in a self-deprecatory way. Tim Mix is a bit of a black sheep, along with his mentally unstable brother Pierce. Each of the Mixes is different, and Lennon does a fantastic job in his characterization of each, as well as his dialogue exchanges between them. For those of you who have read "The Light of Falling Stars," Lennon has improved upon his narrative skills here, giving this reader at least a real reason to care about the characters. It's no instant classic, but it's a very pleasurable read with a message embedded within about the blame that is appointed to one's family.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
