Customer Reviews

The Good Times Are Killing Me

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the book that got me started on my Lynda Barry addiction. I stumbled on to this book by fortuitous accident. It's brilliant. It is simple in its style with a reach deep into the heart of complex feelings and issues. While not as riveting as Cruddy, it is more moving and realistic. I hope Lynda Barry continues to produce work of this quality. One Hundred Demons is also extremely good. Her fiction is great literature on a transcendent level.

Barry just knows how to get into the psyche of kids, adolescents, anyone under the age of 17, it seems. This book is a quick read, but a delicious one. Barry writes her characters' voices in as understated and realistic pieces of life, and she does what she's so good at doing: she puts readers in a space in which they're none too comfortable, and yet they can't seem to shake the familiar feelings of their own childhood horrors and experiences. This book is unsettling and slightly worrisome, and also truthful and wonderful, just as children often are.

I love every word of this story. In the simplest language, with the most colorful, poignant vignettes, I saw my hysterically funny yet bittersweet childhood told back to me. I think Lynda Barry is a genius.

I teach a course on teaching music for children (at the college level). I use this book to get students thinking about the deep ways that music impacts our lives. Situations from family to school music, private to public, and informal to formal are all present, and Barry's wonderful attention to detail brings each to life in a way that make my students talkative.

Of course, I wouldn't use it if it weren't a wonderful novel as well. It is. The story that is told is gripping, and my students love reading it.

Ms. Barry returns to her whimsical story-telling style with this book. Reminiscent of her books "The Fun House" and "Come Over, Come Over" (which are in cartoon strip style), this book captures the wonderful and sad experiences of a slightly lower-class childhood, told from the honest perspective of a child's eyes. It lacked a bit of the edge of her animated works, but is still delightful in its story-telling. A must have for any serious Lynda Barry fan.

Lynda Barry captures the joys, fears, chills and spills of growing up in this effortlessly charming collection of memories and stories, accompanied by her paintings and art work of singers and musicians. It's a very special book and one that I return to time and time again.

When I finished this book, I had to stop and think for a long time. It was a simple story from a kid's point of view, encompassing very difficult subjects: Poverty, abuse, and the biggie... race. When I was a kid in the sixties, it seemed like all the rules changed. The trouble was, no one had made up new rules yet, so everyone fought and posed and tried hard to survive adolescence, which is typical, only there was a feel of craziness in the air. This book caught it all, with honesty, humor, and unimaginable sorrow. It was a story that only Edna could tell, and Barry got it just right.

It won't take you long to finish this book of vignettes that weave together into a complete story. Yet, it is a book of incredible wisdom and courage, seen through the eyes of a young girl who lives in a neighborhood that is settling in after "white flight." Through the narrator's perspective, Lynda Barry palpably demonstrates the impact of racial integration and tension via the friendship between a young white girl and young black girl. Is such a friendship possible, when you have a "no Negroes allowed inside" rule at your house? Or when you visit the projects with your friend, and a boy calls her "Unca Tom" merely for being with a white girl? And what happens when girls grow up and graduate out of grade school?

Lynda Barry has the voice of the young girl down perfectly, expressing the things that young girls think and worry about, including the angst and dreams of fitting in and belonging. Bittersweet and compelling, I highly recommend this simple coming-of-age tale.

I GOT THIS BOOK FOR MY DAUGHTER WHO WAS TO TRY OUT FOR THE LOCAL PLAY. SHE DID NOT TRY OUT BUT HAS BEEN UNABLE TO PUT THIS BOOK DOWN SINCE I GOT IT. IT REALLY IS AN EYE OPENER TO HOW RACIAL INEQUALITY AND PREJUDICE WAS SO ALIVE IN THE 1960'S GREAT BOOK

I didn't realize that this was actually a short book of vignettes as opposed to an illustrated story or comic. I had just finished The!Greatest!Of!Marlys! and have been a fan of Lynda Barry's comics for quite some time. This is more like her book Cruddy than her comics. I just could not get quite as into this book as I might have had I known what I was in for when I bought it. It will be enjoyable for anyone who loved Cruddy but if you are looking for something like Marlys et. al. than this may not be what you are looking for.