Little Things: A Memoir in Slices (Paperback)

by Jeffrey Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A comics memoirist in the slightly worn-out quotidian mode pioneered by Harvey Pekar, Brown has already produced a series of books about his relationships with women. This one's a bit more scattered—it's a collection of short pieces about the last two years of Brown's life, including some medical troubles, a camping trip, various interactions with his cat and a lot of not-particularly-momentous conversations with friends. It doesn't quite cohere into a narrative, although the final section, A Little Piece of Myself, gives his relationship stories some closure, showing Brown as a new dad meeting his girlfriend's father. Like his earlier autobiographical books, Little Things is drawn in quick pen doodles—Brown's big-headed, stubbly, emotionally fraught self-caricature appears in almost every panel, and he loads his images with evocative physical details. The ultra-casual style occasionally pays off in comedy, as when he captions a scribbled sketch of a driver who hit his friend's car actual expression may have been smarmier than appears. But a handful of his anecdotes veer into tedious accounts of his life as a cartoonist, and most of them ramble aimlessly for too long; his ability to minutely recall his experiences of various kinds of day-to-day ennui doesn't make them interesting. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Jeffrey Brown is one of my favorite graphic memoirists. And one of the funniest. Each book is like another glimpse into one of the best diaries anyone anywhere is keeping."

-- Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil

"If I were Pippi Longstocking, Jeffrey Brown's Little Things is exactly the sort of treasure I'd plant in a hollow tree, as a day-making gift for a stranger, a friend, or anyone who needs convincing that there's magic in the mundane."

-- Ayun Halliday, creator of The East Village Inky and author of No Touch Monkey!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Touchstone Trade Pbk. Ed edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416549463
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549468
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #280,255 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice evolution of a great talent, April 16, 2008

By	D. J. Foster "Gaambit" (Athens, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

All I had read of Jeffrey Brown's before this was Mini-Sulk and some work he did for Drawn & Quarterly Showcase - all of which is pretty dang funny: little two page chunks of anecdotes, usually about relationships. He has moved away from both areas he's been comfortable with in this pretty large book (for him). Not too much is spent on his relationships (often leaving them to one panel in a larger story) and most of the stories are the size of his previous books. Alot of them tend to focus on , as the title suggest, little things...meeting friends for a hike, getting a cat, having surgery, and so on. It's fun, but he still has this tendency to just end stuff abruptly. I suppose most of the stories really can't have any big revelations but, there ya go.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious But Disappointing, May 20, 2008

By	Andrew Shaffer "www.PrintisUndead.com" (Davenport, Iowa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Little Things" is cartoonist Jeffrey Brown's "major label debut" with Touchstone Books, following years of self-publishing and independent publishing through Drawn & Quarterly press. Unfortunately, it feels like he has run out of gas as far as memoir/autobiographical material goes. This book is his longest yet, at almost 350 pages--but not much happens. And that which does happen is maddeningly out-of-order.

The illustrations are as whimsical as always, but that's not enough to carry a full book in which Brown does little more than draw in coffee shops, hike outdoors, draw comics, and, occasionally, pine after girls. If his relationship material has been completely exhausted, could it be time to turn to fiction? If there's any magic in the mundane, as the back cover suggests, I couldn't find it here. If you are new to Jeffrey Brown, I would recommend picking up any one of his books previous to "Little Things"--this book is for completists only.