Customer Reviews

I Never Liked You: A Comic Book

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

 

 

This is probably the best comic book I've ever read. In I Never Liked You, Chester Brown recounts his own adolescence. He doesn't rely on quirks, self-pity, overanalysis, or an edgy drawing style. His work is simple and understated, one incident flowing into another in an apparent anecdotal fashion which, by the end, reveals a large picture of Brown's seemingly hidden feelings. It is his relationship with his mentally unstable mother that fuels this book; Brown thoughtlessly antagonizes her (as teenagers do) and struggles with his inability to say "I love you"--at least to the right people at the right time. In his youth, Brown was best able to express himself through symbolic drawings which he infused with meanings he would later claim weren't there ("I never use symbolism.") This grown-up effort seems an extension of that, as a bittersweet memoir and perhaps explanation/closure for his emotional distance.

Chester Brown's seemingly simple graphic novel is actually a brilliantly written and drawn tale about adolesence that touches deep into your heart. Brown's ability to go deep into his past and dig up the things that haunt him most is simply incredible - it all seems so subtle, yet it's so personal and powerful. Like the recurring biscuit-eating scenes which might not mean anything but provoke so much feelings, of melancholy, loneliness, simple joy, etc.

Brown's art is as much a joy to look at as his writing. The freely (yet skillfully) drawn brush work, together with the loosely (yet cleverly) laid-out pages complement the story almost to perfection.

I have read and re-read the book a number of times on different occasions and personally I feel it's best when you read it in a quiet afternoon when you're all alone.

Together with 'It's A Good Life, If You Don't Weaken' by Seth, 'I Never Liked You' is one of those rare graphic novel that will let you feel as if you k! now the author personally after reading it.

Chester Brown, I Never Liked You (Drawn and Quarterly, 1994)

Run! Teen angst!

Well, okay, maybe... don't run. I Never Liked You is, in fact, a stew of teen angst, it's true, and even more, an autobiographical stew of teen angst. The words "recipe for disaster" are all over this project like flies on October zucchini. And yet it manages to avoid devolving into either cheesy goth poetry or smarmy nostalgia.

This is, of course, a huge mark in I Never Liked You's favor. What Brown is doing here, he's doing well-- easily as good as artist du jour Craig Thompson or the king of this particular hill, Harvey Pekar. If you're a fan of either, I have little doubt you're going to enjoy this book a great deal.

The biggest problem with it, on the other side of the same coin, is that no matter how well it's done, it's been done, and it's been done in a charming, sensitive, mature way, and as much as the personal nature of the work might make you want to get all fluffy-bunny-and-cuddly-puppy, the reason you're identifying with Chester Brown's shy, awkward teenaged self is that we all went through the same stuff, sunshine.

Many writers have trod this road. Some have done it better, or as well. Others have done it considerably worse, and there are many of them. This is in no way a bad book, and if you enjoy memoir-style writing and illustrating, it'll be right up your alley. ***

Why is Chester Brown so good? I just don't understand... first Ed the Happy Clown, then the Playboy, and then I Never Liked You...all masterpieces. No other cartoonist has maintained such quality over this many long works. He's working on Underwater right now, an incomprehensible but fascinating (don't ask me) story from a baby's point of view. My guess is when it's complete we'll all be gaping with awe at it, like I am (and you should be) over the rest of his books now