Customer Reviews

Pizzeria Kamikaze

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

 

 

Back in 2001, Israeli writer Keret's collection "The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God and Other Stories" was one of my favorite books of the year. So, I was psyched to see that he'd taken one of its stories ("Kneller's Happy Campers") and hooked up with well-known NY-based illustrator Tomer Hanuka to create a graphic novel. The story originally ran in segments in Hanuka's comic book, Bipolar, and here gets a really nice square format treatment in rich black and metallic silver ink on a lovely paper stock.

The story opens from the bottom of a grave, as protagonist Mordy informs us that he committed suicide. Immediately thereafter we learn that he is now "living" in a kind of afterlife inhabited solely by those who have killed themselves. It's very much like the "real" world, only most people walk around scarred by the manner in which they killed themselves (for example his sidekick sports a large bullet hole in his forehead). The exception are "Juliets" -- those who used methods such as poison or ODing, that left them unmarked. In any event, 20something Mordy leads a slackerish afterlife, holding down a crummy job at a pizzeria, and going to the same bars every night and never meeting anyone he connects with. The problem is that he pines after his presumably still living ex-girlfriend, who was ostensibly the reason for his suicide.

About a third of the way into the story, he learns that she also killed herself, and so he drags his pal Uzi off on a quest to find her. They drive out into the countryside, pick up a gorgeous hitchhiker, and end up at a weird kind of kibbutzish place where people can perform little miracles. The plot gets even more surreal after that, and sort of disolves into nothing. The problem is that while there are flashes of bizarre brilliance here and there (including a cameo by Kurt Cobain in which everyone finds him annoying), people who commit suicide are essentially unsympathetic narcissistic characters. It's pretty much impossible to care very much about Mordy or his quest, and so while Hanuka's art is top-notch, one can't help but wish for a better story. In many ways it's the kind of story that probably actually works better in its original prose form, where the reader's imagination is left with a little more leeway. Still, it's very nice as an artistic piece, for those who appreciate such things, and I will check out another of Keret's graphic adaptations, "Jetlag".

Etgar Keret, Pizzeria Kamikaze (Alternative Comics, 2006)

I'd had this sitting on my list of "stuff I want to get out of the library eventually" for years before I watched Wristcutters: A Love Story. I had somehow never made the connection between the controversial film and this book (which, if I recall correctly, I first heard about through Bookslut long before the movie's release). After seeing the book mentioned in the opening credits, however, I bumped it up to the top of the priority list. And here we are.

Pizzeria Kamikaze is the tale of Mordy, who's currently stuck in the afterlife. Which is kind of like Tel Aviv, only dirtier. He killed himself over a girl, you see. Now he's stuck working in the afterlife pizza parlor mentioned in the title, hanging out with his friend Uzi (bet you can guess how he killed himself). Until one day when the grapevine discharges the information that his ex-girlfriend has also killed herself (in despair over Mordy killing himself, no less), and Mordy and Uzi head out on the road to find her in the wilds of the afterlife. And they do get wild.

What strikes me most about this is that there's so much more Keret could have done with it. He adapted his own story ("Kneller's Happy Campers") to graphic novel form, and it seems like there was a lot of room for expansion here. We get what we get, though, and I like what we get a good deal. (Especially when you compare the movie's idiotic ending to the real thing, which makes a ton more sense.) Keret knows how to do a lot in very few words, and with the brevity of this, that's a talent that comes in very handy. It's a graphic novel that requires a lot of the reader; there's much to be had between the lines. But for the careful reader, it's a rewarding experience. ****

I picked this up after watching Wristcutters, A Love Story. The movie was quite good even with the happy ending and I figured that the graphic novel would be an equally good read. I won't say there's anything necessarily wrong with the comic except that it needs to be at least twice as long. The pacing was entirely too fast and I couldn't care less about any of the characters as no time was given to develop them or their relationships. The plot itself was interesting, it just fell off the tree long before it was ripe.

I originally bought it thinking it was a book (a novel), and when it turned out to be a comic I was disappointed; but then when I read it it was actually pretty good.

Actually, I do not own this graphic novel.

However, the prose version of it is the last story in Keret's "The Bus Drive Who Wanted to Be God," where it is titled, "Kneller's Happy Campers." Read it!

Be sure to read Keret's other collection of short stories, available in English translation, "The Nimrod Flip-Out."