COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 288
I haven't been helping my mood much with my recent choices in reading material. For one of my classes I had to read Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. For those unfamiliar with the book, it's an award-winning memoir detailing McCourt's "miserable Irish Catholic childhood." It's a healthy mix of humor and tragedy ... though when it's tragic, it's utterly tragic. It's hard to complain about anything once you've seen what the McCourts had to go through. Despite the hardships presented, it's still funny and heartwarming, a mix that I found very true to life.
I mention the book only because of my other recent choice in reading material, Pedro and Me by Judd Winick. There's been a lot of buzz surrounding this book, comparing it to Maus in terms in impact and importance. I'm not really qualified to judge those traits of the book, but I certainly think it deserves all the attention. Like the book mentioned above, it's tragic but uplifting. I never watched The Real World 3, but the show's really not all that important here. Winick presents us with a complete and heartfelt portrait of Pedro Zamora, focusing on their friendship and Pedro's work as an AIDS activist. The artwork is clean and the story moves along at a brisk pace, so there's little reason not to give the book a shot.
I don't really mean that as a review. I'm absolutely horrible at reviews. That's why I don't write them. I'm sure I could try, except I don't have the book with me right now. I lent it to my boyfriend, because I thought it was something he should read. Instead, I offer up a simple recommendation. In my mind Pedro and Me already feels like one of the classics. It's an excellent book that addresses issues we normally don't want to talk about or have long forgotten. Reading this book brought it all back: the images on the TV, the statistics, the sex-ed classes. It reminded me that AIDS is still a problem. I also made me think how far we've come since then. That's what good books should make you do: think.
So this week I think everyone should read a book that will make them think and make them feel something. Read Pedro and Me or Angela's Ashes. Read Maus. Read Barefoot Gen or Fax from Sarejevo. Truth is not just stranger than fiction, it's also more enlightening.