Despite my suspicions that the title was a bit too apropos, this was a great gift to receive several years ago. A simple, stirring graphic novel that hovers around grief and frustration in a sea of teen angst of a particularly introverted, emotionally stunted teenage boy (clearly based on Brown's own life). It changed my ideas of what a comic book could be when I first read it and when I reread it the other night, I was more touched by its subtleties, its understated passion, its deliberate pacing and jump-cut story telling.
I was surprised to find it so slight (it's 188 pages and can be read in less than an hour) in comparison to the huge impact it had on me. What a model of restraint. Chester Brown is the author of many other comics, I read The Little Man: Short Strips 1980-1995 and found it disappointing in comparison, but his much praised Louis Riel and The Playboy are on my wish list.
But what do you think?