Details

ISBN-10: 1770465650
ISBN-13: 9781770465657
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Publish Date: 06/14/2022
Dimensions: 9.75" L, 6.01" W, 0.69" H

My Perfect Life

Hardcover

Price: $21.95

Overview

Maybonne and Marlys Mullen endure the mortifying highs and lows of middle school in this Lynda Barry classic.

Collected from the strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek, which was serialized in alternative weeklies across the continent, My Perfect Life captures the moment when Lynda Barry finds the perfect balance in longer-form storytelling between the bellyaching laughs and the brutal reality checks. Along with the 2022 release Come Over Come Over, this collection continues to spotlight the life of teenager Maybonne Mullen. She suffers through the utterly relatable insults of junior high and the excruciating embarrassment caused by her little sister, Marlys. Hovering in the background, however, is a broken home, parents struggling with addiction, a grandmother who takes her granddaughters from the diverse big city to a bewilderingly bland small town.

Yet fitting into the new school and surroundings is, of course, paramount to a young teenager. Maybonne begins September full of life and excitement. As the school year progresses, she experiences bullying, her first boyfriend, family drama, drinking, and more. The book ends with Maybonne withdrawn and jaded as the reality of her world outweighs the magic.

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Reviews

"My Perfect Life is [Barry's] finest, funniest, most affecting graphic novel to date, partly because she's perfected her draughtsmanship, but also because it observes the Aristotelian dramatic unities, sort of."-Entertainment Weekly

"Barry's carefully chosen words and scribbly drawings capture the melodramatic fantasies and insecurities of adolescence more accurately than most conventional novels do."-Los Angeles Times

"What a trip back to middle school this read was, with the long phone calls, the cord stretching to the bedroom for privacy, and the endless notes passed to friends... I felt that this collection was the most satisfying of Barry's collections." –Youth Services Book Review

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Details

ISBN-10: 1770465650
ISBN-13: 9781770465657
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Publish Date: 06/14/2022
Dimensions: 9.75" L, 6.01" W, 0.69" H
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