Book 95 - Harvey Pekar "Harvey Pekar's Cleveland"

[jazzy_dave]

Harvey Pekar "Harvey Pekar's Cleveland" (Top Shelf Productions)




“Cleveland’s a tough, slightly bowed, achy, gray, crotchety, charitable town with moments of brilliance and unexpected, often ironic laughter. Like Harvey.” -Jimi Izrael.

This graphic biography was written by Pekar before his death in 2010. If you are a die hard Pekar fan, there may be little new content for you here. However, it was clearly a last attempt at telling his own story in his own unique way. A must read for anyone schooling in graphic novel biographies.

This is a look back at Cleveland's roots as a city intertwined with Pekar's own experience growing up in Cleveland all his life. It's hard not to see this as Pekar's own retrospective, as he breezes through his Cleveland life story in the short span of a hundred-odd pages.

For any fans of "American Splendor," this is an essential read, because it revisits many of its characters and stories from a different angle (a surprisingly gentler one), even though it's still coming from Pekar himself.

For readers unfamiliar with his work, "Cleveland" is a mixed bag. While it is a beautiful ode to a city, and maintains Pekar's strong personal voice, the narrative thread is jumpy, the way Harvey Pekar likes it, and may take some adjusting to.

Comments

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Not to be mean to Cleveland, but is there enough there to write a book about? :p
Hugs, Jon

[therobertpaul.livejournal.com]

Easily.

[therobertpaul.livejournal.com]

I'm still surprised when anyone outside of the northeast Ohio knows of Harvey Pekar.