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Jimmy Corrigan

The Smartest Kid on Earth

By Chris Ware

(87)

| Paperback | 9780224063975

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Book Description

Ware's graphically inventive, wonderfully realized novel-in-comics follows the sad fortunes of four generations of phlegmatic, defeated men while touching on themes of abandonment, social isolation and despair within the sweeping depiction of Chicago's urban transformation over the course of a centuContinue

Ware's graphically inventive, wonderfully realized novel-in-comics follows the sad fortunes of four generations of phlegmatic, defeated men while touching on themes of abandonment, social isolation and despair within the sweeping depiction of Chicago's urban transformation over the course of a century. Ware uses Chicago's World's Colombian Exposition of 1893, the great world's fair that signaled America's march into 20th-century modernity, as a symbolic anchor to the city's development and to the narrative arc of a melancholic family as haplessly connected as are Chicago's random sprawl of streets and neighborhoods. In 1893, nine-year-old Jimmy Corrigan is abandoned atop a magnificent fair building by his sullen, brutish father ("I just stood there, watching the sky and the people below, waiting for him to return. Of course he never did"). Nearly a century later, another Jimmy CorriganDthe absurdly ineffectual, friendless grandson of that abandoned childDreceives a letter from his own long-absent, feckless father, blithely and inexplicably requesting him to come and visit. Ware's surprisingly touching story recounts their strange and pathetically funny reunion, invoking the emotional legacy of the great-grandfather's original act of desertion while presenting a succession of Corrigan men far more comfortable fantasizing about life than living it. The book is wonderfully illustrated in full color, and Ware's spare, iconic drawing style can render vivid architectural complexity or movingly capture the stark despondency of an unloved child.

Critics

  • Daddy, I hardly knew you

    Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 380pp, Jonathan Cape, £18 What kind of man walks out on his own child? Weak? Unhappy? Heartless? It's a question that nags away at the deserted kid. Was Dad really an out-and-out shit? Perhaps he j ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Jimmy Corrigan

    Fathers hurt sons who grow up to be fathers who hurt sons, who grow up and have sons of their own. At the heart of Chris Ware's cartoon epic, "Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth," are wounded men, and the reader is never allowed to forget the ... (read full critics)

    flakmag published on Tue, 31 Aug 2010

6 Reviews

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  • 3 people find this helpful

    Flimsy Construction

    Splurge for the hardcover. This is an excellent story, but a poorly constructed paperback. The book is quite thick, and the pages longer on their free axis than on their spine. My copy was falling apart by the time I finished my first reading, and my brother had pages falling into his lap when he ... (continue)

    Splurge for the hardcover. This is an excellent story, but a poorly constructed paperback. The book is quite thick, and the pages longer on their free axis than on their spine. My copy was falling apart by the time I finished my first reading, and my brother had pages falling into his lap when he borrowed it for the first time. Much like the $0.25 upgrade to onion rings over fries, this $6.00 upgrade to a hardcover is a no-brainer.

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    Bossdog said on Aug 14, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • One of the most surprising comics I've ever read: heartbreaking, deep, graphically expressive and clean as few others. A masterwork of literature, in my opinion.

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    Wick said on Dec 12, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • I highly enjoyed it. Yes, it is bleak and sad, but only because it makes one reflect on certain things in one's life, and the relationships one has with one's family and friends. The art is great, and the design of the entire book is incredible. It immediately caught my eye when i saw it on the shel ... (continue)

    I highly enjoyed it. Yes, it is bleak and sad, but only because it makes one reflect on certain things in one's life, and the relationships one has with one's family and friends. The art is great, and the design of the entire book is incredible. It immediately caught my eye when i saw it on the shelf. I highly recommend it.

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    Arkholt said on Oct 18, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

  • Super Hero

    Chris Ware setting a benchmark for graphic novels. Semi-autobiographical (I am guessing) about his private fantasy world vs his lack of self-confidence, his mundane job, complex relationships and profoundly so... his father. Beautifully drawn, sometimes intentionally tricky sequences of frames to fo ... (continue)

    Chris Ware setting a benchmark for graphic novels. Semi-autobiographical (I am guessing) about his private fantasy world vs his lack of self-confidence, his mundane job, complex relationships and profoundly so... his father. Beautifully drawn, sometimes intentionally tricky sequences of frames to follow - but usually aided by a little arrow. Chris Ware deserves all the praise he gets, and sometimes, certainly with his other books, I don't quite understand him, but I don't mind because it creates some intrigue:)
    I've read this book twice now, and I will read it several more times.

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    mrpeterryan said on Jan 11, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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