THIS WAS AMAZING.

The illustrations were a little hazy, but maybe they were supposed to be that way to go along with the hazy mind that took over during chemo and radiation. I took care of my mom when she went through all this and this book struck a chord with me. ( )

Another jury duty waiting room book. This is a graphic memoir of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner's year or so during which Harvey discovered and was treated for cancer. The story is coherent enough and intertwines with one about Brabner's work (both she and Harvey are comic book writers). Frank Stack's illustrations are sometimes difficult to puzzle out and characters' expressions don't always match their affect. Still, the story and emotions will be familiar to anyone who has been intimately involved with cancer treatment, and the book length and format permit a greater range of nuance than does a standard comic book-sized memoir. ( )

My previous experience with Harvey Pekar is just the first two American Splendor compilations and the film, which actually covered some of this narrative in much abbreviated form. This book tells of Harvey's bout with cancer-- or more accurately, his bout with chemotherapy to make sure that cancer doesn't come back.

The most immediately notable thing about Our Cancer Year is that, since it is written by both Harvey and his wife Joyce, it is not told from a first-person perspective but rather the third.  Given that so much of American Splendor's effect depends on Harvey's distinctive voice, this creates an immediate distance. This is exacerbated by the fact it seems like Joyce did more of the writing than Harvey; we get into her head more than his, and though what goes on in her head is okay, the book's standout sequences are those where we really get into Harvey's experiences.

We also hear a lot about a group of refugee kids that Joyce is working with and the outbreak of the Gulf War, which is not as interesting as the amount of narrative it takes up would indicate. It might make an interesting independent book, but crammed into here, the kids don't get enough coverage to pop as characters, and so they feel intrusive.

Stack's sketchy artwork is the first time where I feel like one of Pekar's artistic collaborators have let him down.  It's okay, but it's sometimes hard to tell what's actually happening-- or even who someone actually is.

These are all complaints, and Our Cancer Year's not as bad as all this might imply.  But American Splendor had done better before and would do better again; given the immensity of its subject, it's an unfortunate blip.

I know some will think I’m committing heresy when I say I did not like this nonfiction graphic novel. I imagine some of my dislike is due to the fact that I’m also reading So Much For That by Lionel Shriver, which also details a character’s battle with cancer and how it affects here care-giver. So Much For That (fiction) is just a phenomenal book on all levels. I know the supposed beauty of Harvey Pekar’s writing is the simplicity, but when I read it in conjunction with Shriver’s book, it just made Our Cancer Year seem flat, amateurish, and poorly written.

Pekar and Brabner’s account of Harvey’s battle with lymphoma is poignant enough, but it takes some time to get to Harvey even going to the doctor. The first quarter of the book is all about Joyce’s friends and dealings with the international peace movement, which seems completely disjointed and… well, self-centered. Characters just appear and the reader is supposed to care about them because Joyce tells us in a few panels that they have had tough lives and are good people. We get brief updates on these characters through the book, but again it’s like someone telling you about a friend of a friend who you don’t know… while the main character (and her husband) is writhing on the floor from chemo treatments. And essentially, it all comes across as part of Joyce’s political agenda, which really should have been a completely unrelated book. SPOILER ALERT: These people, who we really don’t know, come to visit at the end and it helps “heal” Harvey’s depression. I imagine learning that he beat the cancer has something to do with it.

The dialogue and inner-dialogue throughout seems very, very simplistic and unrealistic. There are parts where I felt like I was watching that scene in all CSI episodes where they over-explain everything they’re doing so everyone with a fifth grade education can understand it. It just doesn’t work well in literature, which is disappointing because Pekar is a literature lover.

I wanted to like the book because I have heard so many times that it is a classic, but I just couldn’t get past what seemed like poor writing to me. I have not read any of the American Splendor series, so I have no way of telling how much of this book is Pekar’s writing and how much is Brabner’s, whose character I didn’t care for. I saw the movie adaptation when it came out years ago, but honestly the only thing I remember is that Robert Crumb was Pekar’s friend. Maybe watching it again would give me a better appreciation for the graphic novel. ( )