The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

previous - next - random review

Harvey Pekar, �American Splendor�

Started October 27 � Finished October 27, 2004; 320 pages. Posted 29 November 2004

My favorite grocery store tale came from a former girlfriend of mine. Seems she was in line and the checker ran her stuff through the scanner, then stopped to look at her items. She purchased a frozen dinner, a can of cat food, and a bottle of red wine.

The clerk stared long and hard at her three items, then looked her straight in the eyes.

�This,� he said, �has to be the saddest thing I�ve ever seen.�

Last month, I tried to up the ante. I was at Safeway and amongst other things, I bought a huge bottle of Jack Daniel�s, some latex gloves, and a bottle of KY. This being Safeway, where the clerks are under the dictum of �Be sociable with to the customers, or we�ll can your ass,� the woman started scanning all my items.

�Ooh,� she said, �somebody�s making spinach dip!�

Then she got to the final three items. The silence was deafening.

Pussy.

But the story makes a fair segue into Pekar�s book. I�m sure many have already read Pekar�s work with American Splendor. If not, you probably saw the movie. And if you didn�t, you were probably aware of it in some sort of fashion. So I�m sure you�re aware of the tagline for this book (set up to tie in with the film) which reads, �Ordinary Life is Pretty Complex Stuff.�

But, you know, sometimes ordinary life can be pretty ordinary.

Like my test on the checker�s social graces, I had a great setup that resulted in no payoff. Pekar has several moments like this. One of the more memorable bits (both in the book and the film) comes from his rant about old Jewish women in checkout lines. But the story, much like life in general, peters out with no punchline, and no real resolution.

I suppose that�s part of the charm of the series, but when you�re reading an anthology like this you start wishing for some kind of story arc or bon mot, just so it feels like something more than watching a security camera.

I listened to Pekar on Thanksgiving morning on NPR�s Forum and I thought he was great � funny, witty, angry, interesting, and flippant � But he was also able to have a beginning and an end to his tales. Granted, he was mostly talking about things not covered in this anthology � the Letterman appearances, the bout with cancer, and the tour with the film. So perhaps it�s in these later American Splendor issues that cover these areas where he has more of a beginning and end. He�s interesting enough for me to find out.

Unfortunately, he�s not interesting enough for me to seek it out.

And finally, as a tip, a great way to end any story is to say, �And that�s when space aliens descended and destroyed the Earth.�


Rating: Worth used.

previous - next - random review