Review of
Wilson,
by Daniel Clowes ISBN 9781770460072
Four out of five stars
Self-absorption on steroids
Some losers are
lovable in their antics, others annoying and a few you want to give a hard slap
to. Wilson is in the last category, his self-absorbed thoughts and actions turn
off fellow passengers on mass transit, people that he meets on the street, his
ex-wife and the daughter that he did not know existed. When those characters
are introduced, they are not much more than animated mannequins, providing
little in the way of meaningful responsive dialog.
Wilson is one
of those people that will ask you a standard opening line question and then
complain about the response. The character is summed up very well by a single
caption of the short strip on the back cover. Wilson is browsing in a bookstore
and he says, “All these books and not a single one about me!”
Clowes is to be
commended for going where other cartoonists fear to tread, having Wilson making
nasty comments to his father in his deathbed during his last hours of life.
That is indicative of most of the humor in the book, dark, gloomy and offensive
to many. If there is a theme to the book it is petty self-absorption to the
point of being a person you would like to kick hard in the privates.
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