Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

I know, I know. How could I have possibly made it this long without reading Ghost World? The answer is, I saw the movie first.

I remember seeing it in high school and thinking that I would connect with it in some way, but I didn’t. In fact, I think I found it really boring. This resulted in a complete apathy toward the book. Then, the other day at a garage sale, I saw it. I bought the thing for a dollar and read it in one afternoon.

I liked the art, the blue/black/white color schemes and the slightly goofy looking faces of the people. The content was, as I had previously read, a rather accurate rendering of how teenagers talk and interact with each other. It was perhaps this accuracy that turned me off, because the characters are so repulsively self-involved and attention hungry. True, that’s the teenage way of life, but reading a book in which nothing much happens except for two girls talking at each other or making fun of the sad people around them can be a little dragging.

That said, I thought it was a heart-pinching story about two girls in a very close, slightly dysfunctional, relationship coming to grips with growing up and growing apart. The ending panels are both sad and hopeful, and the loud-mouthed Enid’s last words in the book speak volumes to where she’s been and how she’s grown.

It’s a must-read for comic lovers, and I may even give the movie a second chance.