CRUDDY: An Illustrated Novel | Lynda Barry

CRUDDY: An Illustrated Novel | Lynda Barry | Deliciously morbid!

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CRUDDY: An Illustr...

	CRUDDY: An Illustrated Novel Lynda Barry Simon & Schuster, 2000 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 90 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

On a September night in 1971, a few days after getting busted for dropping acid, a sixteen-year-old curls up in the corner of her ratty bedroom and begins to write.

Now the truth can finally be revealed about the mysterious day long ago when the authorities found a child, calmly walking in the boiling desert, covered with blood.

The girl is Roberta Rohbeson, and her rant against a world bounded by "the cruddy top bedroom of a cruddy rental house on a very cruddy mud road" soon becomes a detailed account of another story, one that she has kept silent since she was eleven.

Darkly funny and resonant with humanity, Cruddy, masterfully intertwines Roberta's stories -- part Easy Rider and part bipolar Wizard of Oz. These stories, the backbone of Roberta's short life, include a one-way trip across America fueled by revenge and greed and a vivid cast of characters, starring Roberta's dangerous father, the owners of the Knocking Hammer Bar-cum-slaughterhouse, and runaway adolescents. With a teenager's eye for freakish detail and a nervous ability to make the most horrible scenes seem hilarious, Cruddy is a stunning achievement.

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Open letter to Ms. Barry

Hi. I've really enjoyed your work! Your looks on the other hand, not so much. I'd love to continue to buy and read your books. Unlike most of your readers who read it for free at their local Barnes & Noble or Borders, I shell out good money for your "art". So do me one favor, will ya? Please refrain from including your photo or any likeness of yourself on or in your books. You are what we in the male community like to describe as fugly. Which are the words F@cking & Ugly mashed together. Brilliant? I think so too.
signed, The American Males of our great nation.

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Deliciously morbid!

"Cruddy" is seriously noir stuff, but filtered through what may be the blackest sense of humor I have ever encountered. This book is not for everyone, but if it does happen to be for you, then you are in for a seriously major trip.

Ms. Barry's essentially outlandish premises (a daughter named Clyde?!), proprietary verbal inventions and astute wackiness remind me of Vonnegut, although her voice is much too unique to be derivative. There is more than a smattering of early John Waters-type trailer trash, and she leaves no doubt that she is right down there in the trenches with her characters (one hopes only temporarily!).

This author projects the most curious sense of indeterminate place, regardless of whether it is day or night (it seems like night much of the time, even if it's not). She does the same with time, essentially presenting two stories simultaneously, one of them actually a type of flashback.

Her equally dark illustrations, some of which could be the result of Picasso stumbling into a dark alley and coming out with a painting, are a perfect compliment to the text.

A remarkable read that captures the worst (or best, depending on your point of view) in human frailties and foibles and, yes, capacity for evil.

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Cruddy dreams come with Cruddy

Unless you are a fan of horror movies, or prepared for dreadful dreams, you should not start reading Linda Berry's first and illustrated novel, Cruddy. Cruddy is a rich, dark, and raw story, with a strange sense of humor, full of violence and gross details, and no consideration for sensitive readers. Regardless of the reading interests, once started reading the novel, it becomes difficult to put it down. From the beginning, Roberta Rohbeson, the novel's sixteen year-old narrator and her story, hunt the readers day and night, even while asleep. Roberta, Berry's amazing handicraft, is a powerful storyteller. This book is her memoir, in which she tells two twisted stories, the story of a year-long horror-adventure killing spree treasure hunt she was tricked, or more accurately, forced to go with her father when she was eleven, which she has never told it before, and the story of her storytelling to a few wasted teenagers she has recently met. She takes the readers, along with her new found teenage acquaintances, to the places she and her father visited on the horror-adventure journey. She tells her horror stories in such an indifferent voice that the readers will be mortified to feel different. Cruddy has a powerful story and Berry proved that she is a powerful writer with amazingly strong imaginations.

...

Cruddy is indeed a worthy work of art. It is strong and effective, although some people may think it is too dark and nihilistic. Barry's illustrations for each chapter, mostly dark and ugly, are in perfect coordinates with the Roberta's life. The images she draws with her words are so vivid and so real for all senses that long after finishing the book, readers remember the scenes, the smells and the sounds. The story becomes a personal experience that is hard to differentiate from the reality. However, the story is not one of the easy-reads that can be read before going to bed, never make that mistake! If you do, expect the cruddiest dreams you have ever seen!

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For those with a dark and twisted sense of humor

Cruddy is a little black diamond of a book that will resonate with those who possess an extremely dark sense of humor. While definitely not for the faint-hearted, Cruddy has vividly drawn characters and a complicated but satisfying narrative structure which alternates between 16-year-old Roberta's drug escapades in the present and the events that occurred five years earlier when authorities found her wandering the desert, covered in blood and unable to speak. Although the back-and-forth structure may at first be confusing, savvy readers will quickly orient themselves. The plot is compelling, but it is Roberta's voice and the way she reveals the horrifying details of her life with wry detachment that make this a great read. Don't bother with this unless you can chuckle at the more gruesome parts of humanity.

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Sticky

This book sticks to the mind, keeping the images and characters lingering for weeks after reading the book.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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