I am not going to touch the peaches with any detail because I think Jeanine nailed it. Instead I am going to muse for a moment. Someone described Jimmy Corrigan to me as “an extremely depressing” book, and that got me excited to read it, as many of my favorite stories are fairly downbeat.  What that might say about me aside, I tried very hard to enjoy Jimmy Corrigan. In the end however, I found it to be a test of the reader’s endurance. I kept waiting for the “hook” and found that there was none. Ware seems more intent on creating a mood more than anything else, and while he manages to get some small details about life so right, I’m not sure how I feel about it as a whole.  I don’t know if anyone else can relate to this, but this book reminded me of Gus Van Sant’s film “Gerry.” A movie with almost no dialogue, only 2 characters, no clear plot, small exchanges between the two are themselves abstracted though enlightening to characters and relationships but little else; it becomes a visceral experience more than anything else. You find yourself waiting for the catch, where the plot will kick in, but it never does, more importantly you begin to try and find a meaning within the work, looking for symbols, patterns. Humans seek meaning in everything, when we can find no clear meaning we go up a level in abstraction, until a work with no clear meaning is about having no meaning. While Jimmy’s story is not nearly as sparse as that film, I do see similarities, both in construction and how I approach it. I think that both work at a level somewhere one or two levels of abstraction above where a plot might sit. You might say “Gerry” is about using  the audiences expectations as to what a film should be, and dashing them at every turn. Jimmy on the other hand is rich with symbolism, having to do with a variety of Jimmy’s problems. So I think that by having a work without clear plot, can sometimes make us think more critically about the work, to our own benefit.

I also think that, in response to the poster who talked about Ware being similar to Jimmy, there is indeed some truth there. If you read the notes at the end of the book, Ware talks about making contact with his own estranged father and how that worked itself out in his book. Indeed I think most would agree that among a few other things, one of the key themes is parental influence, or lack thereof.

Overall, as much as I wanted to like this book, I just found it mostly a chore to get through. Where I think Ware really succeeds is in his form. The art and layout as well as his ability to juggle realities and time periods, all point to greatness. I wish I didn’t hate it so much.