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231st out of 1,500 books
—
3,022 voters
Our Cancer Year (American Splendor)
It was they year of Desert Storm that Harvey Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, discovered Harvey had cancer. Pekar, a man who has made a profession of chronicling the Kafkaesque absurdities of an ordinary life (if any life is ordinary) suddenly found himself incapacitated. But he had a better-than-average chance to beat cancer and he took it who survives.
Paperback, 252 pages
Published
October 13th 1994
by Running Press
(first published October 12th 1994)
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BOTH OUR CANCER YEARS
I have been neck-high into the medical establishment since my leukemia diagnosis in November 2009. Consequently, while I do not consider myself an expert of the establishment by any stretch of the imagination, I do believe that I am far too acutely aware of it. But, I guess that is to be expected from someone as critically dependent upon it as I am.
In addition to my practical experiences with hospitals and doctors and examinations and extremely long needles, I have also spen...more
I have been neck-high into the medical establishment since my leukemia diagnosis in November 2009. Consequently, while I do not consider myself an expert of the establishment by any stretch of the imagination, I do believe that I am far too acutely aware of it. But, I guess that is to be expected from someone as critically dependent upon it as I am.
In addition to my practical experiences with hospitals and doctors and examinations and extremely long needles, I have also spen...more
Our Cancer Year is written by the American everyman comic artist, Harvey Pekar, and Joyce Brabner, his wife. He’s the author of American Splendor, an ascerbic, tell-it-like-it-is series of comics that chronicle the life of the lower middle class.
Our Cancer Year picks up right from the American Splendor series, and in fact, feels like it could be an entry in the series, except that Brabner plays a major authorial and narrative role in the comic. The same Pekar bluntness is there, but with a healt...more
Our Cancer Year picks up right from the American Splendor series, and in fact, feels like it could be an entry in the series, except that Brabner plays a major authorial and narrative role in the comic. The same Pekar bluntness is there, but with a healt...more
I want to say that this is a wonderful, inspired memoir, a helpful work of art for anyone who is living with a cancer-diagnosed spouse. But no, Harvey Pekar ain't your typical spouse, Frank Stack is a strangely half-assed illustrator, and this book is just a descent into madness. Oh sure the last THREE PAGES are filled with hope and a waterfall, but on the whole this will fill you with fear and dread.
Right off the bat, I should point out that this is Joyce Brabner's work, not Harvey Pekar's. I...more
Right off the bat, I should point out that this is Joyce Brabner's work, not Harvey Pekar's. I...more
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I had a few initial issues taking to Frank Stack's art work but then it grew on me big time. By the finish I thought his graphic style was so apt because the story has to flow like an unreal drama. It can't so easily be anchored in any one of the many events that make up Harvey Pekar's experience of cancer. While there is a self evident chronology the point is that this is montage of pain and suffering which is ultimately fulfilling.
The poignant writing, the dense personable chit chats, the angs...more
The poignant writing, the dense personable chit chats, the angs...more
Honestly, I feel kind of bad, I had some problems with Frank Stack's art in this one. The art is extremely sketchy and loose and may be argued as spontaneous but I would say more so rushed. There are some panels that capture the moment quite well and sing with the emotion of the scene. However, these scenes are the exception to mistakes like the same characters looking different from panel to panel in the same scene. There are some scenes also where the expressions on people's faces don't quite...more
I thought that this was a great story about everyday people facing difficult obstacles. Using comics as a medium really allowed them to demonstrate the fear and physical pain that Pekar experienced (I guess you would have to see the scenes to know what I am talking about).
I really liked the simplicity of the story, and the way it portrayed the reality of their lives.
I really liked the simplicity of the story, and the way it portrayed the reality of their lives.
I really enjoyed this book. It is a brutally honest portrayal of what life was like while battling cancer. I originally chose this book because my husband is battling the same cancer. I'm not a big fan of reading about cancer stories. I've come to realize that the majority of people complain about having cancer more than they discuss the real effects it has on everyone involved. There are others who sugarcoat cancer into this awe-inspiring experience and never go into the reality of what they ac...more
Our cancer Year has many layers. It's a memoir of how Pekar's sickness affected both him and his wife Joyce Brabner. It's also a great log of his move from his tiny apartment to a new house, and Joyce's travels all around the world with her activism. I got this for my father, who was going through similar treatment for a similar cancer; to show him that even 20 years ago, even though Harvey's cancer was more advanced, he made it through treatments much harder than my father had to endure and he...more
By far the best Harvey Pekar work I have read so far. Pekar and his wife Joyce, through the use of personal antedotes, perfectly deplict what it's like dealing with someone in the family being sick and how it affects everything you do. These personal details show that maddening thing that happens when you're going through something difficult in life and you have to deal with the everyday bullshit, that it rises to a level of almost unbearable cruelty. When you're going through a rough time in li...more
Another jury duty waiting room book. This is a graphic memoir of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner's year or so during which Harvey discovered and was treated for cancer. The story is coherent enough and intertwines with one about Brabner's work (both she and Harvey are comic book writers). Frank Stack's illustrations are sometimes difficult to puzzle out and characters' expressions don't always match their affect. Still, the story and emotions will be familiar to anyone who has been intimately inv...more
I got this book two years ago at the Brooklyn Book Fair, in downtown Brooklyn. I'm not sure why it took me so long to pick it up off the shelf and read it. I think I've been a little hesitant because I've never thought Harvey Pekar's autobiographical style lends itself well to longer pieces. However, after reading The Quitter and Ego and Hubris (though that last title isn't autobiographical but biographical) I've come to see that his storytelling skills are well adapted to novel-length stories....more
I love Harvey Pekar and have been a longtime fan of American Splendor, but for some reason Our Cancer Year didn't quite live up to what I had expected. Like many other reviewers, I am not a fan of Stack's illustrations - in general I prefer more defined panels and tighter drawings but I found some bits so sketchy (especially in the beginning with Joyce's peace conference friends) that it was difficult to tell which character was speaking.
I wanted to like this because of the topic, but in truth I was less than thrilled with the storytelling and the art. In some cases the art was so vague that I found the story difficult to follow. This is perhaps representative of what dealing with major illness is like, but given the times in the story when it happened, I don't think it was intentional and was therefore merely confusing.
May 08, 2009
Nicholas Gourlay
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Cancer Survivors and Emo(s).
Shelves:
graphic-novel-comic,
biographies-and-memoirs
After reading numerous reviews and recommendations on this one I was somewhat disappointed. The artwork was mostly scratches and sometimes even hard to tell one character from the other but then when I would get mad, Stack would draw a very emotional scene. That is how this whole GN read to me .... nothing, nothing, then emotional scene. I did get a feel on the desperation of Harvey and Joyce but not enough to make me weep, which is what I was expecting.
Don't get me wrong, it's a good strong G...more
Don't get me wrong, it's a good strong G...more
This was my first exposure to the works of Harvey Pekar (other than the movie "American Splendor") and it was everything I had expected it to be. Brutally honest with love and pain equally.
Like other reviewers I found the art more than a bit rough, but artistically speaking, I can see why they chose to go this route. Cancer fucks up your whole universe, the treatments just as much as the disease itself. The distortion seemed pretty appropriate and after a while I didn't notice it so much.
I enj...more
Like other reviewers I found the art more than a bit rough, but artistically speaking, I can see why they chose to go this route. Cancer fucks up your whole universe, the treatments just as much as the disease itself. The distortion seemed pretty appropriate and after a while I didn't notice it so much.
I enj...more
I was introduced to Pekar by a friend who sent me a collection of American Splendor. You may have seen the movie. Harvey Pekar was Joyce's partner. They have a very real sort of a relationship, and this book chronicles their life as Harvey is diagnosed with cancer.
good story and writing. frank stack's illustrations are distracting at times because in his loose style, he draws the characters differently from scene to scene, so sometimes it's a little more difficult to follow who is who.
A good book. I feel like we are still in the dark ages with cancer treatment. Chemotherapy and radiation do so much harm. Didn't love the artwork in this one, felt it detracts from the story.
Although I don't really like the artwork, I still very much enjoyed this tale detailing not only what Harvey went through during his cancer, but also what his wife Helen went through as his caregiver, which tends to get overlooked.
Pekar's books were always well-written, and this one also has a real emotional punch. Pekar is a working-class, intellectual, a group largely overlooked in the US.
Joyce Brabner and Harvey Pekar (with artist Tom Stack's surrealistically wonderful art) have made one of the most touching and affecting works I've read in years, maybe ever. And this is something as Pekar's work is naturally that anyway, but here it goes beyond that. Going through this story I felt I was a member of their household and witness to their moment in history. Told in sparse unadorned dialogue the story cuts through all the unnecessaries of alternative comics and creates something wi...more
Really enjoyed the story, but I felt the loose style of the artwork didn't express as much emotion as I would have thought there would be in a book like this.
I loved this book. It was a very realistic depiction of a relationship and of the experience of cancer.
Good art, compelling story. I think I already knew too much about it to really be surprised or called by it.
Probably my favorite Harvey Pekar collection. The world will never see another guy like Harvey.
Oct 02, 2010
Curta
marked it as to-read
heard all the best about it. i believe it is fantastic, so i can't wait to read it.
not wild about the artwork here, but harvey saves the day by being his own self.
Maybe a 3.5 or so. I really felt the strain of the chemo treatments on Harvey.
Apr 20, 2009
Aneesa
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who like to cry
Recommended to Aneesa by:
Don Voita
Shelves:
comics-graphic-novels
This is a a comic about cancer! A sad book with an abrupt ending.
Harvey Pekar died early this morning.
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Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer best known for his autobiographical American Splendor series.
In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.
More about Harvey Pekar...
In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.
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Aug 10, 2010 10:11am