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The Learners
A follow up to The Cheese Monkeys finds 1961 college graduate Happy embarking on his new advertising job in the middle of an eccentric team of co-workers, an effort that is marked by their struggles to land and keep promising clients and Happy's participation in a devastating Yale psychology experiment. 50,000 first printing.
258 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
41 people are currently reading
796 people want to read
About the author
Chip Kidd
70 books287 followersChip Kidd is an American author, editor and graphic designer, best known for his innovative book covers.
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Kidd grew up in a Philadelphia suburb, strongly influenced by American popular culture. While a design student at Penn State, an art instructor once gave the assignment to design a book cover for Museums and Women by John Updike, who is also a Shillington native. The teacher panned Kidd's work in front of the class, suggesting that book design would not be a good career choice for him. However, Kidd later received professional assignments to design covers for Memories of the Ford Administration and other books by Updike.
Kidd is currently associate art director at Knopf, an imprint of Random House. He first joined the Knopf design team in 1986, when he was hired as a junior assistant by Sara Eisenman.
Publishers Weekly described his book jackets as "creepy, striking, sly, smart, unpredictable covers that make readers appreciate books as objects of art as well as literature." USA Today called him "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design today, while author James Ellroy has called him “the world’s greatest book-jacket designer.”
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Kidd grew up in a Philadelphia suburb, strongly influenced by American popular culture. While a design student at Penn State, an art instructor once gave the assignment to design a book cover for Museums and Women by John Updike, who is also a Shillington native. The teacher panned Kidd's work in front of the class, suggesting that book design would not be a good career choice for him. However, Kidd later received professional assignments to design covers for Memories of the Ford Administration and other books by Updike.
Kidd is currently associate art director at Knopf, an imprint of Random House. He first joined the Knopf design team in 1986, when he was hired as a junior assistant by Sara Eisenman.
Publishers Weekly described his book jackets as "creepy, striking, sly, smart, unpredictable covers that make readers appreciate books as objects of art as well as literature." USA Today called him "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design today, while author James Ellroy has called him “the world’s greatest book-jacket designer.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
March 8, 2008
Awful.
The Learners features the same eternally naive, lovable (?), ball-less and ostensible like thirteen-year-old protagonist as The Cheese Monkeys (it's even subtitled "The Book After The Cheese Monkeys"), Happy (read: Hapless), now out of art school and working for an ad agency. Only this time, not content with simply focusing on something he's familiar with (graphic design), Kidd throws in a second storyline, that of real-life psychologist Stanley Milgram and his 1960s experiment on human response to authority. The novel's title comes from this subplot, which is so incidental and poorly developed I had to go back and read it again, like I'd missed it. Apparently though it's like this life-altering experience for Happy (he describes Milgram as one of "his two great teachers," a man who "taught him who [he] really [is].") Really? Happy has nightmares and visions, and flips out on a business big-wig in an important meeting, all because of this experience, even though it's entirely forgettable as described in the novel.
Stylistically, I guess I may simply be outside of the audience Kidd's writing for. Perhaps fans of comic books and genre fiction are who he's after, but phrases like "yowza" don't really float my boat, and when Happy spends a few pages describing (very much telling, versus showing) himself to the reader, then says, "OK. What else?" and continues, it not only doesn't float my boat, it sort of drops a large bomb on it and sinks it real fast. Different typefaces are used here and there, of course, though while it doesn't really add much, it's not that distracting or gratuitous.
Also though, there're these little page-long italic interjections where Irony, Content, Form, Wit, etc. make little appearances and speak to the reader, first defining themselves (do we really need a midnovel definition of irony?), and then maybe providing little anecdotes that don't really apply to the story.
The book is really nicely laid out, but you know Kidd wrote the thing in InDesign, meaning if there was a widow or some bad line-break or something, you can't help but assume he cut a word or two to make it all fit nicely (the aforementioned italic interjections are all exactly one page long, e.g.). Which is disappointing. Kidd is most definitely a designer first and a writer second, and this book makes it clear that that second is and should remain a very, very distant one. This is no Only Revolutions, Kidd has worlds more restraint and acumen than Danielewski, but still. The Learners is basically Michael Jordan deciding he wants to give baseball a try.
The Learners features the same eternally naive, lovable (?), ball-less and ostensible like thirteen-year-old protagonist as The Cheese Monkeys (it's even subtitled "The Book After The Cheese Monkeys"), Happy (read: Hapless), now out of art school and working for an ad agency. Only this time, not content with simply focusing on something he's familiar with (graphic design), Kidd throws in a second storyline, that of real-life psychologist Stanley Milgram and his 1960s experiment on human response to authority. The novel's title comes from this subplot, which is so incidental and poorly developed I had to go back and read it again, like I'd missed it. Apparently though it's like this life-altering experience for Happy (he describes Milgram as one of "his two great teachers," a man who "taught him who [he] really [is].") Really? Happy has nightmares and visions, and flips out on a business big-wig in an important meeting, all because of this experience, even though it's entirely forgettable as described in the novel.
Stylistically, I guess I may simply be outside of the audience Kidd's writing for. Perhaps fans of comic books and genre fiction are who he's after, but phrases like "yowza" don't really float my boat, and when Happy spends a few pages describing (very much telling, versus showing) himself to the reader, then says, "OK. What else?" and continues, it not only doesn't float my boat, it sort of drops a large bomb on it and sinks it real fast. Different typefaces are used here and there, of course, though while it doesn't really add much, it's not that distracting or gratuitous.
Also though, there're these little page-long italic interjections where Irony, Content, Form, Wit, etc. make little appearances and speak to the reader, first defining themselves (do we really need a midnovel definition of irony?), and then maybe providing little anecdotes that don't really apply to the story.
The book is really nicely laid out, but you know Kidd wrote the thing in InDesign, meaning if there was a widow or some bad line-break or something, you can't help but assume he cut a word or two to make it all fit nicely (the aforementioned italic interjections are all exactly one page long, e.g.). Which is disappointing. Kidd is most definitely a designer first and a writer second, and this book makes it clear that that second is and should remain a very, very distant one. This is no Only Revolutions, Kidd has worlds more restraint and acumen than Danielewski, but still. The Learners is basically Michael Jordan deciding he wants to give baseball a try.
March 18, 2008
Sigh. I've been thinking for the last few days about what I should say in this review. I love Chip Kidd's voice, you see, his snappy dialogue and his witty little characters and his charming descriptions. There's a lot of clever stuff in this book, too, including smart digressions on form vs. content, design in general, psychology, and clothing from the fifties. But the story... well it didn't really go anywhere. Or, rather, the places that it managed to go were not at all satisfying. To me. In many ways it was just a big letdown, definitely not delivering on the promises I imagined it to be making, coming, as it did, what, five years after The Cheese Monkeys? and calling itself a sequel. Or even promises it could have made within itself, as far as setting up conflict and themes and then doing something with them that made sense and felt right. And also, the ending really, really blew.
I dunno. Disappointing.
*************************************************************
Don't worry, impatience won out. I've now got this pretty little book in my hot little hands.
*************************************************************
So, does the amount that I loved Cheese Monkeys (which was a fucking lot) justify paying $25 for an advance reader's of this one?? I mean no, no, of course not, $25 is just silly. Right?
But that means I'm going to have to wait months for it to come out in pb.
Rrrrgggghhhh. Which is more powerful, my impatience or my cheapness?
I dunno. Disappointing.
*************************************************************
Don't worry, impatience won out. I've now got this pretty little book in my hot little hands.
*************************************************************
So, does the amount that I loved Cheese Monkeys (which was a fucking lot) justify paying $25 for an advance reader's of this one?? I mean no, no, of course not, $25 is just silly. Right?
But that means I'm going to have to wait months for it to come out in pb.
Rrrrgggghhhh. Which is more powerful, my impatience or my cheapness?
September 3, 2008
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
Any graphic designer worth their salt will already know who Chip Kidd is; he's the one who single-handedly transformed the subject of book design as we know it, the very first designer to regularly demand that his name appear on a book's dust jacket or copyright page. And in fact, back in 2001 Kidd caught the writing bug himself, and ended up putting out a small yet well-regarded novel entitled The Cheese Monkeys, set in the Modernist '60s and dealing with the noble frustrations of graphic design, specifically in a college setting during the years when the subject of design was first starting to be taken seriously by the academic community. I read and enjoyed The Cheese Monkeys myself, in fact, years before opening CCLaP which is why I've never done a write-up of it; so needless to say, I was happy to see that Kidd had actually written a sequel this year, entitled The Learners and putting our previous student hero now in New York and working his first corporate job.
So ask me how shocked and disappointed I was, then, to actually read The Learners last month and discover that something with Kidd and his writing has gone horribly, horribly wrong in the seven years since Cheese Monkeys; this novel is flat where the original was bubbly, fussy and pretentious where the original was charming and illuminating. And for the life of me, I can't figure out what the problem is either; maybe it's that the setting has moved from a college environment to a corporate one? Because, see, I have this clear recollection of Cheese Monkeys' obsessive fastidiousness about All Things Design to be a delightful treat, a warm love letter from Kidd to this industry he so obviously adores, full of the exact kinds of incisive yet obscure topics of the world that only designers seem to think about on a regular basis; but in The Learners, this fastidiousness just comes off as dysfunctionally nerdy, elitist horsesh-t, the exact kind of stuff you might hear some shaved-head black-glasses NPR Weenie spouting about in the corner of a cocktail party, that makes you just want to walk over and punch him as hard as you possibly can in the middle of his smug little Helvetica-worshipping face. (And yes, I mean both the typeface and the 2007 Gary Hustwit documentary, you f-cking nerd, and man, you really are looking for a punch in the face today, aren't you?) It was a real disappointment, even more of a frustrating experience by not being able to tell where exactly it all starts going wrong; unless you're a graphic designer at a corporate agency yourself, I recommend skipping the book altogether.
Out of 10: 4.4
Any graphic designer worth their salt will already know who Chip Kidd is; he's the one who single-handedly transformed the subject of book design as we know it, the very first designer to regularly demand that his name appear on a book's dust jacket or copyright page. And in fact, back in 2001 Kidd caught the writing bug himself, and ended up putting out a small yet well-regarded novel entitled The Cheese Monkeys, set in the Modernist '60s and dealing with the noble frustrations of graphic design, specifically in a college setting during the years when the subject of design was first starting to be taken seriously by the academic community. I read and enjoyed The Cheese Monkeys myself, in fact, years before opening CCLaP which is why I've never done a write-up of it; so needless to say, I was happy to see that Kidd had actually written a sequel this year, entitled The Learners and putting our previous student hero now in New York and working his first corporate job.
So ask me how shocked and disappointed I was, then, to actually read The Learners last month and discover that something with Kidd and his writing has gone horribly, horribly wrong in the seven years since Cheese Monkeys; this novel is flat where the original was bubbly, fussy and pretentious where the original was charming and illuminating. And for the life of me, I can't figure out what the problem is either; maybe it's that the setting has moved from a college environment to a corporate one? Because, see, I have this clear recollection of Cheese Monkeys' obsessive fastidiousness about All Things Design to be a delightful treat, a warm love letter from Kidd to this industry he so obviously adores, full of the exact kinds of incisive yet obscure topics of the world that only designers seem to think about on a regular basis; but in The Learners, this fastidiousness just comes off as dysfunctionally nerdy, elitist horsesh-t, the exact kind of stuff you might hear some shaved-head black-glasses NPR Weenie spouting about in the corner of a cocktail party, that makes you just want to walk over and punch him as hard as you possibly can in the middle of his smug little Helvetica-worshipping face. (And yes, I mean both the typeface and the 2007 Gary Hustwit documentary, you f-cking nerd, and man, you really are looking for a punch in the face today, aren't you?) It was a real disappointment, even more of a frustrating experience by not being able to tell where exactly it all starts going wrong; unless you're a graphic designer at a corporate agency yourself, I recommend skipping the book altogether.
Out of 10: 4.4
November 22, 2008
Apparently this Chip Kidd guy is some famous graphic artist/book jacket designer. I picked up the book from the library's "new" shelf initially because of the cool jacket, then checked it out because Augusten Burroughs about pees himself giving a back cover blurb.
The Learners focuses on identity, self-knowledge, graphic design/advertising, and Milligram's (sp?) Yale experiments. Mr. Kidd's sharp, fluid writing carries like interesting bar conversation put to paper. I mean that in a good way, in case you were wondering. The main character is a bit hard to follow at times, moving from insecurity to confidence and back again fairly quickly. Through some sections the novel feels unfinished and the last twenty pages, while gripping, seemed tacked so the book could end. Still, I don't regret reading The Learners; I could see this book as a decent but conventional screenplay. Give Mr. Kidd credit for moving from the cover to the text without embarrassing himself.
The Learners focuses on identity, self-knowledge, graphic design/advertising, and Milligram's (sp?) Yale experiments. Mr. Kidd's sharp, fluid writing carries like interesting bar conversation put to paper. I mean that in a good way, in case you were wondering. The main character is a bit hard to follow at times, moving from insecurity to confidence and back again fairly quickly. Through some sections the novel feels unfinished and the last twenty pages, while gripping, seemed tacked so the book could end. Still, I don't regret reading The Learners; I could see this book as a decent but conventional screenplay. Give Mr. Kidd credit for moving from the cover to the text without embarrassing himself.
September 7, 2010
Chip Kidd is not a bad writer. The Learners is not a bad story. But somehow, neither Kidd nor his novel The Learners never really come full circle.
I never read The Cheese Monkeys, of which The Learners is supposed to be a stand-alone sequel. And it’s true, I didn’t feel like I was left out from not having read The Cheese Monkeys.
The premise of The Learners involves a young artist fresh out of college named Happy. He wants to get a job at an ad agency in New Haven because that’s where his favorite college professor got his start. It doesn’t take long before he’s got the job of his dreams, and office hilarity ensues.
The most disappointing aspect of The Learners was its unevenness. Sometimes it leads you to believe that it will be a character-based office comedy like The Office, and other times it walks the line of being a deeper social satire. Unfortunately, it never commits to either, and the result is a constant feeling of being pulled around between two different story lines.
Oddly enough, the story has a strange, reverse-synergy aspect where the individual parts are better than the whole. Often the scenes were quite funny, or revealed intriguing aspects of a character. But none of these things added up to much, and none of the characters (nor anything that happened at the office, really) felt very relevant to Happy’s central conflict, which never even takes root until halfway through the book.
The end seems to happen too late, and the character’s motivation to arrive there feels unwarranted.
I enjoyed Kidd’s crisp, satiric voice and the quirky scenes that occasionally made me laugh.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which was expertly performed by Bronson Pinchot. He perfectly encapsulated each character’s voice, and his performance of the “the learner” will probably haunt me for a long time.
I never read The Cheese Monkeys, of which The Learners is supposed to be a stand-alone sequel. And it’s true, I didn’t feel like I was left out from not having read The Cheese Monkeys.
The premise of The Learners involves a young artist fresh out of college named Happy. He wants to get a job at an ad agency in New Haven because that’s where his favorite college professor got his start. It doesn’t take long before he’s got the job of his dreams, and office hilarity ensues.
The most disappointing aspect of The Learners was its unevenness. Sometimes it leads you to believe that it will be a character-based office comedy like The Office, and other times it walks the line of being a deeper social satire. Unfortunately, it never commits to either, and the result is a constant feeling of being pulled around between two different story lines.
Oddly enough, the story has a strange, reverse-synergy aspect where the individual parts are better than the whole. Often the scenes were quite funny, or revealed intriguing aspects of a character. But none of these things added up to much, and none of the characters (nor anything that happened at the office, really) felt very relevant to Happy’s central conflict, which never even takes root until halfway through the book.
The end seems to happen too late, and the character’s motivation to arrive there feels unwarranted.
I enjoyed Kidd’s crisp, satiric voice and the quirky scenes that occasionally made me laugh.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which was expertly performed by Bronson Pinchot. He perfectly encapsulated each character’s voice, and his performance of the “the learner” will probably haunt me for a long time.
March 1, 2008
The first half of the book is somewhat slow at times (though the typography digressions are awesome!), but it really starts to pick up the pace right before the Milgram experiment.
The last third that follows is so brilliant I completely forgot any problems I had with the beginning. It reminded me a little of The Pillowman and also The Prestige (movie version). It has that absurd but very fragile quality to it that makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time, not sure when to do which. Martin McDonagh has that effect on me; it's a rare gift, I think. Not even Daniel Handler gets it quite right. I definitely have new respect for Kidd not just as a designer but as a writer. I loved The Cheese Monkeys but often wondered if he was even still writing this and if it would live up to expectations. I honestly think it is even stronger and well worth the wait, and I hope he keeps writing.
Go watch his form/content video on YouTube! (It'll make sense after you read the book.) Hilarious.
Grade: A+++
(ETA: I take back my typo accusation, it is really more of unfortunate punctuation use.)
The last third that follows is so brilliant I completely forgot any problems I had with the beginning. It reminded me a little of The Pillowman and also The Prestige (movie version). It has that absurd but very fragile quality to it that makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time, not sure when to do which. Martin McDonagh has that effect on me; it's a rare gift, I think. Not even Daniel Handler gets it quite right. I definitely have new respect for Kidd not just as a designer but as a writer. I loved The Cheese Monkeys but often wondered if he was even still writing this and if it would live up to expectations. I honestly think it is even stronger and well worth the wait, and I hope he keeps writing.
Go watch his form/content video on YouTube! (It'll make sense after you read the book.) Hilarious.
Grade: A+++
(ETA: I take back my typo accusation, it is really more of unfortunate punctuation use.)
May 9, 2008
I liked Kidd's "The Cheese Monkeys," the story of Happy's freshman year as an art major at an undistinguished state college, where he is buffeted by the harsh tutelage of Winter Sorbeck and by friendship with the bizarrely original Himillsly.
But I was disappointed by this sequel, which catches up with Happy after graduation, as he starts his advertising at the very firm where Sorbeck designed the Double Mint gum wrapper. Monkeys felt much more complete; this seems half-baked and half-finished, a beginning followed too quickly by an ending. Kidd's wit and flair are intact, but the plotting feels awkward, and Happy is never as fully realized a character as his more outre companions.
Quotable: "But I am close to my family, the way you are close to other people in a small crowded elevator that has temporarily stalled but will be moving any minute now."
But I was disappointed by this sequel, which catches up with Happy after graduation, as he starts his advertising at the very firm where Sorbeck designed the Double Mint gum wrapper. Monkeys felt much more complete; this seems half-baked and half-finished, a beginning followed too quickly by an ending. Kidd's wit and flair are intact, but the plotting feels awkward, and Happy is never as fully realized a character as his more outre companions.
Quotable: "But I am close to my family, the way you are close to other people in a small crowded elevator that has temporarily stalled but will be moving any minute now."
January 8, 2014
I've been in Chip Kidd's sway for something like 20 years now, so when his first authored book, The Cheese Monkeys, came out I was all over it. It took me a bit longer to get to The Learners, but not for avoiding it. I finally got around to buying it only this month, and read it in an eager rush, the way the best fictions can make you: I couldn't read it fast enough, but missed it when it was over.
This is a sequel of sorts to Cheese Monkeys, but I haven't read that since it came out and had no trouble following the story or empathising with the characters. His (presumably autobiographic) main character is Happy, and we catch up with him some time after the previous book's events. He's decided that he wants to follow in his college mentor's (Winter Sorbeck) figurative footsteps, so presses himself into a job with that man's first firm. Happy is anxious to make a good impression and get started on his career in New Haven, Connecticut, but is thrown askew by some unexpected events. Chief among these is his participation in the Milgram Experiment at Yale (go look it up if you don't know it; it's fascinating but too much to go into here).
Kidd has a wit and an eye for detail that is apparent from his astonishing output as a book designer, and does a superb job conveying those into prose. I felt for these characters that I'd only just met, and worried about what would become of poor Happy. His decision to structure the book around the Milgram episode (the book is divided into Before, During and After sections) was a clever one, as it was just the sort of thing to slip a wrench into one's plans and perspective.
Of course, it would be just plain wrong to write about this book without at least mentioning Kidd's design on it. Though it's not the graphic smorgasbord offered in the hardback of Cheese Monkeys, it is still a dynamic and lovely package. Full-cover illustrations by Charles Burns strike precisely the right tone for what happens between those two images. Kidd has taken time over decisions within the text, as well, including occasional input from the character of all characters, Content.
The Learners is a brisk, entertaining and occasionally upsetting read, and one that subtly explores human nature while telling a compelling and believable story. I only hesitate to go the full five stars on it because I was a little put off by the decision he made for the ending (not the event, but the writing). Aside from that, this is an excellent little book.
This is a sequel of sorts to Cheese Monkeys, but I haven't read that since it came out and had no trouble following the story or empathising with the characters. His (presumably autobiographic) main character is Happy, and we catch up with him some time after the previous book's events. He's decided that he wants to follow in his college mentor's (Winter Sorbeck) figurative footsteps, so presses himself into a job with that man's first firm. Happy is anxious to make a good impression and get started on his career in New Haven, Connecticut, but is thrown askew by some unexpected events. Chief among these is his participation in the Milgram Experiment at Yale (go look it up if you don't know it; it's fascinating but too much to go into here).
Kidd has a wit and an eye for detail that is apparent from his astonishing output as a book designer, and does a superb job conveying those into prose. I felt for these characters that I'd only just met, and worried about what would become of poor Happy. His decision to structure the book around the Milgram episode (the book is divided into Before, During and After sections) was a clever one, as it was just the sort of thing to slip a wrench into one's plans and perspective.
Of course, it would be just plain wrong to write about this book without at least mentioning Kidd's design on it. Though it's not the graphic smorgasbord offered in the hardback of Cheese Monkeys, it is still a dynamic and lovely package. Full-cover illustrations by Charles Burns strike precisely the right tone for what happens between those two images. Kidd has taken time over decisions within the text, as well, including occasional input from the character of all characters, Content.
The Learners is a brisk, entertaining and occasionally upsetting read, and one that subtly explores human nature while telling a compelling and believable story. I only hesitate to go the full five stars on it because I was a little put off by the decision he made for the ending (not the event, but the writing). Aside from that, this is an excellent little book.
May 28, 2008
I really wanted to like this, since I adored The Cheese Monkeys. But.. I'm not really sure how to feel about this. In some ways I think this sequel ruined Cheese Monkeys. The way Cheese Monkeys ended was a bit vague and mysterious an, I liked that. This takes all that away and continues.. and literally destroys some of the characters. I'm conflicted about how to rate this, though, because there were probably about 30 pages that I thought were brilliant... but most of it, the whole "plot" I thought was weak.
As usual I liked all the graphic design interjections.. I just felt like it'd be so much more interesting if Kidd just wrote a book about graphic design and didnt try to add a lame fiction story to go along with it. Or maybe if he just stuck to graphic design. Which isn't an insult since I think he is BRILLIANT at it.
Oh, it may have just been because of my psychology background, but I thought the whole inclusion of the Milgram study was really interesting and well done. It was a little weird how the author interjected "Happy" into history- that kind of bothered me- but I thought he made a good point about, you know, someone realizing something horrible about themselves (as most people probably did as a result of the Milgram study) and how they dealt with it. But anyway. Is it just me or is the main character guy REALLY fucking stupid and annoying? His clueless incredulousness kind of works when he's a clueless college freshman.. but, as this story takes place after he's graduated college.. I'd expect him to be a BIT smarter. He just seems so.. daft. Yet managed to relate the Milgram experiment to the treatment of Jews in the Holocaust (in the book, was it supposed to be like he gave Milgram that idea? I wasn't sure), which is very clever. Basically, he was kind of inconsistently portrayed. Though his stupidity at the ending (which I didn't really like) was consistent with his... dumb logic.
Sooo.. I will give it 3 stars just for the awesome Milgram experiment-shocking-scene.
Edit: Paul, a reveiwer below me said it better: "Kidd is most definitely a designer first and a writer second, and this book makes it clear that that second is and should remain a very, very distant one". Yes, that.
As usual I liked all the graphic design interjections.. I just felt like it'd be so much more interesting if Kidd just wrote a book about graphic design and didnt try to add a lame fiction story to go along with it. Or maybe if he just stuck to graphic design. Which isn't an insult since I think he is BRILLIANT at it.
Oh, it may have just been because of my psychology background, but I thought the whole inclusion of the Milgram study was really interesting and well done. It was a little weird how the author interjected "Happy" into history- that kind of bothered me- but I thought he made a good point about, you know, someone realizing something horrible about themselves (as most people probably did as a result of the Milgram study) and how they dealt with it. But anyway. Is it just me or is the main character guy REALLY fucking stupid and annoying? His clueless incredulousness kind of works when he's a clueless college freshman.. but, as this story takes place after he's graduated college.. I'd expect him to be a BIT smarter. He just seems so.. daft. Yet managed to relate the Milgram experiment to the treatment of Jews in the Holocaust (in the book, was it supposed to be like he gave Milgram that idea? I wasn't sure), which is very clever. Basically, he was kind of inconsistently portrayed. Though his stupidity at the ending (which I didn't really like) was consistent with his... dumb logic.
Sooo.. I will give it 3 stars just for the awesome Milgram experiment-shocking-scene.
Edit: Paul, a reveiwer below me said it better: "Kidd is most definitely a designer first and a writer second, and this book makes it clear that that second is and should remain a very, very distant one". Yes, that.
July 18, 2013
The Learners- Chip Kidd
Once in a while, a book cover startles you enough that you either wind up purchasing the book from the store, or borrowing it from the library. This happened to me with the novel, “The Learners” by coincidentally, famed book cover designer Chip Kidd. For starters, I knew he had designed the covers of novels written by famed authors Michael Ondjaate and Michael Crichton, but had no idea he was a writer himself-only after having bought a copy of “The Learners”- only because I saw the novel’s bizarre cover at the Strand Bookstore.
How I miss The Strand, and walking inside that wonderful store during hot summer days in Manhattan. But that’s another story.
I just finished reading “The Learners”- which happened to be a sequel to Kidd’s “The Cheese Monkeys” though thank goodness, is a stand-alone book. I wouldn’t have bought “The Learners” had I known it was a sequel. But it was thanks to that intriguing book cover and design.
The book is about book designer, Happy- who gets a job as an assistant at a New Haven mom and pop ad agency after graduating from college. At the same time, he finds himself participating in a series of disturbing and true experiments conducted by psychologist Stanley Miligram- asked to administer electroshock therapy to “learners” who failed to answer questions from memory correctly. Instances of light-hearted 60s banter reminiscent of Stanley Donen films of the 1960s and of the TV show “Mad Men” come into light, contrasted with the true story of Stanley Miligram’s experiments make this an interesting and dark work overall; making it true and enjoyable summer reading.
Once in a while, a book cover startles you enough that you either wind up purchasing the book from the store, or borrowing it from the library. This happened to me with the novel, “The Learners” by coincidentally, famed book cover designer Chip Kidd. For starters, I knew he had designed the covers of novels written by famed authors Michael Ondjaate and Michael Crichton, but had no idea he was a writer himself-only after having bought a copy of “The Learners”- only because I saw the novel’s bizarre cover at the Strand Bookstore.
How I miss The Strand, and walking inside that wonderful store during hot summer days in Manhattan. But that’s another story.
I just finished reading “The Learners”- which happened to be a sequel to Kidd’s “The Cheese Monkeys” though thank goodness, is a stand-alone book. I wouldn’t have bought “The Learners” had I known it was a sequel. But it was thanks to that intriguing book cover and design.
The book is about book designer, Happy- who gets a job as an assistant at a New Haven mom and pop ad agency after graduating from college. At the same time, he finds himself participating in a series of disturbing and true experiments conducted by psychologist Stanley Miligram- asked to administer electroshock therapy to “learners” who failed to answer questions from memory correctly. Instances of light-hearted 60s banter reminiscent of Stanley Donen films of the 1960s and of the TV show “Mad Men” come into light, contrasted with the true story of Stanley Miligram’s experiments make this an interesting and dark work overall; making it true and enjoyable summer reading.
April 14, 2015
It's been a long while since I read THE CHEESE MONKEYS, but the one thing I remembered from that book--beyond a few small moments--is how FUN it was to read. Even in the depressing and heart-wrenching moments, it had a ton of style, great wit, and a manic tone that I enjoyed most heartily. THE LEARNERS is in the same vein.
There are times in this one that the narration and cleverness becomes a bit too much for its own good; however, it's still a crapton of fun. It'll have you laughing, then break your heart, then have you wide-eyed at the nonsense unfolding before you. However, even with its shortcomings--like the pacing and overall movement of the plot--you'll be hard pressed not to be entertained--especially if you have any interest in design, typography, or advertising.
A great sequel and good time, relatively speaking, all around.
There are times in this one that the narration and cleverness becomes a bit too much for its own good; however, it's still a crapton of fun. It'll have you laughing, then break your heart, then have you wide-eyed at the nonsense unfolding before you. However, even with its shortcomings--like the pacing and overall movement of the plot--you'll be hard pressed not to be entertained--especially if you have any interest in design, typography, or advertising.
A great sequel and good time, relatively speaking, all around.
August 25, 2008
This is a sequel to the author's first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, where graphic designer Happy (a nickname), finds a job and then gets involved in Stanley Milgrim's notorious Obedience to Authority experiment. The story is set in 1961 and is mostly about Happy's reaction to participating in the expirement and about graphic design. The author is a well-known graphic designer himself, especially of books. It's a thin story though and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as The Cheese Monkeys. It has its moments but it's not a book I'd recommend. There isn't much in the way of characterization and the secondary characters are flat. Mostly, this is an excuse to yammer on about graphic design in a cute way. Skip it.
January 6, 2010
I can't even begin to explain why this book fascinated me so. I haven't read the precursor to this (yet) and basically picked it off my boyfriends hands when he was finished with it.
The seamless way Kidd breezes through New Haven, making it feel as real in 2008 as it did in the 60's was a really important part of making me comfortable with the novel. I was truly sucked in, he is a master of setting the scene (graphic design does that I hear)
Also, the laugh out loud moments in this book were fantastic. I had a few moments on the subway of pure glee at a witty joke or rub. I also got self-conscious for all the cheeky grinning I did at certain points.
Seriously, grab this book.
The seamless way Kidd breezes through New Haven, making it feel as real in 2008 as it did in the 60's was a really important part of making me comfortable with the novel. I was truly sucked in, he is a master of setting the scene (graphic design does that I hear)
Also, the laugh out loud moments in this book were fantastic. I had a few moments on the subway of pure glee at a witty joke or rub. I also got self-conscious for all the cheeky grinning I did at certain points.
Seriously, grab this book.
March 4, 2008
I enjoyed Chip kidd's first novel, 'The Cheese Monkeys,' I thought it was a good look at art school, and design, it was funny, if a bit uneven. I really liked The Learners, much improved over his first book. His design philosophy weaves throughout the book - both on the surface and beneath it - and the narrative is much more focused. There's a sense of mystery or problem solving that kept me moving along, and at the end of it, I laughed out loud.
March 10, 2009
Really enjoyed Kidd's writing style, entertaining, descriptive, even evocative at times...But man, if a book ever fell apart at the end, it would be this book.
February 20, 2013
It's very hard to write a gay character in the 50s who doesn't seem anachronistic or tragic, but Kidd manages it.
April 26, 2013
Kidd has a wonderful mind. I enjoyed this one but enjoyed his first book, The Cheese Monkeys, even more.
October 31, 2013
The Cheese Monkeys, this is not. Bummer.
January 11, 2018
the follow-up to The Cheese Monkeys, The Learners explores Happy’s entrance into the professional world of graphic design/advertising and his sudden confrontation with the “real” world outside of academia.
it’s an odd book and one that i found confounding. the wit and snark is just under my bar for such things as i mostly find it sophomoric in its desire to one-up everything and everyone nearby. but Kidd doesn’t quite descend into the murky depths like a Sedaris where the wit actually becomes a prison shank delivered in a mean-spirited thrust. Kidd keeps his light-hearted and, well, witty.
the story seemed shallow to me at first, merely showing off the interior world of the crazily creative humans who work in the advertising field where they pit their ability to manipulate you into becoming interested in their client’s product against your ability to actually just live life and trust people. still, i liked the prose if not the message and, if i’m being totally honest, the edition of the book i have was very, very nice to hold and read. a physical demonstration of how design can be used effectively. it served as tangible support to the ephemeral content of the book. well done, Chip Kidd, in creating a kind of Zen koan of a reading experience.
however, a sudden curve in the road of the story occurs a fair way into the book and then things get interesting. the main character finds himself confronting some deep issues about death, living, friendship, and, yes, even killing. a surprisingly literarily profound turn for this book especially in light of the first book’s arc and overall message.
the interruptions in the flow by Content itself i found… interesting. i’m not quite sure what Kidd was getting at by doing that except to remind us that we readers might be participating in our own version of the psychology experiment that Happy participates in by reading this book. or perhaps Kidd just wanted us to think that he was being deep beyond most people’s ken thus recapitulating the theme of “our reality is made up of carefully and otherwise constructed façades.”
The Learners ends up being a somewhat dark parable about discovering who we really are and how we handle this. Also, that the world is much bigger than we often imagine and beyond our control no matter how much control we exert.
it’s an odd book and one that i found confounding. the wit and snark is just under my bar for such things as i mostly find it sophomoric in its desire to one-up everything and everyone nearby. but Kidd doesn’t quite descend into the murky depths like a Sedaris where the wit actually becomes a prison shank delivered in a mean-spirited thrust. Kidd keeps his light-hearted and, well, witty.
the story seemed shallow to me at first, merely showing off the interior world of the crazily creative humans who work in the advertising field where they pit their ability to manipulate you into becoming interested in their client’s product against your ability to actually just live life and trust people. still, i liked the prose if not the message and, if i’m being totally honest, the edition of the book i have was very, very nice to hold and read. a physical demonstration of how design can be used effectively. it served as tangible support to the ephemeral content of the book. well done, Chip Kidd, in creating a kind of Zen koan of a reading experience.
however, a sudden curve in the road of the story occurs a fair way into the book and then things get interesting. the main character finds himself confronting some deep issues about death, living, friendship, and, yes, even killing. a surprisingly literarily profound turn for this book especially in light of the first book’s arc and overall message.
the interruptions in the flow by Content itself i found… interesting. i’m not quite sure what Kidd was getting at by doing that except to remind us that we readers might be participating in our own version of the psychology experiment that Happy participates in by reading this book. or perhaps Kidd just wanted us to think that he was being deep beyond most people’s ken thus recapitulating the theme of “our reality is made up of carefully and otherwise constructed façades.”
The Learners ends up being a somewhat dark parable about discovering who we really are and how we handle this. Also, that the world is much bigger than we often imagine and beyond our control no matter how much control we exert.
January 1, 2024
I hadn't actually heard of Chip Kidd until I started reading this book, and for some strange reason, I began this book thinking it was an autobiography. This book I have a bit of trouble explaining, it shows, in some sense, the use and importance of graphic design in our world, and there are some fantastic spreads and gags in the book related to it. In another sense, though, this book questions the innate sense of or sentiment of humanity, at our core selves.
The pivot that occurs in this book, and the direction it began to take, I think was perfectly pointed in this book and came just at the right time. For both the book and myself.
It does pose a lot of questions about our innate behavior, and I do wonder more as a consequence of it. I think it makes the narrator a lot more relatable as a consequence. I want to follow the rules but my brain does function on its own.
It's a good book! Read it!
____________________________________________________________________
Je n'ai pas entendu parler de Chip Kidd, jusqu'à ce que je commence à lire ce livre. Et pour quelque raison bizzaire, j'ai commencé à lire ce livre en pensant qu'il s'agissait d'une autobiographie. J'ai du mal a expliquer ce livre. Dans un cas, il montre l'importance de la conception graphique dans nos vies. Et dans un autre cas, ce livre remet en question le sense ou le sentiment inné de l'humanité. Le pivot qui se produit dans ce livre, et la direction qu'il a commencé à prendre, sont arrivés, je pense, au bon moment. Pour le livre et moi les deux.
Il remet beaucoup de questions sur notre comportement et je m'interroge davantage à ce sujet. Je pense que cela rend le narrateur beaucoup plus compréhensible. Je veux suivre les règles, mais ma tête fonctionne toute seule aussi.
C'est un bon livre ! Lisez-le !
The pivot that occurs in this book, and the direction it began to take, I think was perfectly pointed in this book and came just at the right time. For both the book and myself.
It does pose a lot of questions about our innate behavior, and I do wonder more as a consequence of it. I think it makes the narrator a lot more relatable as a consequence. I want to follow the rules but my brain does function on its own.
It's a good book! Read it!
____________________________________________________________________
Je n'ai pas entendu parler de Chip Kidd, jusqu'à ce que je commence à lire ce livre. Et pour quelque raison bizzaire, j'ai commencé à lire ce livre en pensant qu'il s'agissait d'une autobiographie. J'ai du mal a expliquer ce livre. Dans un cas, il montre l'importance de la conception graphique dans nos vies. Et dans un autre cas, ce livre remet en question le sense ou le sentiment inné de l'humanité. Le pivot qui se produit dans ce livre, et la direction qu'il a commencé à prendre, sont arrivés, je pense, au bon moment. Pour le livre et moi les deux.
Il remet beaucoup de questions sur notre comportement et je m'interroge davantage à ce sujet. Je pense que cela rend le narrateur beaucoup plus compréhensible. Je veux suivre les règles, mais ma tête fonctionne toute seule aussi.
C'est un bon livre ! Lisez-le !
December 20, 2017
Dying is easy, it's comedy that is hard. And writing a comedic novel that maintains its tone throughout, must be near impossible. The Learners by Chip Kidd achieves this, almost. But not without a lack good laughs, and a stab at something deeper. The Learners is the sequel to The Cheese Monkeys, taking place three years after Happy has graduated from art school. Keen to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Happy gets a position at the same advertising firm that he started out in in New Haven. It's a small operation full of big and idiosyncratic personalities. Happy is pretty happy discovering his craft and trade there under an unheralded genius, and a young ad man full of big, new ideas. Yet after a tragedy, Happy answers an ad that he himself laid out to participate in a study at Yale (a very famous one about obeying orders and authority), discovering something about himself that nearly utterly destroys him and his sense of (a happy) self. Happy is not so happy, more at loose ends. The Learners reads as more of a middle story within a larger story, a lot of great individual moments, but leading to something that we are not lead to yet. Still, Kidd's writing is energetic and he knows how to spin an extended comedic tale. Being that Kidd is a renown graphic designer, it's no surprise that he has peppered this book with insightful discourses on typography and other design concepts, and how a book (especially this book) is a merger of form and content. This could be the book of graphic design you didn't know you needed. And it taking place in 1961 shows how far (or not) we've come in advertising, (something Mad Men also, but differently, shows). Being funny while being serious is serious business, something that I'm happy it's able to do.
January 9, 2026
With as strong of a voice as this book has you would hope the plot could also hold up.
A snappy narrative matches the quick pace of the storytelling and scenes quite well, but can also backfire when the author tries to impart heavy or complex narrative themes and/or devices. While I found myself invested in the ideas that Chip Kidd has, I also found that he never quite jumps deep enough into them, leaving us with shallow explanations and no great underlying point.
Not to say that this book is bad, I enjoyed reading it. There was something to say about his character connections in this work, through some deeply moving dialogues, shared moments of grief, different struggles and how they can bring strangers together, it can be very relatable and emotional for the reader. But then again we are left with a messy plot with no end goal in sight. Whereas the ending is supposed to be a full circle redemption moment, I found it to be quite juvenile and rushed, leaving me with no sense of accomplishment after putting the book down. Some may argue that was the point of it, but I rest my case.
A snappy narrative matches the quick pace of the storytelling and scenes quite well, but can also backfire when the author tries to impart heavy or complex narrative themes and/or devices. While I found myself invested in the ideas that Chip Kidd has, I also found that he never quite jumps deep enough into them, leaving us with shallow explanations and no great underlying point.
Not to say that this book is bad, I enjoyed reading it. There was something to say about his character connections in this work, through some deeply moving dialogues, shared moments of grief, different struggles and how they can bring strangers together, it can be very relatable and emotional for the reader. But then again we are left with a messy plot with no end goal in sight. Whereas the ending is supposed to be a full circle redemption moment, I found it to be quite juvenile and rushed, leaving me with no sense of accomplishment after putting the book down. Some may argue that was the point of it, but I rest my case.
January 8, 2021
*SPOILERS* Second read — and now at the end, I remember having this same feeling the first time I read it. No where near as good as The Cheese Monkeys. The story somehow doesn’t feel as developed, doesn’t really transport you to a place like CM does. CM also feels almost timeless and very relatable, while The Learners feels like your average hum-drum piece of fiction. I think the most disappointing part of this book is the ending — too similar to CM, except this time it feels very contrived. I have pulled many all-nighters so I laughed at and appreciated how the narrative gets really wild at the end of CM, I felt it captured the artist’s sleep-deprived state of mind perfectly. But using the same device in this novel, with a different catalyst (od’ing on drugs instead of sleep deprivation) doesn’t work. Honestly the whole way the story was wrapped up felt pretty lazy to me. Not bad, but not even close to being as good as it’s predecessor.
February 23, 2024
The Learners has the snappy dialogue, the wry humor, and the design insights that made The Cheese Monkeys so successful. It does not have the character development or the structure that made The Cheese Monkeys so successful. One gets the sense Kidd didn't quite know what to do with Happy and Himillsy after their college days, so they flounder in inarticulate emo angst (Happy) or exit abruptly in a way that's frankly a little insulting to the character and reader alike (Millsy), and that this book was pushed out prematurely --a sequel for the sake of a sequel. Kernels of good ideas (the morality of advertising, the power of manipulation, the manipulation of power, the changing relationship dynamics of friendships from adolescence into adulthood) do exist, but it seems they were not given the time, space, and care to flourish.
January 12, 2021
This is a beautiful book. That's isn't some metaphor. The book is physically beautiful. It was a pleasure to read.
It is odd to read a 2008 book about Milgram's experiment shortly after an American president basically suggested a coup. Milgram was probably trying to understand the rise of Nazism and the war camps. His findings were interesting but that isn't the word. Makes you think.
Worth a read.
To be a pedant. There was more to Milgram's findings and what the Teachers' were doing. It undercut a bit of the story for me, so wait until you finish reading to find out more about the experiment and the more modern controversy about trying to reproduce or understand what was happening in that study.
It is odd to read a 2008 book about Milgram's experiment shortly after an American president basically suggested a coup. Milgram was probably trying to understand the rise of Nazism and the war camps. His findings were interesting but that isn't the word. Makes you think.
Worth a read.
To be a pedant. There was more to Milgram's findings and what the Teachers' were doing. It undercut a bit of the story for me, so wait until you finish reading to find out more about the experiment and the more modern controversy about trying to reproduce or understand what was happening in that study.
December 11, 2024
How can you resist a book with the cover designed by Charles Burns?
This fictional story is based on a real-life study done at Yale, testing people's willingness to obey authority no matter how atrocious their actions may be. This follows an under-talented graphic designer working his first job at an advertising agency. He creates an ad for Yale calling for volunteers for a study, and finds that a good friend of his had done it-- with dire results.
The story is by no means just about this Yale study. It is as much about him trying to make it at this firm of burned-out characters, and becomes a battle of him trying to avoid falling into their cynical outlooks on life. It is worth the read, I just can't give it 5 stars because of some of the dialog which seems over the top.
This fictional story is based on a real-life study done at Yale, testing people's willingness to obey authority no matter how atrocious their actions may be. This follows an under-talented graphic designer working his first job at an advertising agency. He creates an ad for Yale calling for volunteers for a study, and finds that a good friend of his had done it-- with dire results.
The story is by no means just about this Yale study. It is as much about him trying to make it at this firm of burned-out characters, and becomes a battle of him trying to avoid falling into their cynical outlooks on life. It is worth the read, I just can't give it 5 stars because of some of the dialog which seems over the top.
January 31, 2025
I loved cheese monkeys and was so excited to dive into the sequel, which was an entertaining high paced page turner, but didn’t really live up to the first book. The characters have become darker, and more isolated and therefore some of the chemistry and relationships between them die. This books content and tone are super different. In a serious scene Kidd pulls you out of it with a quippy joke, which ultimately dilutes the very serious stakes in the book, making the whole thing feel a little flat.
That being said, I appreciated the risks Kidd took in the book design and play with typography. The page layouts and font changes make this story completely digestible and unique!
That being said, I appreciated the risks Kidd took in the book design and play with typography. The page layouts and font changes make this story completely digestible and unique!
August 21, 2017
This is the latest casualty in my weird obsession with books about art students.
I wasn't sure how a follow up to the Cheese Monkeys would hold up, since I loved the Cheese Monkeys a weird amount, but this sequel is just right. It's also dark. Really dark. In a good way, and in a way that I guess makes sense for Chip Kidd, but also in a way that shook me. So. There's that.
I wasn't sure how a follow up to the Cheese Monkeys would hold up, since I loved the Cheese Monkeys a weird amount, but this sequel is just right. It's also dark. Really dark. In a good way, and in a way that I guess makes sense for Chip Kidd, but also in a way that shook me. So. There's that.
July 8, 2025
I feel there were a few dozen pages excised at some point in the review process, as I wanted a little more meat or diversion a few times...but what we got is still enough. Kidd pulls us thru several interlocking stories of clever design with full confidence. Happy is a character I enjoyed in The Cheese Monkeys and here and maybe someday we will see him again.
December 14, 2025
Another banger, somehow for almost entirely different reasons than its predecessor. Kidd taps so effortlessly into my literary interests—maybe all graphic designers are just a dime a dozen on that front. I hope Kidd puts out more fiction; lots seem to turn their nose up at his artistic pretension and narcissism, but I think, for our field, there’s no better fit.
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