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Amazon.co.uk Review
Chris Ware's graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth should be required reading for all those who persist in thinking that all comics are little more than picture books for kids. Jimmy Corrigan is a lonely man in his mid-30s with an inferiority complex, a debilitating lack of self-confidence and an overbearing mother. The plot--dealing with Jimmy's reunion with his father, who abandoned him as a child--is almost secondary, as Ware tells the tale of previous generations of Corrigan males via flashbacks, demonstrating how their own lives and circumstances culminated in Jimmy's feeling of alienation, abandonment and social awkwardness. However, rather than flinching from the subject matter, or allowing the tale to descend into syrupy sentimentality, Chris Ware isn't afraid to make Jimmy wholly pathetic, at times frustratingly so. The reader is given all the reasons why Jimmy is the way he is, but at no point does Ware attempt to make him likeable (when, for example, he meets his half-sister for the first time). He offers explanations, not excuses.
Jimmy Corrigan is further set apart by Ware's visually stunning, two-dimensional artwork, where simple characters are drawn against painstakingly detailed backdrops, and an overall creative layout that utilises more traditional uniform panels, full-page vistas, draughtsman diagrams and cut-outs, among other things. With the flashbacks and disjointed narrative, Chris Ware shows a remarkable command of the comics medium, elevating Jimmy Corrigan far above its peers. More than just a great graphic novel, this is a classic in any medium and won the Guardian First Book Award 2001. --Robert Burrow
New York Times Book Review
'...in terms of sheer aesthetic virtuosity Ware’s book is arguably the greatest achievement of the form, ever.’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I waited 2 months to get this book after reading that it had won the Guardian first book award. I don't regularly read 'graphic novels' (well not since I was 13/14 and then it was 2001AD etc!) so this was a bit of a departure.
I wasn't disappointed. Jimmy Corrigan is incredibly well observed. It is funny, tragic, absurd, moving, frustrating...don't read this novel if you are expecting a 10 minute, light hearted cartoon. The characterisation is superb, interaction is captured in a way which brings the characters to life, the way in which, e.g., it conveys conversational pauses and awkwardness is so accurate you feel like you are there with the protagonists, cringing, fearing, hoping, anticipating. Jimmy (and his father & grandfathers') experiences/thoughts/hopes/dreams/ambitions are dissected mercilessly, even cruelly, and yet there is affection and an affinity which goes beyond simple relationships (as does the book).
The story and the great artwork drew me in and made me really think about Jimmy, his life, his dreams, it is a fantastic book.
Do you want a book which makes you reflect, laugh out loud, moves you, is funny, tragic and above all brilliantly realised?
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is one of the finest comics I have ever read. It looks simple, and yet is so crammed with inner meaning and symbolism that it would take several readings to swallow it all. The layout of the pages is astonishingly complex, sometimes giving a whole page to just somebody breathing. Ordinary actions, like getting out of bed, are covered with so much detail that they soon look like moves in a cosmic chess game. It mixes everyday reality with daydreams with remarkable fluidity. A marvel of the comics medium.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an outstanding achievement, beautifully designed and possessing an emotional power and subtlety unmatched in the comic/graphic novel genre. Ware's exquisitely realized, yet flat and distanced graphic style intensifies the sorrow and loneliness of the story to a pitch of devastation. This extraordinary, unique book places its author in the company of the greatest masters of graphic story-telling and sets new standards for the form. Six stars!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
a beautiful book
This is a beautifully illustrated book - a nice combo of comic, graphic novel, dark humour, schematics and all that jazz. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Grant P. Killoran
The saddest little man in the world
I never read a sadder graphic novel than this. But it's so a wonderful one, so personal and original. I'm an addict!!
Published 15 months ago by Moka
Profoundly well designed, for me, not the best graphic novel
I gave this book 5 stars which it deserves, as it is a ridiculously good looking book, from it's fold out dust-jacket and inner cover to it's every page. Read more
Published 22 months ago by AndyK
Low price for a work of art
Though the maudlin story is itself not exactly a page turner (at times it's quite hard going - something the author himself admits to), the way it's told is extraordinary. Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2010 by M. Smith
If not the best graphic novel I've ever read, then the second
An Astounding Examination of the Failures Between Fathers and Son
Rare is the work of literature that leaves you in stunned silence when the last page has been turned,... Read more
Rare is the work of literature that leaves you in stunned silence when the last page has been turned,... Read more
Published on 23 May 2009 by Richard Kunzmann
Magnificent
I loved every picture of that amazing book. It's art, it's feelings, it's profound, and on top of all that, so original. It's an absolute "must-have".
Published on 28 Jan 2007 by Joëlle
A book everyone should read at least twice.
This book is almost undescribable, the artwork is beautiful and intricate - I read it about 5 times just to look at the detail. Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2003
superb, a benchmark for the graphic genre
This is one of the most sublimely beautiful, elancholy books I've ever read. The detail taken to create this is truly breathtaking. Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2002
Picture Perfect
Readers of The Guardian will be sick of hearing about this book by now, but for the uninitiated, this book by Chris Ware has just become the first graphic novel ever to win a... Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2001 by John Self
The finest graphic novel since Maus
Not cartoon, not a graphic novel, but literature, pure and simple. Chris Ware tells the story of Jimmy Corrigan, not really the smartest kid on earth, but just a shy fellow who... Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2001 by Adrift in Suburbia
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