Stuck Rubber Baby [Paperback]

A dear friend of mine who lives in Germany and who is a passionate book-fetishist, rang me up the other day and said: Haldun, I discovered a fantastic comic, you'll love it. But hey, listen first (he knows I'm not too terribly keen on comics) it's not a comic as you might think, it's a novel-comic!" "Yeah, yeah." I just replied. "You mean just like the gay-comics from Ralph König?" "No, not quite!" he instantly contradicted, as he usually does. "And as you're not even asking me what it is about, I'll just tell you. Well, it takes place in 60's Alabama, in the U.S. It's basically the story of a guy's life up to his late forties, about his experiences as a child who grows up in times of really heavy racism, of the American black revolution under Martin Luther King and the black power movement, about the feminist movement,the anti-vietnam-hippie-era, right through the present time! But it's also about his sexuality, how he falls in love with this tough feminist student-love of his and how he goes through his coming-out phase and his live as a gay man in the 70's and 80's in the U.S." "Is that all?" I asked finally, sounding possibly too sarcastic, but he being used to that from me and sensing my doubt, he just said: "Look, I know you and you'll love it. I sent it incidentally off to you already, so read it when you got it and let me know what you think!" I received it a week later, started reading it and yes - I was spellbound, captured and completely fascinated: Howard Cruse tells with an immense skill the life of people in the American 60's. Everything vital is mentioned and treated with a documentary-like preciseness. The characters are that immensly credible and vivid, that automatically the reader starts laughing, fearing, crying and suffering with them. All of it is wonderfully and very expressively drawn in black and white, precise in the many details and very accurate in times, dates and locations, though the actual characters are invented, mere influenced by friends of Cruse, as he notes in the credits at the end of the book. I personally was incable of putting this treasure of a book out of my hands, read it in one go and finished it with goosbumps all over and tears in my eyes, yes, I did and don't mind admitting it at all. I definetely recommend this book, it's just too good to be missed, you read this long review of mine, so you might as well buy it, trust me you'll love it!

Haldun M, London