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A User's Guide To Neglectful Parenting (2013)

by Guy Delisle(Favorite Author)
3.53 of 5 Votes: 3
ISBN
1770461175 (ISBN13: 9781770461178)
languge
English
publisher
Drawn and Quarterly
series
Guide du mauvais père
review 1: Known for his much more serious travel comics, Delisle redirects his talents towards comedy in a fast-paced book about the various ways he's messed with and messed up his kids. Whether he's trying to convince his son that the Easter Bunny exists or brutally critiquing his daughter's drawings, these quick little vignettes are equal parts affectionate and irritated. As a dad, I know that part of the fun of being a parent is screwing up your kids just enough to make them interesting; this book would certainly be a good starting point. "A User's Guide To Neglectful Parenting" isn't Delisle's best work but it's certainly his most gleefully rude and fun.Also, I'm totally jealous of Guy's deceptively simple style. It takes a lot of talent to evoke so much with so few lines, parti... morecularly without the backgrounds that give his travelogues their context, but he makes it look easy.
review 2: A rather unpretentious little book, by the author of much lauded volumes like Pyongyang, Shenzhen, Burma Chronicles and Jerusalem. If what you are expecting is more in those lines, you might be disappointed, as Neglectful Parenting is more like Delisle's earlier books about the kid Louis, which sadly have not been translated into English, yet. These are short stories, with just two images per page, about Delisle's experiences of being a dad, focusing on the less flattering moments, as the title indicates. It's all told with the ease and flair that the animator Delisle usually delivers, and it is quite funny. It all reminds me of his colleague Lewis Trondheim's Little Nothings books. Delisle and Trondheim are about the same age and both work within the do called New Wave of French comics, so I guess that's more or less to be expected. This book also fit into a trend of cartoonists growing up and having kids and creating comics based on that experience. In Sweden we have seen quite a few of these books the last few years or so, and I'm expecting that there will be more, both in Sweden and in the rest of the world as this is an experience that many of us share. less
Reviews (see all)
Sannic
"Mmm... Daddy, you smell like that yummy Canadian cereal!"
emmakatenyo
Hilarious. I just wish there were more!
divya11
My favourite non-fiction cartoonist.
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