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Garfield Minus Garfield (2008)

by Jim Davis(Favorite Author)

4.03 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0345513878 (ISBN13: 9780345513878)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Ballantine Books

review 1: Book #39 for 2013I've popped over to the G-G site on occasion to get a schadenfreudenistic chuckle out of Jon Arbuckle's existential angst, so I was already familiar with the concept of removing the sarcastic cat from his own comic strip in order to expose his owner's many vulnerabilities. It's really a brilliant demonstration of how the strip is not about its title character at all, and I found the commentary from Davis and Walsh, who both identified a great deal with Jon, quite interesting. Placing the focus squarely on Jon is at once hilarious and sadly disturbing. I have mixed feelings about this book, though, both in its general existence and in its specific format. Without the book, I would just occasionally read one or two of the G-G strips at a time. I think that i... mores ideal. Collecting a whole bunch together like this, in a manner designed for scarfing down in a single sitting much the same way Garfield would consume an entire pan of lasagna, creates a depressing sense of repetition that makes Jon seem even more pathetic than he is. That makes it hard to find them as amusing as I once did. And I'm not sure I like the original strip being displayed right there at the bottom of the G-G strip's page. It's nice to have the context, so I can compare and contrast Jon's psyche with and without his feline companion. But it feels kinda like cheating. Or analyzing a punchline.Did I like this book? Oh, yes. And it was a good, low-stress pick for a book club meeting in the busy holiday season. We actually got some good discussion out of it. It wasn't a lengthy discussion, but it was interesting to hear what things other readers picked up on the most. Would I recommend this book to others? Yes, but with the advice to take small bites and chew slowly. I suspect I would have given the book another star if I'd just limited myself to two or three pages a day.
review 2: I got this as a gift from a friend and it's worth noting that I never would've bought something like this for myself. I don't think Garfield is a particularly funny comic strip, but removing Garfield makes it substantially funnier. However reading all of the strips in one sitting makes the joke go a bit stale. I also didn't like that the original comic strips were right at the bottom of each page. Maybe they had to be there for copyright reasons, but I would've preferred it if they were all in the back so I didn't have to read them. less

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