Reading this book was my first real experience with graphic memoirs. I was a little wary in the beginning, because I'm not always a fan of autobiographies and was afraid that "The Year of Loving Dangerously" would be boring or pretentious, or otherwise unrelatable. I've stuck pretty much to aliens and super heroes and possessed preachers and apocalypse scenarios, so reading a story about a normal guy in the normal world sounded a little dull to me. But even though I wasn't an expelled Columbia student living off my wits and my manly attributes back in 1984 (in fact I was three and not doing anything nearly that exciting yet), I was still able to connect with the storyteller here.
It is the summer of 1984 and Ted Rall, future controversial political cartoon writer, has just been expelled from Columbia. He has no job, no money, no girlfriend, and now no place to live. Things look pretty grim for Ted, until his handsome face starts attracting the attention of women only too willing to take him home for the night. It takes alot of lying and stealing and crashing and burning and picking himself back up again before Ted finally seems to find his way once more.
This is a very honest, very open story, that does not ask for your pity but instead just tells things like they were. Ted is not always such an upright guy, and not even always very likable, but he seems very realistic because of these flaws. Most of us have had times in our life where we felt like we would do just about anything to survive, but we usually don't admit to the lengths we have actually gone too. Ted Rall is willing to own up to his past and say, "Here I was, here was what I did, you can condemn me if you like, but I'm going to tell the truth." Its a rather brave thing to do. The part of me that was once a young adult going out into the world on my own and finding things alot more difficult than expected could relate when Ted wanted to blame everyone else for his problems - his mother, his college dean, and even the president. But the more prevalent part of me that has managed to grow out of that wanted to smack him a couple of times and tell him to get off his ass and take responsibility for his own life. Which he kind of does by the end.
I loved the 80's references that popped up throughout the story (such as when Ted and a girl are watching "V" on TV) but the character that looked like Sid Vicious was a little distracting. I also felt that women were not painted in the best light here. Wherever Ted goes, some woman comes along (sometimes two women) and picks him up and ushers him home for some crazy fun naked time. Maybe it is a generational thing, maybe I'm just being naive, and maybe it is my inner feminist showing, but that didn't make me terribly appreciative of my own sex. And I wasn't turned off by the amount of crazy naked fun time that went on in the story. It was mentioned on the flap art that Ted had been a kind of gigolo for a while, selling his body for a place to stay and a hot shower. I was expecting it really. I just thought Ted would have to put forth a little more effort once in a while.
This was an interesting life story and it translated well to graphic form. The artist who worked on it with Ted Rall did a really good job of creating realistic artwork full of 80's references and poignant moments. It wasn't always perfectly consistent, but that made it a little more interesting to look at. Except for getting lost sometimes with the non-linear story telling approach, I found this book very enjoyable and a darn good read. |
