Hello, Radio Readers. I’m Julie A. Sellers, author of the novel Ann of Sunflower Lane. Welcome to this High Plains Public Radio Radio Readers Book Club BookByte of Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh.
This graphic memoir tells stories from the author’s life that range from hilariously funny to darkly comedic. The topics of these memories are broad, including an attack by a psycho goose, the challenges of moving with dogs, mental health, and a false predilection for hot sauce. Throughout, Brosh depicts herself graphically as a whimsical being with buggy eyes and a pointy fin ponytail.
Brosh uses both her words and her art to consider the many facets of her own life and to laugh at herself. The drawings and words interweave to tell the whole story, making the narrative flow, but interrupting it at the same time. This technique turns this humorous read into a true page turner. Each chapter’s story is told across like-colored pages, contributing to the visual divisions between stories and topics. As one-story ends, sometimes very unexpectedly, we are visually drawn to the next.
As a dog-owner myself, Brosh’s tales of her own canine companions resonated with me. I chuckled during the chapter entitled “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and I contemplated giving my own dog the quiz at the end of “Dogs’ Guide to Understanding Basic Concepts.” These chapters in particular reflect Brosh’s ability to capture the humor in daily life and communicate it verbally and visually.
Brosh’s memories from her childhood are particularly entertaining. From sneaking in through a window to eat an entire cake to insisting on going to a birthday party following surgery while still mildly sedated, it is clear that Brosh knows how to reach a goal. She and her sister reflect this same determination when they explore every possible way to annoy their parents by recording strange and aggravating sounds on a toy parrot. They even know whom to take the parrot to for repairs when it suddenly and mysteriously stops working.
One of the most humorous tales of the book is “Dinosaur (The Goose Story).” This memory combines the impact of horror movies on how we interpret the world with the catastrophe of having a wild goose enter the author’s house and attack her and her partner. Only their cunning and a little luck save them from the demonic bird, but the journey to the resolution is hilarious.
These are vignettes that beg one to return to them—much like the letter ten-year-old Brosh wrote to herself and buried in her yard for a future version of herself. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened delivers variety and humor in a personal way that yet feels completely relatable.
I’m Julie A. Sellers for HPPR Radio Reader’s Book Club.
