I had heard that 'Cruddy' was dark and depressing but also wonderful... but I was still surprised to discover it's a cover-to-cover Grand-Guignol bloodbath revenge fantasy!

Lynda Barry is a pretty highlevel saint in my artistic pantheon, but I expect tenderness from her, where this novel reads much more like a David Lynch movie, at his darkest.

Her earlier novel "The Good Times Are Killing Me" was so depressing I couldn't recommend it to anyone (at that time, anyway). This one I'm also hesitant to recommend, but I think most people will find it impossible to put down. (It's a very quick read, in fact.)

Barry is probably the best writer going, for memoirs of growing up in the late 1960s, and this book is very strong in that way too.

A trivia tidbit: in order to 'channel' the main character (Roberta), LJB wrote the entire book with a paintbrush, on thousands of sheets of paper, in an imitation of Roberta's handwriting.



Recommended: Yes