Wilson

by Daniel Clowes

Overview

AN ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL FROM THE OSCAR-NOMINATED SCREENWRITER AND AWARD-WINNING CARTOONIST

Meet Wilson, an opinionated middle-aged loner who loves his dog and quite possibly no one else. In an ongoing quest to find human connection, he badgers friend and stranger alike into a series of onesided conversations, punctuating his own lofty discursions with a brutally honest, self-negating sense of humor. After his father dies, Wilson, now irrevocably alone, sets out to find his ex-wife with the hope of rekindling their long-dead relationship, and discovers he has a teenage daughter, born after the marriage ended and given up for adoption.Wilson eventually forces all three to reconnect as a family—a doomed mission that will surely, inevitably backfire.

In the first all-new graphic novel from one of the leading cartoonists of our time, Daniel Clowes creates a thoroughly engaging, complex, and fascinating portrait of the modern egoist—outspoken and oblivious to the world around him.Working in a single-page-gag format and drawing in a spectrumof styles, the cartoonist of GhostWorld, Ice Haven, and David Boring gives us his funniest and most deeply affecting novel to date.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770460072
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	04/27/2010
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	1,141,202
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

DANIEL CLOWES is the author of the seminal comic book series Eightball, the screenwriter of Ghost World and Art School Confidential, and an illustrator for The New Yorker.He is married and lives in Oakland, California.

Editorial Reviews

A bona-fide cult hero.” —The New Yorker on Daniel Clowes

“[Clowes has] explored the tedium and mystery of contemporary American life with more wit and insight than most novelists or filmmakers. ” —A.O. SCOTT, The New York Times on Daniel Clowes

“Clowes is the country's premier underground cartoonist.” —Newsweek on Daniel Clowes

From the Publisher

This is a book about life's passages and disappointments, and will be most appreciated by those who know something of quiet desperation. It's not a pretty book, and even its language is so vulgar that it's difficult to quote from. But this descent into a man's soul is certainly a long way from what my mother used to call "your funny books."
—The Washington Post

Michael Dirda

Clowes (Ghost World) takes his particular brand of misanthropic misery to new levels of brilliance in this book, a series of one-page gags that show the divorced and lonely main character repeatedly attempting to engage with life, and then falling back into his hell of pessimism. Clowes uses a variety of drawing styles to depict Wilson and his world; sometimes he's highly realistic, other times he's an Andy Capp-style cartoon, but he's always the same downbeat guy. In one sketch titled “FL 1282,” Wilson asks the kid seated next to him on a plane about his line of work. When the kid answers that he does “I.T. stuff,” Wilson comes back at him with a mockingly satirical description of his own supposed work, using only initials. The last panel shows Wilson looking at a Spirit magazine and asking, “Christ, do you realize how ridiculous you sound?” Clearly, the comment is directed as much at himself as to the I.T. kid. This attitude of solipsistic despair is expressed incisively and cleverly, taking Wilson through a search for his ex-wife, Pippi, who has become a prostitute since leaving him, and their daughter, put up for adoption years earlier. Clowes offers another beautifully drawn slice of piercing social commentary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly