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Things are already tense in Corby’s life. He’s lost his job (downsized but still humiliating) has taken on the role of househusband (demanding and tedious), and turns to alcohol to get him through the onerous days. This has disastrous consequences that land him in prison for three years. He’s determined to get sober and turn things around. What a steep learning curve, with constant hard lessons. It’s hard to keep your head down (essential strategy in lockup) when faced with injustice. The guards get away with brutality against vulnerable prisoners and and sometimes deadly skirmishes between prisoners occur with no consequences. The river that flows near this large, corrupt institution is a source of hope for him. Other sources include a stretch on an outdoor work crew and the opportunity to create a mural on the prison library wall. As inspiration he chooses Bruegel’s The Fall of Icarus—very apt. Will his wife Emily stick with him after what he did? Will his remaining toddler daughter know who he is when he gets out? Heavy questions, to be sure. Note: Lamb taught writing at a prison for two decades and really knows whereof he speaks.
This is a fictional comic graphic novel which features the author and her partner Holly as characters. They have a pygmy goat reserve on their Vermont farm. Alison’s made it big via her Death and Taxidermy memoir that has become a popular TV show. But she’s appalled at the direction the show has taken—to boost ratings, says the producer, and is determined to launch her own show called $um, based on the writings of Karl Marx,. With everything going on around her, her own projects keep getting pushed aside. The large cast of characters includes a housing coop in a nearby town with some intense (and very funny) moves toward throuple-dom. The book is kind of circular and episodic, sometimes a little hard to follow, but I was so charmed that I didn’t need to track it closely. "Real people" like actor Aubrey Plaza also make their way into the pages, which provided one more piece of confused amusement for me.
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