"Jimmy Corrigan"

In Thursday's class we were instructed to come up with the things we admired about "Jimmy Corrigan" as well as the things we didn't like. Since this is such a multi-faceted book and it is pretty difficult to narrow down what exactly I want to post about, I figured I would go into more detail about my personal pros and cons concerning Ware's work.

Aesthetically, there was very little about the book that bothered me. It did take me a little while to get used to, and I still sometimes find myself getting confused about which direction the panels are going, but overall I found Ware's work to be extremely detailed and accomplished. I suppose my biggest concern is how small the text is, especially in the part of the story concerning his grandfather as a young boy. I found the tiny, stingy script awfully hard to read, but I am sure that was intentional on Ware's part.

I'm still undecided on my feelings about the Corrigan men. At this point in the text, none of them are particularly likable. Though Jimmy is not as crude and aggressive as the other men in his family seem, he comes off as rather spineless most of the time. Furthermore, he lacks the sense of passion that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all possessed. I am hoping that Jimmy will redeem himself by the end of the book and make himself worthy of the title "the smartest kid on earth."

My favorite thing about the book so far is how seamlessly Ware threads themes from one story into the next, which lends to the incredible smoothness of the transitions between time periods. One thing in particular that stands out to me is Ware's use of the color pink. This is most obvious when the doctor tells Jimmy and his father that the paint in the hospital room causes the outside world to take on "this sort of pinkish-peach color". The men notice this when they leave, but this is not the only part of the book that this color comes into play. Jimmy's father's bathroom is pink, the sky is often this color, even young Jimmy and his grandfather are sort of pink. This, as well as the recurring images of peaches, are prevalent throughout the text.

I have found the story to be quite riveting. Though it is kind of difficult to get through some of the sections, Ware is not a careless writer and even the smallest details on a page eventually work their way back into the story.