The Good Times Are Killing Me

I teach a course on teaching music for children (at the college level). I use this book to get students thinking about the deep ways that music impacts our lives. Situations from family to school music, private to public, and informal to formal are all present, and Barry's wonderful attention to detail brings each to life in a way that make my students talkative. Of course, I wouldn't use it if it weren't a wonderful novel as well. It is. The story that is told is gripping, and my students love reading it.

Barry just knows how to get into the psyche of kids, adolescents, anyone under the age of 17, it seems. This book is a quick read, but a delicious one. Barry writes her characters' voices in as understated and realistic pieces of life, and she does what she's so good at doing: she puts readers in a space in which they're none too comfortable, and yet they can't seem to shake the familiar feelings of their own childhood horrors and experiences. This book is unsettling and slightly worrisome, and also truthful and wonderful, just as children often are.

This is the book that got me started on my Lynda Barry addiction. I stumbled on to this book by fortuitous accident. It's brilliant. It is simple in its style with a reach deep into the heart of complex feelings and issues. While not as riveting as Cruddy, it is more moving and realistic. I hope Lynda Barry continues to produce work of this quality. One Hundred Demons is also extremely good. Her fiction is great literature on a transcendent level.

Ms. Barry returns to her whimsical story-telling style with this book. Reminiscent of her books "The Fun House" and "Come Over, Come Over" (which are in cartoon strip style), this book captures the wonderful and sad experiences of a slightly lower-class childhood, told from the honest perspective of a child's eyes. It lacked a bit of the edge of her animated works, but is still delightful in its story-telling. A must have for any serious Lynda Barry fan.

I love every word of this story. In the simplest language, with the most colorful, poignant vignettes, I saw my hysterically funny yet bittersweet childhood told back to me. I think Lynda Barry is a genius.