Split Level Dykes Watch Alison Bechdel
Big changes are set in motion when some of Alison Bechdel’s best-loved lesbian gals find themselves on the move in this eighth cartoon collection.
ReviewThe thousands of committed readers who follow the on a weekly basis chronicles of Bechdel’s cartoon heroines–Lois, Sparrow, Ginger, Jezanna, and Mo, amid others–probably already know that the strips read best in book form, where Bechdel’s sly observations of lesbian life in the 1990s may blend with her ongoing narrative into something like a sketchy but provocative novel. Split-Level Dykes, the eighth collection in the series, is no exception. Its two dominant story lines–politically rectify Mo commits herself to the brainy and self-absorbed Sydney, while Clarice and Toni, lesbian moms of color, almost break up over their move to the great white suburbs–keep the reader enthralled and anxious, easy prey to the comic relief of Sparrow’s heterosexual panic and the dating foibles of the swashbuckling Lois. With an anthropologist’s eye for social detail, Bechdel fleshes out her two-dimensional world into something you could consider either the best kind of beach reading or the stuff of doctoral dissertations. –Regina Marler
From Publishers WeeklyIt’s moving day for Bechdel’s (Hot, Throbbing Dykes to Watch Out For, etc.) multicultural cast of characters in her latest collection of literate and satirical comic strips. Using breezy jargon, Bechdel redefines race and gender roles while taking intention at galore of the pungent topics of the day (the impeachment drama, the restructuring of academe, the “reclamation” of gays thru Christian conversion). Her characters are exceedingly bright and ambitious: Sydney is readying a book for publication and her postcoital chatter includes asides in regards to literary deconstruction; recent Ph.D. Ginger mulls over a occupation offer from Buffalo Lake State U., a no-place that nevertheless attracted 463 apps for a instructing post with little compensate and no perks. Much of the book worries the “demographic rift,” which begins when the house that Ginger, Lois and Sparrow occupy as a kind of latter-day commune is offered for sale and the trio determine to buy it themselves. Toni, Clarice and their son, Rafael, are also moving?from their apartment to a suburban house?despite Clarice and Ginger’s sudden, lustful preoccupation with their old love affair. The disparate tales are tied together by a moving truck that everyone shares, ratcheting up the hectic atmosphere of the moving-day finale. Funny, irreverent and fearless, Bechdel delivers the thinking woman’s funny papers. (Dec.) FYI: Bechdel’s cartoons are syndicated in newsprints and periodicals in the U.S. and Canada.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Split Level Dykes Watch Alison Bechdel Picture
Split Level Dykes Watch Alison Bechdel Picture
Split Level Dykes Watch Alison Bechdel Pic
Split Level Dykes Watch Alison Bechdel Photo
Most helpful client reviews
10 of 10 humans found the following review helpful.
 The Human Comedy, 90′s Fashion
By Michael Weber
I’ve been reading Alison Bechdel’s “Dykes” books since i encountered her stuff in the “Funny Times” when there were only three books out.
She just keeps on getting better and better.
Speaking as a heterosexual male, i may say with a good deal of authority that Ms. Bechdel systematically touches on matters and issues that transcend her setting and move into the range of Consideration Of The Human Condition.
While the strips contained in this volume (as always) appeared on a weekly basis in respective “alternative” publications, the best way to read them (again, as always) is in the form of this collection, in which one may follow the sweep and development of the story and the lives of her characters without having to wait a week for the answer to that question that is the bane of the wellpaced storyteller, the eternal “And then what happened?”, and, as always, Ms Bechdel’s book readers get numerous much=appreciated lagniappe, in the form of a book-only continuance of the story, showing us the barely-orchestrated chaos of attempting to co-ordinate various near-traumatic moves and only one truck.
Buying this book, like buying any in the series (except the first, which is actually for completists only), is your ticket to an evening of watching a cast of wonderfully-eccentric old friends going through all the things you or i go through — only funnier.
5 of 5 persons found the following review helpful.
Buy the entire series
By A
Alison Bechdel’s take on life, love and sexuality is not only thought provoking but hysterically funny as well. It’s hard not to regard the characters as old friends. Whether you’re a lesbian or not, you’ll love the book.
3 of 3 humans found the following review helpful.
Wonderful
By A
I moved two years ago, and I *really* empathize with what nearly each reputation in the strip endures in this one. And I will never, never listen the line “I’ll take it. Do you gift wrap?” in the same way again.
If you’re a fan of the series, buy it. If you aren’t, buy it anyway. Hilarious!!!
See all 3 client reviews…
|