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anetq's review
2.0
Well this was less... everything... than expected. I guess it might be interesting, if you're a middle aged man who suffers from insomnia?
I found Glenn wholly uninteresting, and his inner life boring - no idea what his wife Wendy would see in him? I find his musings both a little too neurotic and also just a little too occupied with the simple WOW of possible time travel and how endless the universe is - the way 9 year old boys are.
The drawing style is quite nice, and the page layout is used in interesting ways. So nothing wrong with the graphic art (hence the second star). Shame about the stories though. He's won all sorts of prices for graphic novels, but maybe his other works have less boring characters? Or maybe the committees all consisted of middle aged men, who identified?
I found Glenn wholly uninteresting, and his inner life boring - no idea what his wife Wendy would see in him? I find his musings both a little too neurotic and also just a little too occupied with the simple WOW of possible time travel and how endless the universe is - the way 9 year old boys are.
The drawing style is quite nice, and the page layout is used in interesting ways. So nothing wrong with the graphic art (hence the second star). Shame about the stories though. He's won all sorts of prices for graphic novels, but maybe his other works have less boring characters? Or maybe the committees all consisted of middle aged men, who identified?
bananab23's review
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.5
meghan_is_reading's review
I uh, maybe thought Glenn was the author until I finished and read the bio. I really liked this, the variation/repetition, the monkey brain, the stupid fights, all the library visits! I'm usually the sleeper but I think we've all had a late night where sleep seems impossible/ drank too much coffee or wtv and spent a white night trying not to look at the clock.
cjordahl's review
3.0
I liked the first ~80% of the book. Comics about a dude struggling to fall asleep don't sound super interesting, but Huizenga makes it amusing enough. It's a nice balance of light and thoughtful. But the last fifth devolves into a perhaps accurate but all-too-long dissociative potpourri of phrases, scenes, ideas that goes on way too long. Maybe I missed something actually interesting in there? I just found it boring. Even fittingly soporific.
turboshot49cents's review
3.0
Good visual art. Some stories were more interesting than others. I also think Glenn is old enough to know better than to drink coffee right before bed.
pantsyreads's review
2.0
I just did NOT click with this. This was a weird collection of vignettes about a character named Glenn Ganges. Glenn seems to have a hard time sleeping, so many of the “stories” follow his nighttime ruminations as he struggles to sleep.
Huizenga uses some interesting visuals to play around with the concept of space and time (comics is a really cool medium for exploring this topic imo) which initially pulled me in, but as I continued reading, I felt myself less and less interested and disengaged. Most of this was too weird and over my head.
For a much better review and analysis of this work, I highly suggest checking out David’s review here. He does a much better job explaining what’s going on here.
Huizenga uses some interesting visuals to play around with the concept of space and time (comics is a really cool medium for exploring this topic imo) which initially pulled me in, but as I continued reading, I felt myself less and less interested and disengaged. Most of this was too weird and over my head.
For a much better review and analysis of this work, I highly suggest checking out David’s review here. He does a much better job explaining what’s going on here.
snixo048's review
3.0
A very, very, very real graphic depiction of what insomnia feels like. Too real considering my sleep over the past month. But it feels good to know that someone else out there has the same weird experience of insomnia that I do.
hypops's review against another edition
4.0
Huizenga’s long-in-process work takes place during a single, extended, sleepless night (imagine Winsor McCay meets James Joyce). The visual inventiveness, playfulness, and sheer artistry on display are absolutely jaw-dropping. There are images and sequences that I will long remember and return to in the years to come.
But for all of its incredible visual craft (the “how”), I just can’t get into the characters and themes (the “what”). The two main characters, Glenn and Wendy, are youngish, childless, white professionals (aka “aging hipsters”) anxious about their respective careers and shared domestic life. One night, as Glenn attempts futilely to fall asleep, his wandering mind reaches back through his life and connects it to his reading of John McPhee’s Basin and Range, to his obsession with scheduling and productivity, and to a thousand other inconsequential thoughts and meditations.
It’s all too grandiose and filled with dull armchair philosophizing. But, damn, Huizenga can draw!
But for all of its incredible visual craft (the “how”), I just can’t get into the characters and themes (the “what”). The two main characters, Glenn and Wendy, are youngish, childless, white professionals (aka “aging hipsters”) anxious about their respective careers and shared domestic life. One night, as Glenn attempts futilely to fall asleep, his wandering mind reaches back through his life and connects it to his reading of John McPhee’s Basin and Range, to his obsession with scheduling and productivity, and to a thousand other inconsequential thoughts and meditations.
It’s all too grandiose and filled with dull armchair philosophizing. But, damn, Huizenga can draw!
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