It needed to happen, because 'Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened' is one of the funniest things ever created. I did need to revisit it, after all. Anything that can make me simultaneously laugh so hard and understand depression, what it means to be a human being, and where the author is coming from, must be worth something.
So it bounces back high up on my estimation, and I apologise for being such a miserable, cynical cow on my second read. But I try not to be harsh on myself, and be kinder to myself. After my own attack and bout of depression and PTSD in the last few years, I feel free, and I feel I can laugh again, all carefree!
Hopefully this kind of misjudgement won't happen again. But depending on my moods and current outside circumstances, it might. Feeling and thinking horrible, ugly things nonstop in a miasmic, self-destructive downward spiral and crisis might happen again.
I get it. I understand Allie Brosh completely now. I can emphasise with her. And I thank her for putting so many seemingly indescribable feelings and insights into the human condition into words and funny pictures.
I adore the illustrations now. Cartoons!
I am torn about whether or not I should check out the sequel, however. I've read a lot about it, and it sounds like...much, and like it came from places ill-suited for publication at the time it was made (it was even delayed for a while). It makes me no less sympathetic for Brosh and her life since creating 'Hyperbole and a Half' - what utter, horrifying monster of a human wouldn't be? - but maybe I'm not quite ready for 'Solutions and Other Problems'.
And I know from personal experience that you shouldn't make judgements and life decisions while you are depressed and at your lowest point. Who knows how Brosh feels about 'Solutions' nowadays? Or maybe it is still, somehow, funny, poignant and meaningful, and not something so deeply personal, unedited, and unready to be published in its current state? Like, it is harrowing, nihilistic and existentialist, but in a manner that is less freeing, creative, helpful and therapeutic?
(
But I do know that Brosh's first book, 'Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened', based on her first comics and stories from her blog at around 2012, is enjoyable, philosophical and psychological in so many ways. The best ways.
Goodbye (for now), depression and cynicism.
Back to my favourites 'Hyperbole and a Half' goes!
Final Score: 5/5
2022 EDIT: Still very funny and relatable. However, I don't know, maybe time is a terror and I don't find it as funny as the first time around. I won't be revisiting it, that's for sure. I don't feel like it. Perhaps this kind of book is no longer for me; that I now find it a little overly-long, and too prosy, random, rough and cynical. I might now be wanting more - more diversity - since 2012.
And why does Allie Brosh name only, like, one loved one in her life but not any of the others?
I need to get picky about my reads for my massive clean-up and culling of books anyway.
'Hyperbole and a Half' - recommended for a laugh and some insights, that are not too dated.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
One of the funniest things I've ever read. 'Hyperbole and a Half' had me laughing long into the night, no doubt giving my family a cause for concern.
Allie Brosh's life - the episodes of her life which she tells using hilarious prose and scribbles - seems outlandish, yet entirely, 100% ordinary and plausible. And 100% relatable. The way she tells it, she seems a natural comedienne.
Her stories about her dogs; about finding her time capsule letter from her ten-year-old self; her letters to her several stages of her childhood; the story of how she and her boyfriend got randomly attacked by a goose at the dead of night in their own home; the story of her cheeky parrot toy (yep, whoever got her and her sister that must have hated her parents); her procrastination and motivation woes; the poor hot sauce episode from her childhood; and her lessons to her severely stupid and quite frankly disturbed dogs - I haven't had so much fun in ages. Humour isn't dead after all.
Ms. Brosh's chapters describing her depression are also very harrowing and eye-opening. Not everything in 'Hyperbole and a Half' is meant to tickle your funny bone. It is meant to educate you; help you to understand someone's pain, perhaps even your own.
But maybe humour - maybe finding a reason to live life and find meaning in existing again - can be found in the littlest things; in the strangest and most unexpected of places...
'Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened' - An internet success turned into a paperback comic book. It'll make you laugh, cry, and love the bizarre little things that happen in our existence that is life. It is also the only time that I've found the use of the ableist R-word to be funny, in this context where it describes Allie Brosh's... special and adorable dog.
The book will also make you aware that humans are fundamentally flawed. Go too deep into finding yourself, and you will likely be shocked and horrified by what you will discover consciously. Our human brains are so complicated it's scary. We are inherently selfish, even cruel, and without the vital needs of self-control, conscience, civilisation and order, we'd go mad. Inhibitions are also inherently intact in us, or they should be. It'd be anarchy otherwise, and not of the revolutionary and progressive kind. The world would just be in chaos. Shame, guilt and self-loathing shouldn't be our motivators, though. Especially not our main ones.
But 'Hyperbole and a Half' is so lovable and hopeful, as well. A deeply personal passion project. Allie Brosh is a treasure of a normal human being, whom rather effed-up things often happen to.
It took me a while to pick this particular book up. If anyone else hasn't yet, they'd be doing themselves a great favour in reading it too.
Final Score: 5/5
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