Rating: 
Summary: Marlys! is! the! Greatest!!!
Review: I have most of the comics contained in this book by way of Ms. Barry's earlier collections. But this book really fills out the world of Maybonne, Marlys, Freddy, Arna, and Arnold by taking some of the best comics and creating a tapestry.On the down side, I felt that some really good comics from the early 90's were left out, specifically the ones where Maybonne sees her friend being molested; those left an impact. But I guess it's the best of Marlys, so we can only hope for the best of Maybonne collection later. The BIG plus of this collection is that Marlys is hilarious. Sometimes tragic-hilarious or poignant-hilarious, but almost always making me laugh. Some random quotes for your pleasure: "Watch my magic finger." - Marlys, teaching a song "Watch my magic butt." - The great Arnold #1 "I hate you Squanto" - hand turkey, being shot by a Pilgrim with the help of Squanto.
Rating:
Summary: Marlys! is! the! Greatest!!!
Review: I have most of the comics contained in this book by way of Ms. Barry's earlier collections. But this book really fills out the world of Maybonne, Marlys, Freddy, Arna, and Arnold by taking some of the best comics and creating a tapestry. On the down side, I felt that some really good comics from the early 90's were left out, specifically the ones where Maybonne sees her friend being molested; those left an impact. But I guess it's the best of Marlys, so we can only hope for the best of Maybonne collection later. The BIG plus of this collection is that Marlys is hilarious. Sometimes tragic-hilarious or poignant-hilarious, but almost always making me laugh. Some random quotes for your pleasure: "Watch my magic finger." - Marlys, teaching a song "Watch my magic butt." - The great Arnold #1 "I hate you Squanto" - hand turkey, being shot by a Pilgrim with the help of Squanto.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and Touching
Review: I love Marlys and her goofiness. She is alternately hilarious (as when she describes all the different methods of fake smoking, such as the gum cigarrette with its realistic coughing, or a hot dog, for when you're having hobo feelings) and touching (as when she describes her sister's threat to kill herself when the tree outside loses its last leaf - which prompts Marlys to glue a bunch of leaves back onto the tree). I love how she reminds me so poignantly of the bossy kid that I was, and the wacky things that kids think. This book is way worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Out of this world!
Review: I'd give this book 10 stars if I could. It is so beyond good. You are transported back to an earlier time and really made to remember what it was to be a child - especially a child in a dysfunctional family. Lynda Barry's comics touch upon some of the sadder moments of childhood and dysfunction without losing their comic and ironic edge. They allow you to laugh without getting bogged down in the misery. They allow you to understand the pain without forgetting to enjoy the little things. This is truly a work of comic art. Lynda Barry is one of the best comic artists of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Out of this world!
Review: I'd give this book 10 stars if I could. It is so beyond good. You are transported back to an earlier time and really made to remember what it was to be a child - especially a child in a dysfunctional family. Lynda Barry's comics touch upon some of the sadder moments of childhood and dysfunction without losing their comic and ironic edge. They allow you to laugh without getting bogged down in the misery. They allow you to understand the pain without forgetting to enjoy the little things. This is truly a work of comic art. Lynda Barry is one of the best comic artists of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Visualize ten stars...
Review: Lynda Berry -- like Carson McCullers, Dorothy Allison and Earl Thompson -- writes brilliantly about the world of cast-off and broken children. [read her "The Freddie Stories" and "Cruddy" to see this world at its most tragic and beautiful.] But The! Great! MARLYS! is the sainted warrior of these damaged kids. It is through Marlys that Berry voices the finest of herself: her joy and genius and innocence. Marlys is the classic resiliant child and a beacon for kids who grow up with four strikes against them. She is one of the most heroic figures I have found in fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Please enter the world of Marlys. You won't be sorry!
Review: Marlys is very real and her adventures are as heartbreaking as they are hilarious. Most of the cartoons in the series are just totally gut-bustingly funny, but many of them contain elements of pain that anyone who was ever a child will be able to relate to. Also, the poetry of Fred Milton, Beat Poodle is truly inspired. Barry has a genious for getting into the heads and souls of children (and Beat Poodles) and the results are wonderful. I recommend "The Greatest of Marlys" without reservation.
Rating:
Summary: Please enter the world of Marlys. You won't be sorry!
Review: No one can catch the poignant, perfect, sometimes heartbreaking, and usually funny in retrospect side of childhood like Lynda Barry. We all were Arna, Freddie, Arnold, Maybonne, and Marlys during some point in our youth as much as we might like to deny it! As I read these comics, the stories bring back the exact feelings I had when it was me doing the hand-turkey drawings, making shoe-box dioramas, and dancing in front of the mirror. If you want to relive the trauma, deliriousness, and great, great fun of being a child, Marlys and friends will bring it all back to you!
Rating:
Summary: Childhood so real.
Review: No one can catch the poignant, perfect, sometimes heartbreaking, and usually funny in retrospect side of childhood like Lynda Barry. We all were Arna, Freddie, Arnold, Maybonne, and Marlys during some point in our youth as much as we might like to deny it! As I read these comics, the stories bring back the exact feelings I had when it was me doing the hand-turkey drawings, making shoe-box dioramas, and dancing in front of the mirror. If you want to relive the trauma, deliriousness, and great, great fun of being a child, Marlys and friends will bring it all back to you!
Rating:
Summary: Barry is Brilliant
Review: There are few writers that can so capture the heartbreak, humor and pain of childhood. Barry has an uncanny ability to unfold the terrors and pleasures of a young life in a way that in not obvious or overstated. The novel SARAH by JT LeRoy is a new book I found that was similarly breathtakingly scary and funny. LeRoy, like Barry captures the heart of all whose teen years were spent in a search for self and validation.
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