Here’s part six of the series, 50 Books That Stayed With Me. Without any further ado, let’s get to it.
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the last decade, you’ve probably bumped into Allie Brosh’s work. Bright, chaotic drawings paired with an almost unnerving ability to articulate what it feels like to be human. Her book Hyperbole and a Half is exactly that.
I can’t really classify this book. It is part memoir, part comic, part therapy session disguised as a cartoon. One moment you are smirking about a cake obsessed child version of Brosh staging a rebellion, and the next you are reading one of the most honest depictions of mental illness you have seen anywhere. It is that tonal whiplash of funny, then profound, then funny again that makes the whole thing work. Life is often like that. Brosh captures it.
Her illustrations are expressive in a way that sneaks up on you. A crude, wide-eyed drawing of despair communicates something that paragraphs may not. Its art and it works.
By the time you are done, you may notice something subtle the book encourages. It lets you laugh at yourself without being cruel, and it lets you take your own struggles seriously without feeling self important. Brosh’s honesty and humor sit side by side, and the result is a kind of gentle permission to see your flaws without judgment. For me, it was a reminder that everyone is dealing with something, everyone feels strange or broken or ridiculous at times, and that this is simply part of being human.
It’s the kind of book you finish in an afternoon, then think and smile about for weeks. And like the best books, it’s impossible to read without feeling a little more human afterward. I loved it. Maybe you will too. That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.