I found this story to be much more poignant than I thought that it would be. The artwork took it from being melodramatic to something that I could relate to. I appreciated the honesty, especially in regards to the religious aspects that pervaded the book. Thompson restated a feeling that I have all too often about how so many Christians are ruining Christianity.

I am not sure, however, of if this book transitions ages well. I believe it may be more of a Catcher in the Rye experience, where you have to read it by a certain age or it is lost to you.

I stayed up until two in the morning to finish this book.

I had been eying this book for a few years. Then a good friend passed it off in a box of other books. This book immediately grabbed my attention. It was as if it was telling fragments of my own childhood. It made me laugh like when the brothers finally learned to huddle to stay warm and made me cry when things like the boy was beat up at school for being poor. I was ok with the ending and that is rare for me.

Beautiful autobiography in graphic novel form.

sweet and masterfully done.

Intense, personal, beautiful. The way he depicts snow falling can make you cold on a 90-degree summer night when you need the fan on to be able to sleep. I read it in a 24-hour period (I stayed up an hour past when I should have in order to finish it.)

Why have so many people on AllConsuming read it, though? I only heard about it from one newspaper article a few years ago, and a lot of books I’d have thought would be more popular had fewer readers.

I was obsessed with reading this book, especially after seeing the article in the Willamette Weekly and missing his reading because I had to drive up to Seattle. None of the bookstores in my town carried it, so I had to order it from Powell’s and then spent 3 days constantly checking the UPS tracking number because I couldn’t wait to read it. In the hands of another writer/illustrator (like the incredibly awful, Alex Robinson), the storytelling and art would’ve come off as being trite and emo. In Thompson’s hands, it almost moved me (and other people I know who’ve read it), to the point of tears.

When it finally arrived, I managed to read through the whole novel in one setting. I pretty much avoid the entire topic of Christianity because it just mostly brings up unpleasant feelings around my own disenchantment with organized religion. But Thompson handles it really well in talking about coming to terms with his own spirituality and how it diverges with the religion and ethics he was brought up in, especially faced when his first real romantic/sexual relationship.

Overall a lovely book, both in terms of storytelling and visual (you can tell that Marc Chagall is a big influence on Thompson’s artwork

A quirky but realistic story of first love and coming of age. The author/protagonist is strongly influenced by his conservative religious upbringing, and the story of how he found love is very much affected by this, as his is subesquent life. Sometimes more about dealing with yourself and your expectations than with the outside world.

Thompson’s not the best illustrator I’ve seen, but the illustrations fit the style of the story very well, and are sometimes very sad.

This was my first graphic novel. I loved it so much that I developed a taste for the entire genre (particularly autobiographical works). Graphic novels can deal with content that may be trivial, overly sentimental, or grotesque in another form. The graphic novel has allowed art into an aspect of human existence where it has rarely been before— perhaps only in albums by very young, fairly unknown bands which aren’t jaded by experience and still take their youthful emotions seriously, and haven’t begun feeling the pressure to perform or make public images (thinking of first records by Bright Eyes and Green Day). These books are so damn personal without being narcissistic or fraudulent.

Another favorite, in addition to Craig Thompson, is Jeffrey Brown— start with Clumsy (written first, though chronologically second in an autobiographical series).

A wonderful book. A great example of the power of the graphic novel: in Craig Thompson’s hands, a picture is worth more than a thousand words.

I really loved this book. The illustration style fit the story perfectly, and I really related to the story of growing up in a religious environment.

I have just started this and am not to far into it but what I have read has been a wonderfull and aw-inspiering expereance.

Honest, dark, funny, painful, beautifully drawn.

I love this book!!!