Hyperbole and Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
I love everything that this book chooses to be. It's half content from her website and half new content, but I wasn't bothered by the old stuff being in there. Actually, I wish she would publish an omnibus so I can hard copies of all of it. The new stuff was great, too. A mix varying from fluffy childhood stories that contain smug drawings of her naked seven year old self standing in a playground, and extremely introspective pieces on the nature of identity. I'm a fan of all of it, and I'm glad she seems to be doing better with her depression.
Even though I know (from reading this book) that she would probably deny any praise I gave to her, I'm still going to say that Allie Brosh is probably a genius, and that most of her experiences are not as uncommon as she seems to think, it's only that they seem to affect her in more intense quantities because she's the kind of person who just EXPERIENCES THINGS MORE than other people do. And she's also more willing to be up front about the darker parts of herself. I don't think she gives herself enough credit. I think we're mostly all dealing with our own bad impulses and trying to do the right thing anyway.
Mostly I think it's amazing how she can get me to think introspectively all the while making me laugh uncontrollably while in public. (I read most of this while sitting in Whole Foods. I couldn't stop myself from guffawing, starting with the epigraph -- "For Scott. What now, you fucker?")
I'm going to buy a copy for everyone I know.
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