Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I haven't smoked a cigarette in over fifteen years, and never had the intense pull toward them that Emily Flake did, but I still loved her charming little book about the highs and lows of lighting up. Anyone who's struggled with any addiction or vice will appreciate her expertly drawn images of things like a "crispy ol' lung" and sense of twisted humor (when she tells her smoker readers they'll relate to the book and that it can help them, she pairs it with an image of a super-patched person with a pencil in their mouth quipping, "So, what, I can smoke the book? Is that what you're saying?").
She describes the trifecta of bourbon, prosciutto, and a cigarette as being "like angels are throwing a party in your mouth." Her artwork is especially wonderful when she details the horrors of smoking, the distorted mouth with "itty bitty lines that lipstick gets sucked up into." The sad images of women with no teeth and bloodshot eyes are tragically beautiful. Flake doesn't sugarcoat her own fears or the reality that smoking causes cancer; this is to her credit, since this truly is a love/hate/love letter. Flake's balancing act between her efforts to quit, and belief that smoking is essential to productivity and being herself is rendered wonderfully, along with a mini history of smoking "back in the day," when doctors endorsed smoking and ads read "Camels agree with your throat." Flake sums up the modern smoker by stating, "Today, we all know better. And we go ahead and do it anyway." If you're a non-smoker, like me, you'll be glad that you don't after getting through with this, and if you are, you'll appreciate all the more Flake's honesty, sometimes bloody drawings, and wit. And you just may feel a little bit guilty for hoping Flake continues smoking if it yields more work like this.
Click Here to see more reviews about: These Things Ain't Gonna Smoke Themselves: A Love/Hate/Love/Hate/Love Letter to a Very Bad Habit
Get 66% OFF
0 comments:
Post a Comment