Written by: Jules Feiffer
First line: What's up? Mommy is staring out the window.
Why you should read this book: This deeply surreal graphic novel tells the story of three siblings, Shirley, Pearlie, and Curly, and their mentally absent mother, Mommy, who spends most of her time staring out the window, insensate to the world. When their father leaves and Mommy decides to remarry, a giant two-headed swan comes to carry the children off to another dimension, but Shirley refuses to heed the call, leaving the younger siblings to take a nightmare journey through another world populated by a strange assortment of companions. Eventually Mommy and Shirley (and Shirley's fiancé, Whatzisname), are able to catch up with Pearlie and Curly in this other world, and everyone sorts out where they belong and can finally move on with their lives, presumably happier than they were at the beginning of the book.
Why you shouldn't read this book: It feel allegorical and the internal logic is more complex than any of Feiffer's other work; it's very strange and in some places hard to read due to the bizarre nature of the subject matter and the characters' decision-making processes, and also due to the pervasive themes of abandonment, loneliness, and alienation.
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