It’s a random little bit of ridiculousness but it’s also expressive of the kind of fun and angst I think she excels at.īrosh’s illustrations are also a little ridiculous, fanciful, hilarious, and distinctive. “Because sometimes things don’t go like they should,” she explains, and because she’s exercising a little power here, and we should be grateful she didn’t take it further than she did. Because she jumps around so much and generally gets a little silly (in all the best ways), I thought it was neatly appropriate that (as noted by a brief “Explanation” following chapter 1) Brosh’s chapters are numbered but there is no chapter four. A graphic memoir-in-essays, if you will it’s not linear, but a sampling of experiences that have been especially funny or painful or moving. This is a graphic work – as in graphic novel, but nonfiction. (The funniest bits, for me, are anything about pets, and the chapter about the car stereo system and the smartphone trying to boss her around.) I would love to be able to spend a few minutes every day laughing this hard. I was oxygen-deprived she nearly killed me, I laughed so hard. I mean I laughed until I cried, gasping, couldn’t breathe, peed on myself. But also, she makes me laugh harder than almost anything, ever. And some of what she has to share is raw and painful. Her openness is disarming and I think healthy both for her and for her readers who are comforted by knowing that they’re not alone in their struggles. Brosh is so vulnerable, honest, willing to share, and hilarious. Solutions and Other Problems is brilliant.

(I always loved that name.) I did not read her first book, by the same name, but I love the blog. I used to follow Allie Brosh’s blog, Hyperbole and a Half.

Allie brosh blog