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Wednesday 30 March 2016

Sunday in the Park with Boys by Jane Mai Review


Sunday in the Park with Boys is Jane Mai’s short comic about a time in her early 20s when she was working in a library and dealing with mental/emotional/existential problems. She likes being alone but she doesn’t want to be alone, she’s aware that she should be doing something with her life but doesn’t know what and hates that she’s standing still but can’t motivate herself to move.

It’s not the most riveting or important memoir but if art at its core is human expression then this is art - Mai is figuring out what she wants to do with her life and is doing that with this comic. And actually seeing her work through the inscrutability of emotion is compelling to an extent - I wasn’t bored reading this even if it wasn’t saying anything that hasn’t already been said before in dozens of other autobio comics. 

At the end Jane Mai says she’s gonna be ok - good! The comic itself is evidence that she’s gotten out of a bad place and is doing something positive with her experiences. And Sunday in the Park with Boys is an ok comic too.

Sunday in the Park with Boys

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