Going Into Town (comic, graphic novel)

I have a stack of overdue library books that I've dedicated negative time to -- and this one was in that stack. It was the quickest read so I grabbed it first, in my quest to not owe Brooklyn Public Library $150. 



I am not in love with Chast's illustration style but it's grown on me. I think I mentioned previously that I like really decisive, solid lines and a lot of solid black and this doesn't tick those boxes. Back when Lynda Barry was in the Village Voice, I used to really hate her wavy lines, which I grew to love...eventually. Chast's style did initially give me the same "non-committal" heebie jeebies but it's grown on me. 

I kind of wish I had Going Into Town when I first moved to NYC (Queens, specifically). I moved here not knowing how to use the subway, where I even was (like, I knew the borough but had no idea what my neighborhood was) and due at work by 7:30am the next morning. My roommate left for a club night, the doorknob fell off my apartment door and I was stuck inside. I had tried to order takeout with the one menu I found in the kitchen drawer and they never showed up so I ate two stale pieces of bread I found in the refrigerator (property of my roommate). I called my ex at the time (who was living in Brooklyn) and I tried to tell him my cross-streets but he was unfamiliar with Queens and also had no idea where I was. Thankfully my roommate returned at 2:30am with a paper subway map which he annotated with my morning subway ride (this was back in the days of pre-flip phones and I had a brick of a Nokia cell phone where texted was basically like Morse code). I have now lived here 18 years. 

Going Into Town would have been really helpful my first week in NYC. It covers all the practicalities of NYC geography, the subway overview, how the city feels and stuff to do. It also properly recognizes the pigeon as our City Bird with proper respect. 

Chast also details the "feel" of NYC that she loves. I, too, am more city than suburbs (and really really not nature-y, despite my respect for nature -- the part that is flora and fauna and ecosystems, not the part where serial killers thrive and the Jersey Devil lives, though I guess the Jersey Devil is nature too?). Anyway, she notes that NYC always feels inside even when you're outside because you almost never see a horizon that keys you in on where you are nature-wise. I get that. I like being surrounded by people-stuff. She also is keen to observe the "people-made" -- I also revel in shops, mass produced products, people's outfits, people's dogs, etc. That is the stuff I key into, too (and why I can spend eons in a CVS or your neighborhood drug store chain) so I appreciate her perspective on this. Most people I know love outdoors and nature more. I'm a true indoor kid -- and I guess so is Roz Chast. High five, Roz. 




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