Excuse Me

July 22, 2019
Bringing her signature shaky sketch style to bear once again, Finck (Passing for Human) compiles more than 500 cartoons in this weird, often funny (but sometimes less-so) collection. Drawing on extensive New Yorker archives (as well as comics previously published on Instagram), Finck delivers biting commentary on structural misogyny, the 2016 election, and the foibles of interpersonal contact in the 21st century. Of course, no New Yorker mainstay escapes without obligatory “talking dog and their therapist” bits, and Finck obliges, alongside a few gags that riff somewhat toothlessly on nothing in particular (for example, a box of batteries reading “batteries not included!”). Finck is at her best when grappling with personal turmoil, though, and her higher-stakes soul-searching bits are chilling; though the “Notes to Self” section contains little of the expressionistic linework that carries so much emotion throughout the rest of the book. Finck’s spare prose and anxiety-ridden lists carry this collection to a tearful, bitterly relatable non-resolution. Finck’s brick of a gag collection will bring readers down with a grin. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, DeFiore and Company.

June 21, 2019

Finck follows up her acclaimed debut, Passing for Human, with a sophomore collection that doesn't shrink away from dark or heavy topics, yet that doesn't make her comics any less funny. Sections such as "Humanity" and "Gender Politics and Politics in General" feature Finck's fast-and-loose drawing style (reminiscent of James Thurber had he been drawing as a thirtysomething in New York in the 2010s), along with smart, self-deprecatory observations that perfectly convey the absurdity of life in 2019. Finck, who has an enthusiastic following on Instagram and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, doesn't limit herself to the traditional single-panel comic. She meanders from charts, diagrams, and lists to simple sketches of objects with sparse, slow-burn captions. The final section, "Notes to Self," is almost completely prose, sans illustration. This switching from drawings to text works, however, thanks to Finck's always present wit. VERDICT Adult readers from most walks of life will admire Finck's poignant observations and find something to laugh (or laugh-cry) at, but the author's fellow Millennials will find her treatment of modern woes especially relatable.--Ingrid Bohnenkamp, Springfield-Greene Cty. Lib. Dist., Springfield, MO

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019
A New Yorker cartoonist gathers more than 500 of her pieces from that magazine, other publications, and Instagram. Though she has been writing and drawing for years, Finck experienced a breakthrough of sorts with her impressively multilayered graphic memoir, Passing for Human (2018). Here, the author provides one or two simple sketches or lists per page, ranging across such sections as "Love and Dating," "Gender Politics and Politics in General," "Animals," "Art & Myth-Making," and "Time, Space, and How to Navigate Them." As with many collections of cartoons from illustrators, comedians, or other artists, the quality here varies widely. Further culling would have been welcome (especially in the "Notes to Self" section, which many readers may skim); some of the cartoons feel rushed or even unfinished. However, when she hits, Finck is incisive in her observations of modern life--e.g., two nearly identical sketches of someone typing on their phone; one caption says "Work," and the other says "Fun." While Finck is certainly in line with Roz Chast when it comes to expressing anxiety and neurosis ("Can everyone else stop doing anything while I figure out what's paralyzing me?") in an approachable, even appealing manner, Finck is also sharp in her exposures of hypocrisy and double standards, especially when it comes to gender relations--e.g., an old man and old woman standing side by side, and the caption under the woman reads, "Too old to been seen as sexual," while under the man, "Too old to be blamed for hitting on everyone." Or a woman saying to a man, "I don't want your last name. Can I have your sense of entitlement instead?" As a two-color paperback, the book should serve well as a holiday gift for fans of Chast, New Yorker cartoons, and droll humor delivered in bite-size chunks. A serviceable place holder while we await more from this talented artist.

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September 15, 2019
Finck (Passing for Human, 2018) posts daily cartoons?twitchy, simplified line drawings paired with wavy text? for nearly three hundred thousand Instagram followers. This collection gathers hundreds of those drawings along with other new and previously published cartoons in one volume. Organized into eight subject-sections (love, politics, animals, art, humanity, time and space, strangeness and sadness, and notes to self), the cartoons usually fit two to a page and fall across an entire spectrum of emotion. In the politics section, a man covers a woman's mouth while saying "Let me misunderstand you for a moment." A hen admonishes a newly hatched chick with "You broke it!" in the animals section. Some drawings are text-only: "If you're happy and you know it, turn the corners of your mouth upward and bare your teeth." Finck also trades in lists, charts, graphs, and diagrams, such as the "scale model" of a mountain and a molehill, shown side by side and exactly the same size. This is a special combination: fun to read and full of not-necessarily-fun feelings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)