Solutions and Other Problems

Starred review from July 27, 2020
Brosh follows up bestseller Hyperbole and a Half with a gut-busting volume of autobio comics. Her wobbly, wall-eyed avatar regards the world with bafflement as she hurls herself into one bizarre situation after another. As a toddler, Brosh gets trapped in a bucket, invades her neighbor’s home through a cat door, and later becomes a suspect in the mystery of how horse poop keeps materializing in the house. As an adult, she tries to build character by getting deliberately lost while on drugs (“I’m like 99% sure we aren’t inside the moon right now”), and unveils more complex stories of medical, psychological, and family ordeals. Like a millennial James Thurber, Brosh has a knack for seeding a small, choice detail that snowballs into existential chaos, such as when a bird’s mating dance leads her to question reality itself. Brosh’s spidery and demented digital portraits, a visual expression of fun-house mirror anxiety, fits her material perfectly. In piecing together the many turns of her life, she reflects, “Sometimes all you can really do is keep moving and hope you end up somewhere that makes sense.” This achingly accurate and consistently hilarious comic memoir finds Brosh moving forward and becoming a stronger, braver storyteller page by page. Agent: Monika Verma, Levine Greenberg Rostan.

Starred review from August 1, 2020

With her webcomic Hyperbole and a Half, based on her award-winning blog of the same name, cartoonist Brosh shared snapshots of her life, including her struggles with depression. In this long-awaited follow-up, complete with her signature illustrations, she reflects on her childhood along with the challenges of adulthood. From moving in with roommates after the end of her marriage to reflecting on the death of her younger sister to contemplating the meaning of friendship, the author brings readers alongside as life doesn't always go according to plan. Similar to her blog and previous book, Brosh is relatable and often humorous, whether discussing loneliness; navigating health issues; or trying too hard to either interact with or avoid neighbors, depending on the day. She also shares memories about the pets that have brought comfort and companionship throughout her life, from a dog who would collect horse poop and leave it around the house to an elderly dog who loved carrots to a cat disinterested in cat toys. Through it all, she is refreshingly vulnerable and honest. In trying to overcome her weaknesses, by spending a night alone in the woods, she reminds us that it's okay not to be okay. VERDICT Another standout from Brosh that is both heartening and heartbreaking. [See Turn the Page, p. 19.]--Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2020
The award-winning author and illustrator delivers the long-awaited sequel to her 2013 bestseller, Hyperbole and a Half. During the past decade-plus, Brosh has amassed a devoted fan base, most of whom first fell in love with the Hyperbole blog she began in 2009. Much of that material, which consisted of random musings, hilarious stories, and colorful, primitive drawings, ended up in her first book, a bestseller that earned glowing reviews from Elizabeth Gilbert and Bill Gates. Then Brosh, who has been open about her battles with depression, seemingly disappeared, much to the consternation and concern of her devotees. Originally slated for release in 2016, Solutions and Other Problems was perpetually postponed without explanation. The author covers some of the backstory here, which includes her divorce and her sister's tragic death. "We'd always had a strange relationship, and I wasn't prepared for it to be over," she writes. "I don't think either of us understood how much I loved her. It seemed like there'd be enough time to sort it out." Thankfully, Brosh's storytelling is so distinctive and compelling it's like suddenly running in to a friend you feared was lost forever. The important thing is that she's back, with fresh material and more than 1,600 pieces of art. Like her last book, this one draws heavily from her unconventional childhood. She recounts stories about getting stuck in a bucket and stalking her neighbor, and, of course, there are plenty of dog stories. Brosh also hilariously describes an experiment with drugs that reads like a budget-friendly version of an Ayahuasca ritual. She contemplates daydreams, wars with technology, and her efforts to befriend herself. The author reliably channels the simplicity of a child or the innocence of an animal and tells raucous, heartbreaking stories that reflect the hidden parts of us all. The existential kaleidoscope occasionally gets trippy, but the majority of the book is nourishing and warmly satisfying. For Brosh's millions of fans, this is well worth the wait.

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September 1, 2020
About a third of the way into Brosh's second collection of autobiographical comics accompanied by typed text, she introduces "the serious part (it is more serious than the other parts)": around the release of her first book, Hyperbole and a Half (2013), a terrifying illness caused Brosh to confront her mortality; shortly after, her younger sister died suddenly. Illustrated in Brosh's wobbly, bright, extra-simplified digital drawings, these stories define the book's significant emotional core and lend perspective to the lighter and varied fare that surrounds them. Reckoning with her sister's death leads to pages filled with frames of the two of them as kids, abruptly interrupted by Brosh's realization that she must figure out how to move forward. While it's not without its own grief, the next story is a pet tale?another of Brosh's specialties?introducing a dog so deformed by illness its species became unclear. Like this, Brosh alternates sorrow with levity?funny childhood stories, more animal tales, and general musings on life and its lack of meaning or fairness?with grace that feels true to life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)