I don't know why I hadn't read this before. It seems kinda essential to any graphic novel lover's library. A classic, if you will. Just passed me by I suppose. I remember watching the movie...though I don't remember the movie itself very well. In my memory, I have cinematic visuals to go along with the graphic novel though I only remember specific bits and pieces. There's this guy who writes these suggestive signs in his window, right? To the girls? Or is that another movie? Either way, that wasn't in the graphic novel. I should watch the movie again. Nancy thought maybe Christina Ricci was one of the girls but I don't think so. Upon doing a quick search, that actress was Thora Birch.
We follow the day-to-day wanderings of Enid and Rebecca, two recent high school graduates. They walk around town and spout negativity, as bitter, psuedo-intellectuals are wont to do. Wont? I'm not sure I've ever used that in a sentence. Cool. They are girls forming into women, teenagers into adults. They are confused, angry, hormonal, and in their specific case, social outcasts. Though it seems that their "outsider-ness" is, in Enid's case, of her own making, or at the very least, she enjoys her label (self imposed label?) of being the outcast. Strange for the sake of being strange. Which I've always found those sort of people to be kinda annoying and sad because it seemed that they really just wanted attention and love like everyone else, which isn't so strange at all.
The artwork is what propelled the story for me, more than the plot, which was loose but engaging. The two-colored pallet that Clowes chooses to use, helps add to the "ghost world" theme, the idea of a not-quite-there world, populated with strip malls, fast-food joints, everyone living inside their own heads, etc. True human connection is fleeting in this ghost world, and often times, unattainable. The townspeople who do populate the story seem to be there mostly for Enid and Rebecca's amusement. They sneer at those that are different from them (which is almost everyone...and those people in turn treat them as outsiders), they tease those who they find interesting (Josh and Weird Al), and mock the desperate citizens who search for companionship (guy who placed ad in the paper and the astrologist). And I get the sense that all this negative energy directed at the world around them is really probably a defense mechanism of sorts, protecting them from actual emotions and feelings, preventing them from connecting with the people they are supposed to hate.
And even Enid and Rebecca find it hard to maintain their friendship, the post-graduate life straining the bond between them. Rebecca seems content to stay in this unnamed town (further adding to the ghost world, a town without a name) and maybe even sees a future within its borders. But Enid, ultimately, decides if she wants to exist, she'll have to leave and become someone else entirely. Because no one truly exists in a ghost world.
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