My New York Diary Paperback – Illustrated, December 21, 2010

In My New York Diary, Julie Doucet writes about her life after high school, including art school and her time in New York City. This slim volume details boring classes, bad boyfriends, her personal battle with seizures, a miscarriage, and more. Doucet does a good job with the English language, especially considering she is a native French speaker from Canada. Although the writing is honest and deals with many painful issues, it is very much one-sided (this is a diary, after all). I found myself wishing that Doucet had fleshed out the stories more instead of simply detailing her own points of view, like how possessive and psycho her boyfriend becomes over time. These plot lines are interesting enough to draw you through the book (no pun intended), but you end up feeling that there is much more here. This writing style is the mark of a young writer, perhaps.A note about the artwork in this graphic novel. Doucet is a fine artist, but each and every frame and page are so incredibly jam-packed with clutter - bottles, cans, forks, records, dirty dishes, etc. etc. etc. - that I began to get claustrophobic just looking at it all. It made me wonder if the author is a serious hoarder bound for reality television fame, or if she just draws that way. Instead of giving the reader more information, the cluttered style actually distracts from the story. I wonder if the author tried to use her cluttered drawing style to make up for a thin and lopsided story.If you are a fan of autobiographical graphic novels, especially by women artists, you might want to take a look at My New York Diary and support this increasingly interesting genera.I have one small complaint. Although my volume just took a few hours to read, the binding came loose and the cover fell off. I am not sure if this is a widespread problem with Drawn & Quarterly books, but it is something you should be aware of if you collect graphic novels.

Julie Doucet moves from Montreal after finishing art school and moves to the Big Apple. This autobiographical journal shows what it's like to try and make it in New York City. She sublets her Montreal apartment, hooks up with a new boyfriend and her personal life starts to unravel around the same time her artistic career gets noticed. Many of the incidents are familiar to many of us when she decides to pull up stakes and move to Seattle. The people she trusted were not what they seemed. A classic story of how the innocent become prey to those who would take advantage but told in a way that doesn't omit the uncomfortable details. Recommended.

Visually this book is stunning. Every panel is dense with lush line work and detailing. The stories are young woman coming-of-age type that are fun and interesting. It's clear that the original art was shrunken down quite a bit to fit into this book format so it's a little small. I doubt there's much audience for it but this would be a perfect candidate for an IDW Artists Edition. If you're into this type of material this is a must-have book from the 1990's. Highly recommended.

Julie Doucet doesn't disappoint.Delivery on time, product as descripted. Excellent! I recommend this seller.

English does not appear to be the first language of the author--there was a lot of awkward language and typos, frankly -- and that was very distracting. Also, though I sympathized with some of the situations the character got herself in, I did not actually like her as a character -- she appeared spoiled, sheltered, and made really terrible mistakes in her life that I expected her to learn from by the end of the book. Since this is a diary, I assume the events are laid out how just as they happened, but it made for a wandering story that did not have a nice, buttoned up ending (or even a resolution). She also seems to have a disdain for New York that I did not appreciate.

The book had stickers on it that looked like it was from a library. It looked tacky and I tried to take them off but then ripped the cover a few times...

Rarely do you see women in comics, this is a true treat. I love her style of art and story telling.

Excelent.

Como una guia para hacer mis propias historias graficas.

Pictures are very detailed

Came on time, very pleased.

Great story.

One of the masterpieces of talented Julie Doucet. Must read if you love New York in the.. 1980's? And cats and messy apartments