Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bryan Lee O'MalleyEdition: Paperback
Published: 2004-08-18
ISBN: 1932664084
Number of pages: 168
Publisher: Oni Press
Book Reviews of Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Book Review: Fantastic art and disappointing writing
Summary: 3 Stars
I have found that most of the reviews of this book thus far have been the product of either stuttering enthusiasm or unwarranted spite, an unpleasant situation owing to the fact that Scott Pilgrim is a polarizing book, a book that caters to a very specific type of person.
I am not, as it turns out, that type of person.
But, I'm not the sort of person who likes to waste time gushing mindless praise or spewing mindless vitriol either--LET'S GET EVENHANDED!
For those of you sitting on the fence about whether to read this: I was a fence-sitter too. There were aspects of this book that attracted me: the dynamic, manga-inflected art, the melding of the whimsical with the mundane, the goofy humor. But there were things I'd heard about and noticed from the previews that I found equally off-putting, namely the plethora of references to videogames and indie-rock culture.
Now, I have NO problem with either videogames or indie-rock, both things I've grown up with and enjoyed. What I DO have a problem with is this 21st century habit of fetishizing our influences and making compulsive name-drops, this way we've confused Being Cool with Mentioning Things That Are Cool. This isn't to say I'm 100% against this sort of thing, but there's a specific time and place to use it in storytelling, and there is such a thing as overkill. Like words, references are good when you're using them to say something, and bad when you're using them to show off.
This reference-heavy mentality informs Scott Pilgrim to a hefty degree, and I feel it does so against creator/artist/writer Brian O'Malley's better artistic instincts. The visual nuance (as has been stated elsewhere, his facial expressions are superb; he gets an incredible degree of emotional mileage out of very simple shapes) found in the book seemed to indicate to me somebody far cleverer than his writing and characterizations let on.
I'll state this forthrightly: the characters in this book are weak, the protagonist glaringly so. I understand that it's the first in a six-book series and so there's further character development to be had, but if a reader such as myself can't find the characters compelling enough by the end of the first book, then we aren't going to keep reading. The hero comes off as an unlikeable, emotionally immature doofus, which would be fine if he was given positive traits as well, but he isn't. Most of the other characters, with the exception of Wallace Wells, Scott's gay roommate and Knives Chau, Scott's 17-year-old "girlfriend," seem to be little more than hip-looking extras, and that extends even to the girl Scott pines after and who is the catalyst for basically the entire plot (Scott must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends, etc).
A lot of people have written that they were hooked by the slice-of-life tone of most of this book and then taken aback by the incredibly silly ending, but I felt just the opposite--the book works best at its silliest and most cartoony, lampooning the conventions of manga and videogames (a justified use of referencing, for once). There's a very good punch-line at the end of the "boss fight." It was the only thing in the book that made me laugh out loud, and it felt more real and more genuine to me than all the drama that had unfolded beforehand.
Summary of Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Scott Pilgrim's life is totally sweet. He's 23 years old, he's in a rock band, he's "between jobs," and he's dating a cute high school girl. Nothing could possibly go wrong, unless a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. Will Scott's awesome life get turned upside-down? Will he have to face Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends in battle? The short answer is yes. The long answer is Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.Literature & Fiction Books
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