Synopses & Reviews
Meditations on fatherhood from the author of Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City
With A Users Guide to Neglectful Parenting, the trademark dry humor that pervades Guy Delisles landmark and praised graphic travelogues takes center stage. Quick, light vignettes play on the worries and cares any young parent might have, and offer wry solutions to the petty frustrations of being a dad who works from home.
Readers familiar with Delisles stranger-in-a-strange-land technique for storytelling (employed in Jerusalem, Pyongyang, Burma, and Shenzhen) will recognize the titular parent in this book; Delisles travelogues were simultaneously portraits of complex places and times, and portraits of a stay-at-home dads ever-changing relationship with his children while his wife is out working for Doctors Without Borders. The relationship between young child and all-too-irony-aware parent is beautifully done here, and Delisles loose flowing style has been set free, creating a wonderful sense of motion throughout. A Users Guide to Neglectful Parenting is an intimate, offbeat look at the joys of parenting.
Review
“The bar is set extremely high [for] graphic books and the Middle East . . . but Jerusalem beats them all.” —The Guardian
“The cultural and physical barriers among the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities [of] Jerusalem . . . become the source of dark but gentle comedy: absurdity teetering on the edge of tragedy.” —The New York Times
Review
"
A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting is a funny and truthful book about being a parent."—
Boing Boing"You don't have to be a parent to enjoy Guy Delisle's whimsical graphic novel."—NOW Toronto
"A User's Guide...shares with [Delisle's] previous work a keen appreciation for the clash of cultures; this time, however, the cultures in question are those of adults and children, and the damage that ensues is played for a rueful laugh."—NPR
About the Author
Guy Delisle spent a decade working in animation in Europe and Asia. His 2012 book, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, won the highest prize in European cartooning, the Fauve dOr, at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. He lives in the south of France with his wife and children.