Serialised in Daniel Clowe’s comic Eightball, Ghost World was released to (generally) positive critical acclaim. Since its 1997 release in graphic novel form it has amassed a large cult following and even spawned a credible movie adaptation.
The novel revolves around the lives of two inseparable, pseudo-intellectual misfits Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmayer who have just graduated from high-school. Embracing and mocking the ‘weirdos’ and ‘freaks’ in equal measure they refuse any participation in the conventional and find popular culture passe.
Enid and Rebecca play merciless pranks on the unwitting whilst teasing their secret crush Josh relentlessly. As the story progresses the girls come to realise that maintaining a relationship so intense and intimate into adulthood isn’t possible. Macabre and occasionally misanthropic, Ghost World is darker and more complex than a typical coming-of-age narrative.
The dialogue between the girls in particular is convincing and their cynical teen angst never descends into cliché. Clowes’ says: “I still think in the syntaxes of an inarticulate teenager and that apparently the leap to a female version is not so distant.”
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| Daniel Clowes self portrait |
Daniel Clowes is not just an incredibly talented artist, he is also a skilful story teller and his witty observations of American subcultures stand him apart in his field.
Certainly Ghost World deserves to be thought of within the context of other great modern novels (graphic or otherwise) – indeed this is literature that is emotional, evocative and socially relevant with a heartbreaking yet poignant ending.
