Harry Bliss is a cartoonist who has drawn covers and images for the New Yorker, has illustrated over 25 childrens books and created a book with Steve Martin. In this book, he shares essays, journal entries, cartoons and artworks from his life, talking about a range of subjects from losing his beloved dog Penny after 17 years, to his coming of age, abusive family, life lessons, depression and drugs, giving up a child for adoption, and living in JD Salinger’s old home. Harry Bliss has journaled for years, saying that life consists of memories and he didn’t want to forget anything.

The book itself is all black and white (there are a couple of colour images inside, but mostly monochrome), and it’s a lovely, chunky, fresh looking book. I love that it looks more like a coffee table book than a biography, and you can flip through it or read it cover to cover if you like, because the author talks about adoring art books, and poring over them for hours. It’s a very tactile book. And dear little Penny is on the cover.

The book meanders through his life, like a walk in the woods with a dog, lighting here or there. It’s structure is generally a cartoon or image, paired with a short or longer essay or memory, and Penny the dog, who the author loved so much, or perhaps her death, is a bit of a through line. It explores making meaning of these things. Personally, the parts about him losing his dog or coping with her getting older and more sick, were very heard to read, as a pet owner. His drawings of Penny are really lovely. Over the course of the book, we do also get an autobiography of the author, given piecemeal as memories of formative moments or memories.

The tone is sometimes a little raw and ribald, in that broad way of American men: mistaking brashness with realness, but it’s gentle and heartfelt too. At one point the author wonders if he might get dropped as a children’s book illustrator after admitting he’s a functioning alcoholic and a drug user, and he talks about his rough, often abusive childhood and how he was sometimes a bully himself, and coming to terms with that. Bliss can be funny, is often interesting, very honest, but he’s also a very sad person, one grieving for his lost friend Penny, and who can be a bit negative or depressed: every time he sees Penny he thinks about her death, rather than being able to feel grateful that she’s there with him then, or being present with her. Every time he sees children, he feels sad because he can only envision suffering ahead of them, and not all the beautiful, simple things in life that they have yet to experience. I felt sad for him.

I really liked the cartoons included in the book and the art works. Some of them were really clever, others very funny, and I like his art style. He also shares sketches and things that aren’t cartoons, and it was great to see some of the range of his work. It’s very beautiful.

It’s an interesting biography of a complex man, of a complex life and of the loss of his companion, Penny, who was a very good dog.

Read It If: fans or newcomers to his work will like this, it’s a beautiful book to hold in your hand and read through. It’s also one for dog lovers or any of us who have had to let a pet go. Heartfelt, raw.

Thank you to Celadon for the copy of this book for review.