Graphic Novel Reivew - "I Never Liked You" - Chester Brown

Collected from individual issues 26-30 of "Yummy Fur" (Oct 1991 - Apr 1993), "I Never Liked You" is a memoir of Chester Brown's awkward adolescence in Chateauguay, Quebec in the 1970s. And although in the book Brown claims "I never use symbolism," this seemingly simple little book has a lot going on!

Chester Brown is a mild mannered type of guy who never swears. At school he's known as the kid who refuses to say "fuck" and is teased accordingly. He enjoys solitary interests like listening to rock music and drawing. Chester is also a bit of a "chick magnet".... although he has absolutely no clue how to relate to the opposite sex....or to anyone really. Chester is incredibly passive, withdrawn to the point that it seems pathological. Throughout the book we see Chester consistently miss out on opportunities and meaningful moments due to his inability to come out of his shell.

Chester is surrounded by females, all of whom try to elicit some kind of emotional reaction from him. There's Carrie, the girl who lives across the street. Carrie has been infatuated with Chester for years. She even painted "I love Chester" on the Brown family's garage door when she was in 4th grade. Chester knows that Carrie likes him, but just can't seem to bring himself to care.

Then there's Sky, the voluptuous girl next door. With seemingly little provocation, Chester tells Sky that he loves her but the "relationship" fails to develop into anything because that would require that he actually do something. Waiting for Chester to act or react is frustrating. At times you really just want to slap Chester and yell "Carpe Diem, you fool!"

At the core of the book is Chester's relationship with his mother, who apparently suffers from schizophrenia. The interaction -- or lack thereof -- between these two characters is heartbreaking. Chester's emotional paralysis is strongest around his mother. It seems no matter what she asks of him, he fails to respond. Shortly after Chester makes the hollow declaration of love to Sky, the book cuts to a scene of the Brown family: Desperate for love -- perhaps a much needed lifeline in her deteriorating mental state -- the mother begs "I'm your mother -- if you can't love me, who can you love?" Painfully, Chester's answer is silence. Later, when his mother is wasting away in a mental hospital Chester visits her once but never musters the feeling to tell her that he loves her. Upon hearing of her death, Chester forces out a single tear. He doesn't attend the funeral.

The story is episodic, presenting a series of seemingly unrelated events that at the end we realize are all part of the same overall picture. The words and art are minimalist, much like Chester in the story. This awkward little book has a lot of comedic moments and comes across a lot like"Napoleon Dynamite" in theme and geeky style, only with a more serious emotional punch. By the end of the book we see everyone eventually "give up" on Chester. We see Carrie walk past with another boyfriend. Sky invites Chester to go to the Fair but he declines... because the newest Kiss album is out and he'd rather stay home & listen to it. (What did I tell you? Carpe diem, Chester!)

"I Never Liked You" is about that fleeting moment that falls in-between thought and response; between words and action. If we wait too long, that moment passes and can never be reclaimed. It seems that Chester never seems to be in sync -- never seizing the moment, never saying the right thing to the right person at the right time. The book seems to be an apology; Brown's bittersweet way of coming to terms with the past and what he cannot change. Somehow this odd, understated little book uses sparse words and a few incidents to say volumes.