(I feel that authors should use illustrations more often, even in serious novels. The journal is pieced together in little vignettes, like a series of connected jokes-and the punchline is often a cartoon. Greg's voice throughout the book is a sort of sardonic monotone-one is reminded of those sad-faced clowns who will have you in stitches. Jeff Kinney is a truly comic writer who has mastered the strength of the understatement. He pours all this righteous indignation into the "journal" (he will kill himself before he calls it a "diary"!) his mother forces him to write. Greg Heffley is a loser: bullied by his elder brother and followed about by his tattletale younger one, ignored by the pretty girls and able to befriend only the unspeakable Rowley, he must be justified in feeling that life is unjust to him. I picked this up from son's shelf, because I had enjoyed the first book: my son was flabbergasted, and my wife made fun of me, saying she'd give me Peter Pan next. I read this book for two reasons: I needed to get my book count up for the reading challenge, and reading We Need To Talk About Kevin immediately after No Country For Old Men was too much darkness, even for me.
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