Review: Solutions and other Problems by Allie Brosh
I can’t remember when I first realised that Allie Brosh had disappeared from the internet. Now and again someone would repost one of her drawings, and it would make me smile. Now and again I searched her name - both her actual name, and the blog name, Hyperbole and a Half. Results returned would include the book (which I already had), a dormant blog, and reposts of a copy of a screengrab of a comic. But the actual source, the titular Hyperbole, had done a comprehensive disappearing act. It was disappointing, and one of those mysteries that pops into your head now and again at 3.20am when you’ve run out of normal things to worry about.
So it was an utter delight last week to find out that not only was Allie Brosh now on Instagram, but that a new book, Solutions and other Problems, was imminently to be published. Sometimes book-buying self-bans need to be broken, and this? This was one of those times.
Solutions and Other Problems
Square Peg, 2020
It’s pretty difficult to nail down just precisely what Brosh’s books actually are. They certainly cover a wide range of subjects - the first (Hyperbole and a Half) explored her history as a 4-year old cake-obsessed thief, episodes of adulthood depression, childhood diaries, reasons why she’ll Never Be An Adult, and her dogs (simple and helper varieties). Published in 2013, it seemed to strike a chord with so many of us who sense that there’s a big secret to life that we’ve never quite cracked yet, but that everyone else seems to know. Brosh’s drawings are simple, child-like lines with big goggly eyes and animals that could have come from a pre-schooler’s imagination, and yet the sparse combination of two eyes and a mouth conveys an enormous range of emotion and reaction.
The new book covers an even greater diversity of life experience than the first. Since Hyperbole and a Half, and throughout Solutions, we discover that a divorce, the suicide of her sister, the divorce of her parents, and a new relationship is just some of what kept Brosh incognito for 6+ years. You may not see much potential in there for humour, but somehow Brosh simmers this unholy soup into a gorgeously reassuring door-stopper of a book that covers everything from becoming your own best friend to a debilitating fear of dandelions.
The middle portion of the book is The Serious Bit, covering some of the life stuff mentioned above. Brosh has an unerring ability to juxtapose the worst of what the universe can do to us with the ridiculous pathos of life’s minutiae. I might be the only person who has a constant internal monologue that is predominantly utter nonsense interspersed with “why is my brain DOING this?”. I doubt it though, and the genius of these books is to make us all feel less alone in that.
okay, listen - I know something
Brosh’s long dark night of the soul is, for me, the highlight of Solutions and other Problems. Her decision to face every fear she has in one weakness-defeating overnight masterplan had me literally lol’ing. Not just the wee sharp nasal exhalation of breath that we often endow with that acronym, but actual belly laughs that serve to dispel tension that we may or may not be aware we are carrying deep in our souls. I’m not even going to try to summarise it because it would be the most dilute of experiences, so please just get this book and enjoy with me the depictions of reality-distorting chemicals and the challenge of summoning a stranger in a car in the wee hours when even unlocking your phone (with a “weird number riddle”) is a near-insurmountable challenge.
The book itself is a beaut - paperback, but quality glossy pages with gorgeous colour drawings, and a tactile quality which had me running my fingers over the pages more than once. Chapters and sections are separated by numbers (occasionally), titles (often, random and obscure), and colours (fire-engine red through eau-de-nil). I am normally an advocate of ‘the medium doesn’t matter’ but this is one which I would heartily recommend being read in physical form. It’s excellent present material too, for that special someone.
If I were to have any quibble, it’s that Solutions and other Problems is about an inch taller than Hyperbole and a Half, and I’m irrationally annoyed that they don’t quite match on my bookshelves. But then again, is there a better symbol of the nearly-but-not-quite beauty of life than this?
Content images are (C) Copyright Alexandra Brosh
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