thedailychannel.com — recommended books

Cheese Monkeys
by Chip Kidd

This dire comic novel is the story of a college kid in the fifties who somehow majors in graphic design. He and his stratospherically over-sophisticated classmate Himillsy take a life-changing design course from, as it obscurely and fortuitously turns out, the legendary designer of the Vligly's Doublemint Gum wrapper. I hope I didn't spoil the novel for you by giving this away.

Somewhat astonishingly, the novel was written entirely in Quark Express, and I have to say it shows. There really isn't any reason to write a novel in a page layout program, except maybe because you don't know any better, but because Chip Kidd made has name from designing book covers, we have to assume he knows exactly what he's doing, at least in the area of page layout.

The novel is very funny, at times excruciatingly painful, and at moments not completely comprehensible. There must be one point in the middle of the book where the type changes to a completely different face, maybe that's why the writing didn't make any sense there. I certainly couldn't detect the typeface change.

One of my favorite scenes is when the design class is dropped off on a remote country road outside the state hospital for the criminally insane, in mid-February. Given a magic marker and a poster board, they must quickly design a poster that will (hopefully) get them picked up as a hitchhiker in this rather dubious location. And to make matters worse, they will be graded on how well they do.

There were some pretty gross moments in the book though, and it also seemed that a nineties sensibility had somehow crept back into this ostensibly fifties setting. Plus, I don't really agree with the idea that you can't be good in graphic design unless you have been subjected to cruel criticism by someone who is full of it up to the eyebrows and beyond. No matter if they have designed the Wrigley's Doublemint Gum Wrapper.

But I will say I laughed out loud more than once. And eventually I ended up reading the entire book cover, dust jacket and all, very very carefully. It was an activity I appreciated much more for Cheeze Monkeys than for any other book.

What can I say? Grab your magic marker and scrawl your way to www.amazon.com for your copy of Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd

Reviewed Monday, January 28 2002