Graphic Novel Review: Level Up by Gene Luen Yang
Title: Level Up
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Artist: Thien Pham
Pages: 160 pages
Publisher: First Second
Published: June 2011
Where I got the book: Library
From the back cover:
Dennis Ouyang has always struggles in the shadow of his parents’ expectations. His path is laid out for him: stay focused in high school, do well in college, go to medical school, become a gastroenterologist. It may be hard work, but it isn;t complicated… Until suddenly, it is.
Between his father’s death, his academic burnout, and his deep (and distracting) love of video games, Dennis is nowhere near where his family wanted him to be,. In fact, he’s just been kicked out of college.
And that’s when things get… weird.
Four adorable -and bossy- angels, straight out of a sappy greeting card, appear and take charge of Dennis’s life. And so Dennis finds himself herded back onto the straight and narrow: the path to gastroenterology. But nothing is ever what it seems when life, magic, and video games collide.
With deceptively simple, cute art by Thien Pham, and a magical-realist plot that keeps you guessing up until the last moment, Gene Yang has returned to the subject he revolutionized with American Born Chinese. Whimsical and deadly serious by turns, Level up is the next step in a powerful tale that Yang has made his own: coming of age as an Asian American.
Review:
Pardon my graphic novel kick as of late. I am reading books, honest. I’m close to finishing two book at the moment. But i’ve also been dividing my time between comics because they don’t take nearly as long to read. It also doesn’t help that I keep coming across comics that look interesting, and my library has copies in their system.
Obviously the first thing that attracted me to Level Up by Gene Yang is the numerous video game references. I’m a gamer and books/comics about video games or video game culture interest me. The main character, within the first couple of pages, discovers Pacman for the first time and his life changes forever. I think all gamers remember that first time they played a game. For me is was Christmas 1990 when my parents gave me and my siblings an NES with Mario Brothers 3. One of the things I liked about this book is that it didn’t stereotypically make fun of gamers. Instead this book turned out to be surprisingly heartfelt which I was not expecting at all.
The main character, Dennis, is torn between doing what he wants to do and trying to live up to his parents expectations. He would rather spend his days playing video games with his friends but ends up attending medical school even though he is pretty apathetic towards it. His parents want him to become a successful doctor but Dennis can stay focused on the difficult school work. To help him stay focused, four angels mysteriously appear and start doing his laundry, clean his apartment and make him food so he stay focused on his studies. It’s slightly weird but at the same time it’s both funny and interesting.
I went in to this comic expecting it to be lighthearted but it turned out to be surprisingly deep. Dennis deals with the loss of his father and the pressure to live up to his father’s expectations. This is an enjoyable comic which is totally worth a read.
Closing Thoughts: Hey look! I didn’t mention Scott Pilgrim once during my review of this video game themed comic. Oh wait, I just did.
Question: Other reviews of this book talk about Dennis’ Chinese heritage. I, however, completely forgot he was Chinese unless another character mentioned it. Is a character’s heritage important to the story?
Tags: Comic Review, Gene Luen Yang, Level Up, Thien Pham
August 2nd, 2011 at 4:21 pm
I love the concept of this book and the cover art. It reminds me of my childhood.
September 14th, 2011 at 7:53 pm
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