Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story

by Harvey Pekar

"Michael Malice is one of the most puzzling twenty-first century Americans I have ever met."-Harvey Pekar Who's Michael Malice, and how did he become the subject of a graphic novel by Harvey Pekar,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345479394
• ISBN13: 9780345479396
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The well-named Mr. Malice

This is one of the most intriguing autobiographies I've ever read. Its subject, one Michael Malice, could've come straight out of an overdone piece of fiction. He's a rather talentless loser with a mile-wide mean streak. He chalks up his continuous failure in life to bad parents, stupid teachers, dogmatic professors, and idiotic bosses. Malice is smarter than everyone else--he tells us that he was a brilliant child, and defiantly demands to know why he should be modest--and obviously believes that the world neither appreciates nor deserves his genius. It's the stupidity of others, not his own blemishes, that are to blame for anything in his life that dissatisfies him. But the reality of the situation (as he rather ingenuously confesses) is that he's lazy and a cad. He's manipulative and cruel, sneaky, and duplicitous. He makes fun of a troubled classmate who kills himself. He's vindictive, fantasizing about murdering a teacher's children or wishing that the 9/11 horror had murdered some of his co-workers. He panders to influential people (such as Senator Bob Dole), lying through his teeth to suck up to them, while all the while disdaining them. Curiously, he tells us that he values his integrity above all else. Needless to say, he's working on a pretty idiosyncratic notion of integrity. Pekar's presentation of him is nothing short of brilliant. Malice obviously thinks of himself as a sort of Nietzschean ubermensch. But in telling his story to Pekar, a cumulative portrait of something far less comes through. Malice suffers from what Nietzsche called "ressentiment," a malicious envy of others that seeks self-promotion through destruction. Pekar has focused for most of his artistic career on chronicling the ordinary. In Ego & Hubris, he's achieved something rather different. He's given us a chilling account of a man who is wicked in the most banal of ways, a one-dimensional self-promoter who has little to promote--rather like Donleavy's Ginger Man, but with none of the latter's positive qualities. Gary Dumm's wooden, lifeless artwork perfectly depicts Mr. Malice.

intriguing and compelling

I have followed and rated Pekar's work for years -- writers like Pekar, Crumb,Clowes and a handful of others reach the heights of Chekov and even -- perhaps -- Dostoyevsky at their best, and they have contributed to the comic genre being taken seriously. However, I have found that as Pekar gets older, his work has become more dull, and his illness has perhaps ( understandably of course ) made his work a little more self indulgent and introspective, but in a rather pedestrian, boring way. I haven't really enjoyed his recent work that much. A certain edge is gone now, and of course, so much of his work has been packaged, repackaged and sold off in different volumes since his movie success. The idea seems to be "cash in" rather than innovation nowadays with Harvey. (But no one could say he doesn't deserve cash in after all his years as a file clerk). So, I approached this book with caution, expecting a book cashing in on his recent cinema success, or perhaps rehashing old themes and ideas. How wrong I was -- this is like a new beginning for Harvey -- a close study , not of himself, and his own inner demons, which he has done admirably for years, though he has started to grow a little tired of late -- but a study of the shortcomings, failings, flawed aspirations, intelligence and eccentricities of others. It tells the story of one Michael Malice, a Russian Jewish immigrant to the USA. He is an atheist, and feels no affinity with his Jewish ness, (an "identity" which he considers preposterous, scripturally and socially) or his "Russian-ness" (an ethnic identity he considers parochial and primitive). Neither does he see much value in being an American. He loathes his family, loathes his co workers in all the jobs he gets sacked from, loathes his college mates and school mates because he is (unpleasantly and probably erroneously) convinced he is "smarter than all of them." He doesn't seem to have any friends or lovers, and is lost in his own projections about the world -- projections in which he is always the smartest, and the one most hard done by. Of course, much of American Splendour always included analysis of others, but mostly either in brief studies, or in relation to Harvey's own visions and daily life -- this work however, is very much an in depth study of another quirky loser character, a personality that one doesn't quite know whether to like, loathe, admire or feel sorry for. And that is why the book is so compelling. It is difficult to tell whether the main character deserves more from life and has been overlooked unfairly -- or if he is a miserable, annoying loser with unfounded pretensions and delusions of grandeur. Either way, the book expresses and investigates significant insights, and whilst reading it, one can't help but think about the way one perceives others, and in turn, reflect on the way one is seen by fellow workmates, family etc. Like a lot of Pekar's work, it enables the reader to see gems of insight in the mundane,

interesting.....

so here we have pekar's second graphic story after "the quitter." the story is told first-person by a guy whose actual name is michael malice. mr. malice has an extremely high IQ, and boy, does he ever know it. he has no time to waste on people he thinks are dumb or trying to hinder his wishes. in this sense, malice is a superhero just like pekar. i found myself asking the question, why is pekar interested in malice? i think the answer is, they're opposites. pekar is smart, but seems to feel no need to be intellectually superior to any other working stiff. pekar is a supreme creature of habit, staying in the same job, city and apartment for years and years. malice is the opposite, quitting jobs on a whim or because he dislikes how he's being treated. malice gives real-life action to those temptations inside of us to get revenge on the people we hate. strangely, malice seems to get screwed over A LOT. is this because he draws negative situations to his life, or sees things negatively? or are we all getting screwed over and malice just does something about it? as you can see, this book can bring up a lot of questions. oddly enough, i found myself able to connect with malice's personality quite a bit. i'm also intelligent and highly at odds with society at large. but i think the difference is, malice has a pretty big ego! malice always gets his way in the end, and has no regrets. most of his conflicts seem to be with evil women, which brings up another question. does malice have issues with women, or are there simply a lot of evil women (or both?) i found myself a bit mystified at the end, not sure what to think about this guy. so i'm glad pekar included a small note on why he chose to write the story. in the end i sympathize with malice to a great degree.. as arrogant as it sounds, it's just not easy to be a smart guy in a nation full of idiots. i think malice's main character flaw is that he doesn't see the GOOD sides of other people. but i refuse to demonize malice. the fact is, i've had so many experiences with extremely DUMB people who THINK they're smart.. these types of people are absolutely the worst, most disgusting wastes of life on earth. malice thinks he's smart, but he is, so it's much more forgivable! anyway, the very fact i'm thinking about this guy just proves that pekar is a great storyteller. i look forward to the next pekar book.

Pekar Wins Again

Harvey Pekar captures a character so disturbing I'm glad I never met the guy in person. As for Pekar himself, the man should be recognized as one of the great American writers of the 20th-21st centuries. He's real, man. I called him up one night and he was really nice to me. He could've told me to screw off, but he was polite. Harvey's got another fan for life. I just wish we could convince him that he's worthy of praise.

Laugh at Loud Funny

A friend suggested I read this book, and it is the first I've heard of Harvey Pekar (I know, I live under a rock). I had a hard time putting this book down, and I found myself laughing out loud at the "ego and hubris" of Michael Malice. Everyone knows a guy like this -- and would probably prefer they didn't. Fun reading.