Jokes and the Unconscious

Daphne Gottlieb

I'll start off this review with a bit of unsolicited honesty: I'm not a huge fan of either Daphne Gottlieb's poetry or Diane DiMassa's comics. Jokes and the Unconscious, however, once I got the hang of what they were doing, was quite a pleasant surprise.

Sasha is a student working at a summer job at a medical facility. She spends roughly equal amounts of time attempting (and failing) to avoid her co-workers, flagrantly violating the HIPAA laws, and telling us, the readers, jokes, all as ways of coming to terms with the death of her father.

Those of you who have already started drawing the Fun Home parallel are on the right track, but the authors approach their similar subject matter from different directions-- Bechdel wrote a book that was incisive, tender, and introverted, while Gottlieb and DiMassa approach from the angle of brash, funny, and a little on the gross side. This is a book to have fun with, and then meditate upon afterwards.