Harvey Pekar’s struggle with fame and aging
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The death of Harvey Pekar, graphic memoirist and chronicler of everyday lives, will most likely go down the way his artistic career usually did: those who know him will be hit hard, but most will barely notice.
His name in tomorrow’s obituaries might not spark recognition, but two details of his life could — the movie “American Splendor,” based on his illustrated book of the same name and his appearances on David Letterman in the 1980s, both of which brought a fame that The New York Times called “uneasy” this afternoon.
Uneasy might describe his work as well, due to his unflinching honesty. Whatever veneer Pekar might have placed over his private life in writing memoir, it was not glossy. Late last year, in an interview with The Faster Times, Pekar talked about worry:
Well, I mean RIGHT NOW, I’m doing OK… Of course I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know, something bad to happen… I’m always fearing that there’s something bad around the corner… something I got from my mother… you know pessimism.. She’s always telling me “There’s another HITLER AROUND THE CORNER”… ALWAYS STUFF LIKE THAT…
It was no different in his work. In a piece about aging for SMITH, posted early this year, he writes:
I wonder if there are a lot of older people that are in decent shape physically and financially, and still worry their asses off.
That kind of honesty tends to shorten your reach in a culture as enamored with distraction as ours. But I sense a real loss in that kind of bluntness, which has nothing to do with stepping on other people to aggrandize himself or sensationalize life, but simply lays out the human condition as-is. Perhaps the memory of Pekar will outgrow his natural life. And he won’t have to worry … the shoe has sadly dropped.
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I don’t think it was Harvey’s bluntness that kept him from pop-culture superstardom. More like his brilliance. You can’t produce something on that level of genius and get noticed in a culture whose concept of observational humor is “The Office.”
You might be right, but what he wrote was so relatable. It’s not the kind of brilliance that makes people feel pushed away. It was the kind that people could instantly recognize. On the other hand, that recognizability was not from warm, cuddly ideas. They were hard truths.
In response to another comment. See in context »Surely he did not have to make such a drastic move to leave Cleveland?
R.I.P.
Maybe he was tired of all the bigots.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] Harvey Pekar’s effort with honour and old – archangel Humphrey – Past Imperfect &#… [...]
R.I.P.
Harvey Pekar.
[...] Harvey Pekar’s effort with honour and old – archangel Humphrey – Past Imperfect &#… [...]