The Customer Is Always Wrong

February 13, 2017
Pond’s second autobiographical graphic novel picks up without pause where her first, the revelatory Over Easy, left off: with young Madge slinging hash at an Oakland diner packed with oddballs from the 1960s counterculture. Madge’s career as a cartoonist starts to come together as the rest of her world seems to be falling apart: the guys she falls for are flakes, her coworkers are devolving from lovable potheads into genuinely troubled junkies, the local criminals get desperate and dangerous, and even her boss, the wise and poetic Lazlo, is increasingly adrift. As in Over Easy, Pond makes readers feel like regulars at the Imperial Café, immersed in the ongoing soap opera behind the counter. Her loose, ink-washed art, honed during her years drawing for National Lampoon and The Village Voice, provides the perfect easy entry to the Imperial and a fond remembrance of a time past.

January 1, 2018

In Pond's autobiographical Over Easy, Madge left art school in the late 1970s and started waitressing at Oakland's Imperial Cafe. Where the first volume was a look at the characters she worked with and waited on, the sequel is grittier, the darker content belied by the pale turquoise and white watercolor illustrations. As the narrative moves into the 1980s, the hedonistic drug experimentation turns to the dangerous realities of dealing and overdosing. Madge struggles with the deaths of friends, unwanted pregnancy, and teenage runaways, and she worries about becoming stuck at the Imperial as she becomes a player in the drama instead of sardonically observing from the sidelines. Familiarity with the first volume is essential, as Pond does not provide context for the large cast of characters. VERDICT A realistic and moving look at what happens when the veneer wears off and the party goes on too long. Recommended for collections that hold Pond's Over Easy.-Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington Public Library, VA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 15, 2017
The new graphic novel from Pond (Over Easy, 2014, etc.) follows a young cartoonist struggling to free herself from the distractions of romance, drugs, and her colorful co-workers and customers at an Oakland diner in the late 1970s.Madge's life revolves around the Imperial Cafe, where she waits tables and gets entangled in the lives of a drug-using and -dealing, eccentric and flamboyant, sketchy and gruff ensemble. Camille, a fellow server, is beautiful and confident but also addicted to heroin--and a boyfriend with ties to a Colombian drug cartel. Sammy the cook loves cocaine and a girlfriend whose former flame thinks assault can win her back. Regular customer Lesbian has a thing for dishwasher Bernardo, who has a fling with server Daisy, which leads to in-store shenanigans Pond deems worthy of a "French bedroom farce." Madge's closest relationship is with manager Lazlo, who acts as father figure, counselor, and drinking buddy for the motley crew. The poetry he writes makes Madge feel an artistic kinship, the sense that she and Lazlo have grander ambitions than grinding their lives away working in a restaurant. But Lazlo has demons of his own. It's a sprawling cast of characters, most of whom appear with little introduction, both because the book is a sequel to Pond's Over Easy and because the story's sense of place is as important as the individual players. Madge lives in this world of menial labor, class and racial tension, drugs and drink and crime, but at a remove, observing with an artist's eye ("Leda? Oh, yeah. Weimaraner eyes. Doll left out in the yard"). Pond's illustrations have the wavy lines; loose, watercolor-y fills; and expressive faces of Roz Chast's work, and both cartoonists excel at confessional, humorous narration. Pond's panels strike a perfect balance of text to image, keeping the pace brisk, especially with Pond's keen ear for conversation. Immensely enjoyable.

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July 1, 2017
Continuing the fictionalized memoir she began with Over Easy (2014), Pond follows cartoonist-waitress Madge and her motley crew of coworkers at Oakland's Imperial Cafe in the 1970s and early '80s. Madge decides that once she saves $2,000, she'll be able to move to New York City and finally take her art more seriously. There are boosts, like when National Lampoon runs a couple of her cartoons or some coke-fueled new friends buy her work. But there are setbacks, too, like when she helps a friend in need. More constant than her bank balance is the infuriating, and often dangerous, excitement Madge can count on from her Imperial family: poet-manager Lazlo, beautiful junkie Camille, and outspoken transvestite Babette, among others. Using black and white with expressive green shading, Pond draws her characters with open and emotive faces against detailed, depth-filled backgrounds. Striking a tender balance of humor and hard topicsaddiction, loss, and what it means to live a creative lifePond also leaves room for a next installment, which readers will cheer for.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)