Books of Adam: The Blunder Years

Artist Ellis (who runs a blog with the same title as the book) had an epiphany when a fellow student in his undergraduate art class won praise for submitting a cheap plastic figurine of the Virgin Mary encased in a condom for her senior project. Ellis decided it was time to move on. He left Boston for Portland, Ore. Once there, he recounts his struggles to find a decent apartment, friends, and most importantly, a job. What follows is a series of often self-deprecating vignettes, as Ellis throws himself into situations with the best intentions (camping, for example) that take a turn for the worse (he wakes up to find a stranger defecating next to his tent), many of which are accompanied by his crisp, humorous drawings. Readers looking for melodrama or hipsters looking for detached, ironic superiority will be sorely disappointed; Ellis is an affable, likable narrator, and his “can you believe this?” tone is well suited to this slim, amusing tale. Agent: Monika Verma, Levine Greenberg. (July)