Book Review: 420 Characters

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420 Characters

By Lou Beach

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

“It says ‘shit,'” observes my six-year-old, spotting Jonathan Lethem’s cover blurb: “Holy sh*t! These are great!” And they are. Rendered as Facebook updates in 420 characters or less, these thought-provoking vignettes from illustrator Lou Beach are funny, poetic, touching, sexy, twisted—scene-and-character sketches replete with bumpkins, criminals, angry teens, truckers, boozers, bimbos, animals, and sentient objects. Best savored one or two a day, like a New Yorker cartoon calendar.