Los incorregibles: O cómo dejé de beber en Nueva York

by Julia Wertz, Regina López Muñoz (translator)

In her keenly observed graphic memoir, Impossible People, celebrated cartoonist Julia Wertz chronicles her haphazard attempts at sobriety and the relentlessly challenging, surprisingly funny, and occasionally absurd cycle of addiction and recovery.

Opening at the culmination of a disastrous trip to Puerto Rico, Impossible People finds Wertz standing stupefied in the middle of the jungle beside a rental Jeep she's just crashed. From this moment, the story flashes back to the beginning of her five-year journey towards sobriety that includes group therapy sessions, relapses, an ill-fated relationship, terrible dates, and an unceremonious eviction from her New York City apartment. Far from the typical addiction narrative that follows an upward trajectory from rock bottom to rehab to recovery, Impossible People portrays the lesser told but more common story: that the road to recover is not always linear. With unflinching honesty, Wertz details the arduous, frustrating, and hilarious story of trying and failing and trying again.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Memoir, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Bande Dessinée, Addiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 9, 2023

About the author

Julia Wertz is a professional cartoonist, amateur historian, and part-time urban explorer. She made the comic books The Fart Party vol 1 and vol 2 (collected in Museum of Mistakes) and the graphic novels Drinking at the Movies, The Infinite Wait, Tenements, Towers, & Trash, (for which she won the 2018 Brendan Gill Prize), and Impossible People. She does regular short story comics for the New Yorker. Her work has appeared regularly in the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, the Believer, the Best American Comics, and other publications. Her photography of abandoned places has appeared in a handful of newspapers. She is a repeated MacDowell fellow but was rejected from Yaddo. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent a decade in New York City before settling in Sonoma County, CA, with her partner Oliver (yup, the Oliver from Fart Party) and their son Felix. She’s currently working on the graphic novel Bury Me Already (It’s Nice Down Here) to be released in 2025.

Reviews

[Juan Naranjo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Narrarse a uno mismo es siempre complicado, sobre todo cuando lo que vas a exponer no solo no es alegre sino que, además, carga con cierto estigma social… Pero Julia Wertz consigue en este cómic llevar a cabo algo extraordinario: contar la historia de su adicción y desintoxicación del alcohol de una manera ligera, realista, verosímil y luminosa.

Puede que el motivo de esta luminosidad (que a veces se viste de esperanza y otras veces de chistes soeces) sea el hecho de que la autora logra transmitir la idea de que, cuando era dependiente del alcohol, ella seguía siendo ella. Que seguía viviendo, trabajando, amando y madurando, a pesar de la omnipresencia de esa sustancia en su cotidianidad. Que aquellos años no fueron años perdidos, sino años vividos con una circunstancia que pesaba como una losa y que condicionaba el resto de aspectos de su vida. Pero que, al fin y al cabo, esos fueron sus veintitantos… y aquí nos los expone para que entendamos cómo los vivió (y sobrevivió).

LOS INCORREGIBLES es un libro entretenidísimo, divertido, interesante y reflexivo que confirma a su autora como una voz brillante y desvergonzada capaz de lo mejor incluso cuando, personalmente, está encallada en lo peor. Además de sobre su adicción, este voluminoso libro nos habla sobre Nueva York, sobre el trabajo creativo, sobre la precariedad artística y sobre la importancia vital de las amigas.

A mí me ha parecido magnífico; muy distinto a su magistral BARRIOS, BLOQUES Y BASURA, pero extrañamente conectados e hilados. Una obra espléndida y generosa que nos recuerda que el cómic sirve para narrar desde lo más grandioso hasta lo más (aparentemente) intrascendente.

[Leah Boylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always love Julia Wertz’s very personal graphic memoirs. As someone who was gifted Drinking at the Movies soon after college, I am also relishing watching her work mature & change as she does (and I do!). This one documents some very pivotal turns she took: mainly, sobriety. She also deftly catalogues the personal transition of deciding to leave NYC (in a way that’s so easy to relate to) — particularly at the time that she was developing one of her biggest books, Tenements, Towers, and Trash, about NYC history.

One big change I see in her work is how lovingly & appreciatively she sketches the people in her life who have been a major support for her. It’s obvious that this was a big part of her getting sober — learning to listen, share herself, build deeper connections. In previous books she appreciates people but mostly shows their funny one-liners; this one I feel like I got a sense of her community.

Curious to continue to follow her!

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

But why was she drinking in the first place? There is a whole lot of story and introspection missing here.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt a little overlong and meandering, and the name-dropping got to be a bit much, but I also really enjoyed the story as a whole. The way Julia Wertz draws interiors and exteriors is so fantastic, too.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julia Wertz has long shared funny stories that happened to her while drunk in her "Fart Party" series, but she finally shares the full story of her alcoholism and steps (forward and back) on her road to recovery. It is sort of average, as the cover claims, but still kept my interest and amused me even as it backs away from the rapid-fire humor of her previous books.

A lot of other books I've read by or about alcoholics tend to focus on people with big extroverted personalities, so it was fascinating to get the perspective of an introverted person who sort of kept her alcohol abuse to herself while simultaneously sharing it with all her readers across various media.

Her self-examination is pretty thorough but she doesn't get so focused that she omits the people around her, as these sort of books sometimes do. In fact, at a certain point she goes overboard, giving most of her dozens of cartoonist friends a cameo or two in the back half.

[Peter Derk]

[review removed by me]

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wertz is firing on all cylinders with this one!

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I explained Impossible People to my partner as a book where you could start reading on literally any page and immediately find yourself thinking, "Geez, this is dull and repetitive," only to look up and an hour has passed because you were completely sucked in to Julia Wertz's dull and repetitive life. It's the book equivalent of a black hole. Weird, not particularly fun, but damn if it doesn't have a strong pull.

Don't come to Impossible People looking for the typical recovery narrative. Yes, Julia reveals herself early on to be an alcoholic. Yes, she relapses a few times. But the majority of the book encompasses her life outside alcohol, mostly just making friends and writing things and noodling around and maybe going on a few bad dates. 300+ pages of that.

It's probably worth reading if you're a Wertz fan or a lover of diary comics, but the average reader is not going to find much to enjoy or engage with here.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm kinda a big fan of Julia Wertz. Her comics are funny and real. We're close to the same age, and I can definitely feel it.

Here, she focuses in on her struggle with alcoholism, particularly during the last four years of her twenties. There's some life-of-a-cartoonist stuff, some living-in-NYC stuff, some do-I-want-a-partner-or-a-family stuff, some mental-health stuff.

It's thick - over 300 pages - of autobio comics. Style inside inside mostly mimics the cover, but without the highlight color.

Kinda my jam.

[Magic Birdie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fairly pleasant to read. Frank, though flat in my experience. A couple of scenes made me want to look closely and remember them because they were well crafted and because it was interesting to see how Julia's life organized itself into habits. In those moments, I thought the comic format was somewhat effective. I also got to learn a little about NYC and cartoonist life.

I wish I found more substance to think about, if not intuit and feel engaged with. I guess I think the structure and approach of this book doesn't serve the function or narrative very well. It often meandered around the same topics (career, hobbies, conversations, names pointed out that felt unremarkable to me) which perhaps would have been wonderful if I could get something out of it. The dialogue and humor usually didn't work for me, though it seems like others do enjoy it (I guess I don't get this somewhat sarcastic feeling humor that comes off simultaneously immature and adult, long-winded and abrupt). Maybe it came off like a detailed but perhaps not deep dive into a window of time that felt haphazardly chosen to me. I could see this lack of focus being really earnest and captivating, but I that wasn't my experience here.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing about being a cartoonist that writes about their live makes it so that readers, or followers get to know everything about you, or so it would seem. And though I have followed Julia since the Fart Party days, there was a lot, as evidenced from her latest Graphic Novel, that she didn't let the general public know, even amongst her Patron readers.

Impossible People is a follow up to Drinking at the Movies, where she goes over her drinking problem. The thing was, that that novel made it look as though everything was fine, and perfect, and ignoring the fact that there are still underlying issues that lead her to drink in the first place.

As this book points out, it is not a straight line, that once you stop drinking that you will stop drinking forever. And if the same things that made you drink are still there, and haven’t been worked on, then yeah, you are going to fall back down in that hole.

Very honest, hard looking book, where Julia lays it all bear for us. The humor is there, of course, because it is Julia, but there is also the painful realization that some of this didn’t take the first time, and how hard it is to stop drinking.

This book came out this month of May, and is available in all places that people sell books, and if they don't’ have it, then ask them to carry it. It is that good that you should have to miss it.

Be warned though, it is one of those books that you have trouble putting down once you start it.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book,

I'm clearly have developed a soft spot for graphic memoirs. I wish there was more resolution for the author's romantic life portrayed, or just that feeling of resolution for all of life's problems. But that is life, no clear resolution.

Can't wait to dive into the author's other works.

[Amanda Dissinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Julia Wertz so much. Her books are so funny but so wise. Always so excited when a new book of hers comes out and this one was sooooooo good.

[Laura Gaelx · Rating 4 out of 5]

De las mejores historias de recuperación de la adicción al alcohol que he leído. Pone el foco en la recuperación, sin epifanías, caminos de rosas ni esfuerzos sobrehumanos sino como una sucesión de pequeñas decisiones más o menos acertadas que van marcando el camino.

[Till Raether · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like the cartoon Julia has been an important presence in my life for years, ever since Drinking At the Movies. I admire Impossible People's patience and generosity.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The paradoxical illustrations of this thick graphic memoir are just beginning of my fascination with it. While Julia is depicted simply and somewhat damaged and underdeveloped, the streetscapes behind her are dense and detailed. Whether this is a conscious metaphor or not doesn’t matter—the bold, Bohemian confidence of NYC stands as an aspirational model for Julia’s growth and oftentimes withering self esteem as she tries to make it in the big city while fighting addictions and career path that’s got a lot of ups and downs.

Anyway, real well done. I’ll definitely be seeking out more of her work (and not just for the fart jokes!)

[Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lu en français, aux éditions L'Agrume comme toujours, traduit par Aude Pasquier.

Dévoré en deux jours, tordu de rire à plein de moments, épouvanté par son voyage à Puerto Rico (l'accident de voiture n'étant pas le pire), touché par son récit sincère de redécouverte d'elle-même et de ses failles par la prise de conscience de son alcoolisme et le début mouvementé de son abstinence

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good, but diverges in odd directions in the last third of the book. (While I understand why she wanted it to end when it does, it's drawn out in an unnecessary way with a ton of name dropping.) The first two thirds, though, are a well told recovery story.

[Sean Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Off-topic from its own blurb
Not , in actuality, about recovery. Lacks really any plot, and is the rather dull adventures of the author, glommed together in 300 pages of disconnected ennui.

300 pages. The phrase “unnecessarily long” comes easily to mind

[Carmen Daza Márquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una breve recomendación en el suplemento literario de mi periódico de cabecera me llevó al descubrimiento de esta novela gráfica y de su autora, y con ello a una de mis mejores lecturas en lo que va de año. El subtítulo en inglés, «A Completely Average Recovery Story» (una historia de rehabilitación totalmente corriente) pone de relieve dos aspectos fundamentales de la obra: la importancia estructural que tendrán en la historia la adicción al alcohol de la autora / protagonista y sus pasos hacia la rehabilitación; y el tono poco solemne y desprovisto de autocompasión que va a caracterizar al relato.

Hablo aquí de novela gráfica y no de tebeo porque con su formato reducido y sus más de 300 páginas este libro ya es una novela en toda regla, además de que su estructura argumental y visual es fundamentalmente narrativa. La californiana Julia Wertz deja aquí la crónica de sus años neoyorquinos como veinteañera que consigue ganarse la vida dibujando a cambio de subsistir al borde de la pobreza, viviendo en un semisótano ilegal y renunciando a cualquier tipo de lujo o incluso de vida social. Pronto se dará cuenta de que su consumo de alcohol rebasa con mucho los límites de lo aceptable y además está interfiriendo en sus relaciones con los demás, y empezará el largo camino de la rehabilitación que va a narrar con la misma crudeza, simpatía y honestidad con las que narra todos sus episodios vitales, desde los más intrascendentes a los más extremos.

La historia de su lucha contra el alcohol va a dominar la primera parte de la obra pero, como ya he dicho, lo que aquí hace la autora es retratar su vida en Nueva York de manera muy gráfica: sus paseos por las calles de la ciudad aparecerán en viñetas donde los edificios y las tiendas han sido dibujados con todo lujo de detalles, en contraste con los personajes cuyos retratos suelen ser bastante más esquemáticos, especialmente el de la propia protagonista. Estas calles irán marcando la cronología: los nombres de las tiendas cambiarán, determinados negocios cerrarán sus puertas y otros abrirán en su lugar, mientras que la figura de la narradora seguirá inalterable a lo largo de los años.

De esta manera tan sutil y subjetiva, la autora nos deja ver su vida a través de sus propios ojos y hará que experimentemos los cambios al mismo tiempo que ella: el tiempo pasa, las calles y las personas se transforman, los amores y los amigos van y vienen y en un momento dado Julia ya no es una joven promesa del dibujo independiente, porque ya tiene una posición establecida y hay una nueva generación de jóvenes promesas con las que ya poco tiene que ver. Y llega la hora de dar un nuevo giro a su vida.

Esta novela gráfica cuenta una historia tan personal, generacional y neoyorkina como las que hicieran en su momento tantos otros artistas audiovisuales en las obras que dieron forma a la imagen mítica de Nueva York que ha quedado clavada en nuestra memoria colectiva. Julia Wertz ha aportado una actualización gráfica a esta tradición artística que no desmerece en absoluto de sus gloriosos antecesores y le da continuidad entre las nuevas generaciones.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across the existence of this book shortly after re-reading the interview with Wertz in “Cometbus,” and thought, what the heck, let’s see if I can get it from the library. I was expecting a little zine-thing, and what showed up was an imposing 330-page tome! I was pretty sure I’d never finish it in the 3-week checkout period, but sighed and started it and wound up finishing it and returning it early. I think that speaks to how much I enjoyed it (also, that it is possible to read a graphic novel a bit faster than the heavy non-fiction that is my usual fare).

Julia tells her story with wit, hope, and humor, even when she is describing some of the blackest periods of her life and struggle with substance abuse, including a seriously unhealthy relationship (though often the best stories begin with these). She has considerable self-knowledge, but avoids preaching. Her story is her own, and she doesn’t impose it on others, though I expect this book will help people who need help and are ready to hear it. A lot of it is worth reading for anyone, however, because of the general applicability of growing up and learning to know yourself as move from your mid-twenties into your thirties and beyond. To read this book is to feel like you’ve made a new friend, and one who is fun and fascinating to be around, even though she needs a little help from time to time.

Artistically, Wertz has a strong eye for architectural detail and spatial relations, even if her drawings of people may deserve her preferred epithet of “doodles” (actually, I noticed she generally put more detail into her portrayal of people she didn’t know well than she does for herself and her closest friends). This was especially engaging for me since she lived in my old neighborhood of Greenpoint not too many years after I did – there was one visible address which showed she was just a couple of blocks from my old place at one point when she was walking down the street. Although it passes largely without comment, this book also documents the changes in that community – notice how many stores have signs written in Polish at the beginning of the book vs later on. Depictions of interior spaces also often show careful detail of the objects therein, as seen in the cover depiction of her own basement apartment.

I recommend this book highly, even to folks like me who hardly ever read graphic novels.

[Mark Robison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I held off reading this because I'm not a fan of addiction memoirs, but this one avoided all their pitfalls. I also held off because it's huge! And I was a bit intimidated.

But once I got into it, I loved spending my time in bed before turning out the lights reading the author's travails. She is simply a joy to be with: a regular person who is not posing as anything special and yet is funny, cantankerous, sweet, generous, curious, self-reflective but not self-indulgent, just someone you'd be happy to call a friend.

Her art seems simplistic but it's observant and really captures life in New York City.

One thing that I really enjoyed is that each big page is usually a self-contained scene. This made it easy to read at night, going as many or as few pages as my tired brain would allow.

And while everything seems minor — even having her car break down in a jungle — by the end, I couldn't help but notice what an opus this thing was. It captures a full life from the mundane to the grand. It's an achievement. It's simply great. And the tiny bio at the very end contains an awesome surprise!

[Trientalis · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

memoirs of alcoholics in recovery tend to be pretty raw and brutally honest, which is a necessary part of recovery. Impossible People is no exception. Wertz is touching, relatable, corny, self-deprecating, hopeful, brave and open-minded. I rooted for her throughout the book and can't wait to read more of her work. Way to go, Julia! Let's hangout when you're in Chicago or suburbs. (Anderson's Books for a book signing perhaps)

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aren’t there enough recovery memoirs? I guess, but at least this one isn’t strictly by the Big Book and has a sense of humor. Also the drawings of buildings are inspiring.

[Maude · Rating 5 out of 5]

c’est drôle mais j’ai aussi pleuré et j’ai trouvé julia pas mal vulgaire des fois… mais quel coup de cœur! honnêtement, je me sens déjà nostalgique de son univers et de ses histoires.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Julia Wertz's self-deprecating humor, but this one strikes a good balance between indulging it and criticizing the obvious coping mechanisms it reflects. Her road to sobriety and a functioning social life with all the speed bumps gets an earnest telling here. At times it meanders, and the memoirs-of-a-mundane-life mumblecore pacing might not suit everyone, but the NYC neighborhoods sketches and quintessential late-twenties/early-thirties crises were enough for me to see it through the end. The early part felt the strongest (and the saddest), I felt that it captured her addiction and loneliness, despite the outward skeleton of a functioning life, very well.

ft. pre-fame Lisa Hanawalt and Adam Conover

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julia Wertz, author of Drinking At The Movies, has a drinking problem. In this graphic memoir, Julia presents her behavior and her journey to getting sober. That's the first 100 pages. The remaining 200 pages are general autobio comic about her career, urban exploration, and relationships; family, friends, and romantic. It's all well written, with great timing and personality, but, other than a couple small relapses, most of the book doesn't seem thematically relevant. The art is clear and consistent.

[Rose Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man I love getting wrapped up in a Wertz book. Her writing, storytelling, comedic timing and self aware/self deprecating humor are just top notch. Also just, thank you for being vulnerable and sharing this story, Julia.

[tizijpp · Rating 5 out of 5]

me ha gustado tanto que me he leído 300 páginas en un día 10/10