Just a Simple Wedding: A For Better or For Worse Collection

For Better or For Worse #29

by Lynn Johnston

From that first spark to those unexpected senior moments, For Better or For Worse follows the life of the Patterson family through the perils and pitfalls of everyday life. In good times and in bad, Johnston captures family life, wedded bliss, and grandparenting, in a completely unique light.

In Just A Simple Wedding , now grandparents, Elly and John adapt to a smaller home, while son Michael and his family spread out in the old Patterson house. Elizabeth and Anthony's romance is rekindled bringing things full circle.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Comedy, Sequential Art, Comic Strips

120 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2009

About the author

Lynn Johnston CM OM is a Canadian cartoonist, well known for her comic strip For Better or For Worse, and was the first female cartoonist to win the Reuben Award.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This final chapter of the For Better or For Worse collection feels like coming home. I read these throughout my childhood and grew up with the Patterson children. Seeing the whole family, along with their friends and partners, find love, deal with family, have careers, struggle, grow, mourn, and come full circle is a joy. Their lives are our lives, and this series just makes me happy. I’m glad I can visit with them any time I want.

[Gigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe I've come to the end of this fantastic book series. Lynn Johnston captured my heart with her beautiful, story-telling and outstanding artwork. It still amazes me how well she aged her characters, yet kept them so recognizable. For better or for worse, I will forever love the Patterson family and the people in their lives. Thank you Lynn Johnston for sharing your tremendous gift for all these many years.

[Shoshanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe I finished the whole narrative, written over 29 years. So many ups and downs. So many trials. So many sweet moments. In the end, the Pattersons were always there for each other and for all they loved. The whole story was so sweet and so heartfelt. I love it.

Khazak, Khazak, v’nitkhazek!

[Paul Hasbrouck · Rating 5 out of 5]

The saga of the Patterson family ends with laughs, love and tears. There is a wedding, a new family moves into a old house, a family member struggles to care for loved one and new futures open others.
A wonderful ending for a great comic strip.

[Nancy Bandusky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet conclusion to a long running comic strip! With four generations of Pattersons present, there are plenty of tender moments and funny times.

[John Bohnert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last book in this comic strip collection.
I've been a fan of "For Better or Worse" for many years.

[Kaitlin Atwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these comics growing up. I have read most of them. Reading this ending for all the characters was sweet and emotional. It still is my favourite comic.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This slim book collects the last daily strips of this long running series. After following the Pattersons on and off in my local papers for years, it was--typically--both sad and happy to see the end of the 29 year run. The daily 4 (sometime 5) panel is a "slice of life" cartoon where Lynn Johnston makes wry and profound observations about suburban life. Unlike similar themed strips like "Luann" or "Pre-Teena", Johnston's characters age over the years. Some die off. Some get divorces. THe main characters age and retire. By this final series, there are grandchildren and second marriages. And like all good soap operas, it is possible to dip in and out after a long absence, and still quickly figure out what has happened in the interim.

This book covers, ostensibly, Elizabeth's wedding and includes the obligatory last ditch effort by former boyfriends, crises on the wedding day, and of course, plenty of mushy endings. Only Johnston can portray family emotions with such vividness. Like most of the strips and most of the stories in this series, the action and observations are so wholesome that can only be Canadian.

There is nothing really bad about this book. Some may find the humor a little bland. But I like the whole "Life goes on" ending. It remains consistent with the many themes explored by Johnston over so many years. Johnston, in the final page, even provides a JK Rowling-esque epilogue for her characters projecting their lives years into the future. It help with closure.

I would recommend this series to all readers. New readers may dip in at any point. Long time readers will want to get this last volume for---and this must the strip's strength and greatest weakness---sentimental reasons.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this is the final book of the For Better or For Worse collection & I have to say that I'm glad I went ahead & read all of these. It was very interesting to see how the characters grew & changed and how Johnston went from a one-liner/stand-alone sort of style to one that had story arcs. Sometimes several months might go by before she picked the threat back up, but threads were all fairly well wrapped up. There were often references to things/people that had happened years ago in the later books, which made me even more glad I sat down & read them all back to back. I really enjoyed reading these & found myself tearing up WAY more often that I would have ever expected. If you've ever read these comics & at all liked them, I would encourage you to go ahead & get all of them (from the library or garage sales, of course). Poor Jared picked all of these up for me from the library & was subjected to a bit of ribbing.

[Minnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last of a long and interesting line of books, a compilation of Lynn Johnston's comic strip family. They were different. Firstly they aged and then most importantly when Lynn joked about the family, there was no malice in her laughter. Instead we as readers could identify with the humour. And when Farley (the Dog) died it was a vale of tears from all over the world!! The main character, Elly dealt with ordinary life in the way most of us do, sometimes with grace and sometimes with the composure of a baby throwing a tantrum.
I will miss these books and recommend them to any comic strip lover.

[Lyndsay-ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe this is the last collection book of the For Better or For Worse series, and it takes place after the kids have grown up and have started families if their own. So much has happened between this book and the two that I am familiar with. Growing up reading those two books it never really occured to me there was more to the series. Now though, I have been finding more to read and very much enjoying them.

There was a lot of new characters in the book, but also a lot of familiar faces. In places it had me laughing out loud, and I liked seeing the odd page in colour.

[Becky Galambos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been putting off reading this book for quite some time. It is the last of the For Better or For Worse Saga before the "new-runs" which, to me, are like a grad student going back and redoing their kindergarten work - loses all of the charm. This book sings with the realness of the original strip. I am sad that we won't know the rest of the story, except what Lynn gives us in the very last strip. This was my favorite strip for many years, and I miss it so.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly the last collection of Johnston's comics. I miss her daily look into the life of the Pattersons. So many things true to life. I wanted to see April finish growing up because I felt a special connection. My daughter was due to be born in April a year before the fictional one and I had thought of naming her April but she was born early, in March. April Patterson got the name instead.

[Karolinde (Kari) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last collection of the original For Better or For Worse. It is almost more of a tear jerker than it is funny. It was sad to see the story end, but exciting to see the possibilities ahead.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Browsing the local library while visiting my parents, I found a For Better or Worse collection hiding in the graphic novels. Pulled it down and read it in an hour or so.

It's strange being older than Elizabeth now, but still behind her in life steps.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Lynn Johnston. probably more because she is a Canadian than anything else. This is her last collection.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea this was the last book of the series until the end! Boo!

[Miki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have always loved this strip.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of the last of the comic strip of For Better or Worse. It was nice to revisit the Patterson family one more time.

[Child960801 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final book. The ending of a 29 year saga.

*Edited 2021: As noted in the title, this is mostly about Elizabeth's relationship with Anthony and their wedding.

[Tamarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooo unbelievably sad that the comic has finished.

[Rosabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good conclusion to the Patterson family saga. I enjoyed reading it all over again.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed re-reading this collection. Lynn draws you into her world of the Pattersons. It's a great place. This was the final chapter of the Patterson's story. I am fortunate to have a signed copy.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice collection of the last original strips of the comics

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynn Johnston's last book about the Patterson family is a must read for For Better or For Worse fans. The family's story truly comes full circle, ending in Elizabeth's wedding, wearing her grandmother's wedding dress. Michael and his wife have two young children, approximately the age of Elizabeth and Michael themselves when the comic strip began, and Ellie and John both formally retire, as April gets ready to go to college. It may be light hearted, but it is also heartwarming, and any longtime fan will have a hard time not tearing up at the ending, the last strip. Four stars, and a fond farewell to the series I've been reading pretty much my entire life. Really glad I borrowed these books.