AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy

The Girlfriend Trilogy #3

by Jeffrey Brown

The final chapter of Jeffrey Brown's so-called "Girlfriend Trilogy." AEIOU continues to explore the subtleties of relationships examined in Clumsy and Unlikely, concentrating this time on the differences between knowing and loving someone, invoking the reader's relationship with the book as a parallel to being involved with someone. The story is told with Brown's trademark expressive drawings and juxtaposition of humor and heartache.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Memoir, Comix, Nonfiction, Romance

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Jeffrey Brown was born in 1975 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up reading comic books with dreams of someday drawing them, only to abandon them and focus on becoming a 'fine artist.' While earning his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Brown abandoned painting and began drawing comics with his first autobiographical book 'Clumsy' in 2001. Since then he's drawn a dozen books for publishers including TopShelf, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, McSweeney's and Chronicle Books. Simon & Schuster published his latest graphic memoir 'Funny Misshapen Body.' In addition to directing an animated video for the band Death Cab For Cutie, Brown has had his work featured on NPR's 'This American Life' His art has been shown at galleries in New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and Paris. Jeffrey's work has also appeared in the Best American Comics series and received the Ignatz Award in 2003 for 'Outstanding Minicomic.'
He currently lives in Chicago with his wife Jennifer and their son Oscar.

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was on the chair in my living room last night, so I read it. There are dozens upon dozens of graphic novels like this, and I fully don't understand why they get published. I didn't find it particularly original or interesting or witty or romantic or thoughtful or deep or any other thing that I look for in books. I wasn't even very fond of the art - I'm not sure how much time went into those scribbled drawings and boring dialogue. As for the story line. . . snore. What makes him think he's interesting enough or talented enough to make a book about his relationship? I'm being harsh, but I've no idea why so many people like this.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the 3rd Jeffrey Brown book I gave to my ex, but this one I gave to him after we'd broken up. My ex would blog about Jeffrey's books to his fans, which I thought would be great exposure for an author I really liked, but my ex always called him Jeffrey Smith, who I also like, but is a completely different graphic novelist. I read AEIOU while it sat on my bedroom floor before my trip to visit him for Valentine's Day. I felt like this book was less intriguing than the previous two, much like our relationship was. The book was very tiny and fit inside the children's Valentine's Day greeting card envelope I gave him when I arrived in his Brooklyn apartment. I think the card had a robot on it. He contacted me the other day apologizing about the break up, but clarified his intent was not to get back together. Today he sent me some demos for his new EP and I gave him feedback for which he was thankful. Then we chatted about the influx of 3-D movies lately. Apparently, it's the studios attempt to combat downloading. Inside his copy of AEIOU I stuck a small sliver of paper that said something melodramatically heartfelt like "One day you'll be in love enough to stick it out and it will be so worth it." I hope he can do that.

[Jamie Felton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually liked this particular homage to Jeffrey Brown's girlfriend-opedia the very best. His relationship with Sofia has a lot of holes where you're left wondering what exactly went on; however, the point is that it doesn't matter. In the same way that silhouettes create shapes in negative space, Brown manages to convey feelings and disappointment without spelling it out; you have to read between the lines.

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring.
Same old recycled crap.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweet and heartbreaking and beautiful and simple and complicated and just a damn joy to read. Jeffrey Brown breathes so much of his humanity into his comics.

[Chris Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brown has some serious talent, but thank goodness he moved on from these rather brooding books about failed relationships. At times these are very interesting, giving us an honest insight into what it is like being in an unstable relationship with its highs, lows, and insecure middles. This book is no different. In fact, it begins to blur with the other books about the same subject with different characters.

If anything, I think the primary lesson is: never date Jeffrey Brown. All your friends will soon learn all kinds of very private things about you... but from his perspective.

[Ginny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Subtitled as: And sometimes why?

Comic book diaries, especially of love lives, are nothing new and this jumbled offering doesn't add anything. It's a super short read, which is part of the reason I finished, but the characters aren't developed enough to make you care one way or another. So why chronicle a boring relationship and admit it's heavily biased at the end?

One upside — the art is cute. But save yourself the trouble and find his Star Wars books.

[Mai · Rating 2 out of 5]

When intimacy reduced just to the sexual act ,then it is definitely "An Easy Intimacy"!

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

N.B.: For Mature Audiences

AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Jeffrey Brown. It is an autobiographical graphic novel of Brown's exploration of his third girlfriend. It is the third and final book in The Girlfriend Trilogy.

Jeffrey Brown is a cartoonist born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

It documents the Brown's relationship with his third girlfriend – a co-worker at a video store, in detail, dredging up some emotionally loaded details. Brown and Sophia hang out, have sex, break up, talk on the phone about their relationship, get back together, break up again, make out, and argue.

AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy is written and constructed moderately well. Like those other works, it's drawn in a deceptively low-key, dashed-off-looking way, with one or two little square panels on each page; and it again focuses on the banalities of predate small talk, mid-relationship kidding around and angsty post-coital chatter. There's no plot and no resolution, just a series of snapshots of the moments of intimacy that stick in a lover's memory.

Overall, The Girlfriend Trilogy series is written and constructed rather evenly – it just subpar. Throughout the series, Brown explores his past relationships – it seems every time Brown has a relationship it is destined to become a memoir. There seems to be little plot throughout the series and seemingly a series of incidents merged together. The art is rather crude and messy and it is passable for the series.

All in all, AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy is written and constructed moderately well and is adequate conclusion to a very mixed series.

[Arelis Uribe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tomé un taller de dibujo con la Sofía Flores Garabito y anoche fue la última clase, parte de este último encuentro fue mirar libros ilustrados y la Sofía tenía éste. Yo conocía al autor por sus libros de Star Wars y uno donde es papá, pero no conocía éste y me gustó mucho, es un libro chiquitito, como de bolsillo, dibujado con un estilo simple, tipo sketch. Trata de una historia de amor, tan sencilla y tan linda, me encanta cómo empiezan las historias, ¿cómo ocurre la sincronía de que dos personas que están lejos comienzan a acercarse? Me fascina esa fusión, ese empuje de voluntades hasta entrelazarse. Siento, eso sí, que luego el libro es una suma de anécdotas con un cierre no muy claro [a menos que ese cierre signifique un final abierto, un "estamos bien hasta ahora no sabemos qué pasará después"], como si no existiese un final aún, como si el libro se hubiese terminado de escribir en la plenitud de la relación, en presente. Me gustaron las soluciones visuales a las que llegó el autor, todo es blanco y negro, dibujado con un lápiz, con líneas verticales para representar la noche o la oscuridad. A veces los brazos de los personajes son muy flaquitos y las manos una especie de estrella de tres puntas. Mientras se entienda pareciera que la solución es flexible e imperfecta, el dibujo no tiene por qué representar la realidad siempre de forma exacta e hiperrealista, sino que tiene que funcionar para comunicar lo que se quiere decir y punto. Me gusta eso. Esa es la lección que me guardo con este libro y con el taller de la Sofía en general. Ahora a dibujar <3

[hweatherfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was definitely a time and place where this book represented a small chunk of my own coming-of-age story. Strewn across an unwelcoming home, long distance adventures across the country, and finding myself in the small meanings of books passed between strangers and friends over thousands of miles - there was always something charming and melancholy about Brown's earlier comics. I suppose these days its content seems repetitive, but there was something important and intimate about the shards of memories he represented, sometimes wordlessly, in four panels that I could really relate to. I also really enjoyed his accompanying soundtrack found on the last page. It always inspired me to want to make my own as a form of diary therapy.

[Sonaksha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I breezed through this one in less than an hour. Everything from the drawing style to the storytelling felt simple, which was pleasant. But midway I began feeling like I wanted more from the story. I definitely began warming up to the illustration and introspective style as the story went by, but I still felt like the narrative was inadequate. It’s a story you’d probably read on a hot summer afternoon and faintly remember the following week. I haven’t read other Jeffrey Brown works but I’m definitely going to give them a shot.

[Maria Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. It’s somewhat entertaining, but I feel like there’s either something I just don’t get or maybe there’s nothing TO get. Instead of the "Girlfriend Trilogy", I wish these books were just one book. They feel so long and drawn out for separate books. The interesting thing about AEIOU is that the drawings and Brown’s handwriting are getting better, and it’s just interesting to me to see the chronology of an artist’s works. I really enjoy his current stuff so it’s neat to see his earlier work.

[Marianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jeffrey Brown rend hommage à sa relation amoureuse avec sa copine dans ce livre.
C’est une histoire à trou, il y a de nombreuses scènes sans chute. Je n’y ai pas trouvé un grand intérêt… Emprunté à la bibli et se lit vite.
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[rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get it lol

That may be partially my fault though bc I didn't read the first two books in the series lol

But I think the book kinda jumped between scenes almost every page or so, and sometimes that kinda thing works but this book never really stayed on one scene long enough for me to understand what's happening before it moves on to the next

Also I think it may have been nice to have more than 3-4 characters but idk that's just me

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Messier and sadder and more emotionally fraught than Clumsy, AEIOU feels like Brown throwing a relationship to the ground and trying to rebuild as much of it from memory as he can like a mosaic where many of the pieces are lost. The real power is between the sequences where stuff you can’t fully understand obviously is happening. Messy and melancholy and beautiful and tender but also with an air of confusion and loss that’s new to these books. Horribly beautiful

[Adam Osth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fragmented recollection of the intimate highs and lows of a relationship, but avoids the big picture and instead focuses on a lot of the pillow talk moments. This really brought back a lot of memories of heartache from when I was 20 in a way that I've never experienced from a book before. Beautiful.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeffrey Brownin tyttöystävä-trilogian viimeinen osa "AEUOU: Any Easy Intimacy" (Top Shelf, 2005) maistuu jo vähän puulta. Syy ei ole välttämättä tekijässä, vaan pikemminkin lukijan kyllästymisessä, sillä mitään uutta ei albumi kahteen ensimmäiseen osaan verrattuna tarjoa.

[Edanur Kuntman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure how I feel about the ending but it was still such a delightful read. I loved how naive it was told, takes you back in time when you first fell in love. I also enjoyed the big jumps between sequences and how that works in the story.

[Ishani Jasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe too close to home, sometimes.

[Vi · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh?

[Soff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worst of the three.

[Hannah Roush · Rating 5 out of 5]

just really loved this one. Ate it up.

[Maia · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very tragi-comic
3.5

[Mauro German · Rating 3 out of 5]

Algo menos doloroso que los anteriores desde mi punto de vista.

[Mimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t understand the story

[Carmen]

Pienso igual de toda la trilogía.

[Tom Zilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easily the worst of the trilogy. 2 stars feels generous.

[Lionel Del RAE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me feel 2010 hipster

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the most obscure of the trilogy. Many, or most, panels were left open-ended; the reader needs to finish the story. Brown is very creative.