Post-It Note Diaries edited by Arthur Jones

Post-it Note Diaries
edited and illustrated by Arthur Jones
Plume, 2011

An engrossing and well-presented collection of talkative anecdotes by twenty different authors, illustrated by Jones on Post-it notes. It takes skill to illustrate the essence of each paragraph of a short story in a manner which flows, but the results are extremely readable, although there’s a tiny bit of fakery involved – instead of drawing every panel on an actual Post-it note and scanning it, most of the images have just been pasted into a Post-it note template, complete with slight creases and shadows. Never mind, it’s still a great concept.

The illustration style is very clear and looks a bit like the work of Dylan Horrocks. The only real variable is the skill of the writers – some contributions work well, like lecturer Andrew Solomon’s account of his ndeup (an exorcism ceremony to cure depression) in Dakar, and musician Andrew Bird’s anecdote about how his music career was saved by an actual Post-it note. A few are unexpectedly threadbare, but only if you like the author and you’re disappointed that they’re not super-entertaining, like Kristen Schaal’s story about her job as Miss Peppermint Twist at famous NYC toystore FAO Schwarz.