As this volume opens we find our hero at age 46, solidly into the midlife crises years . Crumb has lived his entire life in anxious, introspective, self-flagellating crises, however, so the middle years bring only a refinement of his lifelong turmoil and further honing of artistic talent. More words accompany the drawings, demonstrating Crumb’s brilliant powers of observation , as in a long paragraph devoted to an encounter with one of brother Maxon’s vegan turds, and a poetic paean to the heartbreak of life and aging. The family’s move to Sauve, France , in 1991 is heralded by a switch from portraits of apple-cheeked American girls sketched while waiting for food in California cafes to portraits of girls in French cafes , by pastorals of rampant French countryside, and by haunting tableau of homeless beggars in the Metro. The most notable new character in this sketchbook is a turbaned holy man named, by young Sophie Crumb, Roman Dodo , who seems loosely inspired by Robert’s brother Maxon. Patricia Pig , a cheerful human/porcine hybrid also debuts, alongside portraits of girlfriends present and past. As the artist advances into his mid-50s, towards the end of the volume, fantasies of regression to childhood dependence on strong female figures, and even of a good death , carried away on the back of a sturdy young angel, speak less of angst than acceptance of the aging process. Our curmudgeon finds a measure of peace, a certain French acceptance, of the cruel whims of fate. Until the final pages, when he pronounces himself, out of nowhere, “such a fucking QUEER.” All in all, another killer volume .