Spent: A Comic Novel

"Truthful, rueful and delightful."—LA Times

In Alison Bechdel’s hilariously skewering and gloriously cast new comic novel confection, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont, is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a citizenry on the brink of civil war. She wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege?

Meanwhile, Alison’s first graphic memoir about growing up with her father, a taxidermist who specialized in replicas of Victorian animal displays, has been adapted into a highly successful TV series. It’s a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group (recognizable as characters, now middle-aged and living communally in Vermont, from Bechdel’s beloved LGBTQ+ comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For).

As the TV show Death and Taxidermy racks up Emmy after Emmy—and when Alison’s Pauline Bunyanesque partner Holly posts an instructional wood-chopping video that goes viral—Alison’s own envy spirals. Why couldn’t she be the writer for a critically lauded and wildly popular reality TV show...like Queer Eye...showing people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!!

Spent’s rollicking and masterful denouement—making the case for seizing what’s true about life in the world at this moment, before it’s too late—once again proves that "nobody does it better" (New York Times Book Review) than the real Alison Bechdel.

It’s a story only Alison Bechdel could tell—one of creative envy, political anxiety, and pygmy goats.

• Autofiction: Follow a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel as she navigates professional envy and existential dread on her Vermont pygmy goat sanctuary.
• Humorous Fiction: A laugh-out-loud look at the absurdity of modern life, from viral wood-chopping videos to the surreal success of a TV show called Death and Taxidermy.
• Found Family: Reconnect with the beloved, now middle-aged, characters from Bechdel’s iconic comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For.
• Political Commentary: A sharp, witty, and deeply felt critique of consumer capitalism, privilege, and the challenges of living an ethical life in a world on the brink.