While we were in Paris, a professor recommended we check out the comic series Monsieur Jean, detailing the quotidian life of an ordinary twenty-something Parisian male. Though the French lends a gloss of exoticism, the dreamy, laconic M. Jean's struggles with relationships -(he spends ten years wooing one woman before realizing he loves her, his friends are all partnered baby factories, his novel refuses to turn into a screenplay), are completely relatable. The illustrations are terrific. The places (Paris and Lisbon) are allotted much more detail than the people, who tend to have bulbous schnozzles and marble eyes. The anthology we read, Monsieur Jean, L'Amour, La Concierge, was published here as "Get A Life", and its creators, Phillipe Dupuy and Charles Berberian, will be speaking at the Housing Works Cafe tonight at 7. While we can't guarantee a great time, we think that the combination of middle-aged Frenchmen, hilarious cartoons, and an eccentric, charity-supporting venue, pull in pretty good odds. Allez-y, mes amis. Ce vaudra la peine!

[Two Birds In One Sale-Strewn Stone]