Friday, July 30, 2010

Asterios Polyp ***

By David Mazzuchelli.
Published by Pantheon Books, New York.
Copyright 2009.

Seeing as I had read this just after reading another graphic novel, it will be difficult to avoid comparisons, so I won't try to avoid them and state those comparisons right out.  Like that last book, Curses, it does some philosophising and can get heady at times.  The one big difference is that's much more fun to read.  It's a little sexy and it has a sense of humor,  The drawings are also more stylish (or stylistic if you like).

So the book starts out in our hero's (Asterios Polyp) apartment.  It is destroyed and set on fire by a bolt of lightening.  This bolt of lightening is a motif that occurs though out the book.  At times it symbolizes the differences or dichotomies of life ( A bolt will come through the frame separating it in two parts) and of course it also symbolizes destruction.

So Asterios , a famous architect, is seemingly off on a journey of self discovery and gets hired as a mechanic in a small town.  During this journey we learn of his past life in which he was divorced from his wife.  We learn that he is a conceited man and snobbish.  He doesn't treat his wife very good and he thinks he's smarter than everyone.  During his journey though, his persona is much more humble and ready to listen to what people say.  So there is a transformation.

All in all, an enjoyable read.

here's a review. Just listen to the first half since there are two reviews here.



A little hype for the book...

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Curses **

By Kevin Huizenga.
Published by Drawn and Quarterly, Montreal.
Copyright 2006.
145 pages

Drawn and Quarterly is an outfit you can count on for off beat comic books, and this one fits the bill.  I admire the authors ambitiousness, but frankly it's a tad boring and difficult to get through.  The ideas and narratives are so convoluted and academic it's difficult to read.  And I read a lot, so I am not so easily confounded.  I almost gave up in the middle of the first story.  So for those who think that comics are for dummies, I challenge them to try this one on for size.  There is some nice poetry in the merger between images and context.  One of the more memorable stories is about how excited he gets when he gets those advertisements in the mail that have the missing children information.  He goes into length describing them and explaining what his interest in them are.  Then, inexplicably, he ties them to the Lost Boy of Africa from Sudan. 

And this 'novel' is actually a book of short stories.  Many of them have a fantastical or spiritual bent to them, which made it harder for me to read.  I tend to like grittier and more realistic stories.  When stories start to get into the realm of fancifulness, I star to lose interest.

Here are some of the topics of the stories:

1) During researching the topic of visions, the narrator starts to have some visions which scare him and then midway he tells the tale of an 18th century ghost tale in which a man has visions.  He never really ties in the first part to the second part of the story.

Here's a quote to demonstrate just how difficult the language really is.

"You sir, know my tract on 'The cardinal Functions of the Brain.' There, by evidence of innumerable facts, I prove the high probability of a circulation arterial and venous in its mechanism, through the nerves."

And that is actually one of the easier ones to understand.  I must confess, on rereading parts of this book while I write, the prose is a bit more understandable, but not much.

2)The story about the missing children mentioned above.
3) A story about how he and his wife have tried everything possible way to conceive a child. Finally he tries to find a feathered ogre, which if he gains the ogre's feather, all problems would be resolved.  It is based on a folktale, but it gets silly.  Even some of the conversation is silly.
4) A discussion of how the birds Starlings came to America and the history of that bird. Perhaps one of the more interesting excerpts from the book. 
5) The exact text of adoption papers describing the child's circumstances contrasted to some Asian style  landscapes.  An interesting study of contrasting the profound and the profane.
6) An odd story in which the majority is spent on some friends that get together at a  restaurant and we get to hear snippets of their conversations.  This story is booked mark by some inexplicable scenes in which they are in a grave yard, for no apparent reason and in the middle there is a bike ride by the author and his wife in which winds are whipped up... and then nothing is made of that.  One of the most confounding stories of the whole book.
7) A very short story on "The Hot New Thing"  in which the history of this thing is shown even with out ever saying what that thing actually was.  In other words, these new fads and such seem to repeat the histories of old fads, so the Hot New Thing could be described in such a generic manner.
8)  And finally, a story about a conservative evangelical who is writing a paper in which he defends the traditional Hell in which sinners experience eternal suffering against his more progressive peers who have a more humane version of Hell.  They believe that Hell is Eternal in that you are eternally dead, but not that a person necessarily suffers for eternity.

As I reread parts of this, I can appreciate the book better.  This is therefore a book that needs to be reread and even discussed to appreciate it better... if one can find the motivation to do so.

And finally, one cant talk about a graphic novel with out talking about the illustrations.  His style is very simple which contrasts his herky jerky story telling style.  He does like to use bold and thick lines which help his creatures look a little more spooky.  The stories in back, which are in full color, tend to lose this boldness of line, so perhaps these are later drawings.  While easier on the eye, they do seem less dramatic.

Here is a much more eloquent review of the same book. You can also see the illustrations. He likes the book much more than I . I also like his comment about the drawings of suburbia.



And another discussion by a professional - A Librarian!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Rocket Man***

By William Elliott Hazelgrove.
Published by Pantonne Press Inc.  Chicago Illinois.
copyright 2009.
377 pages.

If this isn't one of the best books I have ever read, I certainly enjoyed my self while reading it,.  It is laugh out loud funny.  Because that is what I did when I read it - i actually laughed out loud..  I read it for a book club, and I think that most of the older group didn't care for it.  It is certainly not a subtle book.  The author pretty much hits the reader over the head with the ideas.  But they are some interesting ideas.  My book groups also complained about the editing.  Something I didn't notice until it was mentioned, or perhaps most of the problems come at the second half of the book. ( I was only half way through when we talked about it).  It is a small press so perhaps that is the reason for the poor proof reading.  It is supposed to be rereleased in a hardcover edition.by a large corporate press and those problems should be taken care of.

So what are some of the ideas the book discusses? It discusses, suburban life and the conformity that comes with that kind of life.  It discusses the concept of happiness.  Are those conformists suburbanites as happy or even happier than the misplaced behemian artist?  In other words, what is happiness and how does that happiness differ for different people.  Those are the two main ideas.  Some other subconcepts are some discussions of how people live beyond their means - a subject that is surely current in this post housing boom failure era.  And the character is frustrated.  Is it his surroundings that stunt his creativity or is he just creatively spent?.  The book also talks about the difficulties of keeping up with the responsibilities of keeping up with modern life and families.

So, the story goes that our protagonist, Dale Hammer (Alias Rocket Man) is a transplant from the city to the distant suburbs of Chicago.  That's right, the story takes place in Chiacgao, though the names of the towns are thinly disguised.  He's a writer and is accustomed to the multicultural, liberal environment of Oakland (alias Oak Park).  But becasue of crime and schools, he and his wife decide to move out to the richer suburbs, though seemingly they are now living in a house they can't afford even though they made money on the sale of their old house. 

Well, Dale just doesn't fit in and between his own incompetence, his refusal to conform and the Fascist like (in his opinion - they are painted that way anyway) community members like gym teachers and scout leaders.  His life is falling apart and it is hilarious to watch/read about. 

But he has a goal.  To make up for the miserable parenting he has performed for his son, he promises his son that he will perform his duties as Rocket Man.  This is a once a year event in which all the scouts blast off their rockets in an open field.  It is turning into something more than he bargained for, but he perseveres for the sake of his son, who is also struggling in his new environment.  The ending is a beautiful, chaotic dance of joy and rebelliousness that brings the close to the happy ending novel.

In fact that was something that the book group had a problem.  The ending was too easy.  It seemed forced they said.  I thought it was perfect and glorious. It was all leading to this point anyway, so why not a happy ending.

By the way, the author is a writer in residence at the Hemmingway House and wrote this book from Hemmingway's attic.  Here is a reading of his book by the author from Hemmingway's attic.