Maira Kalman is a “graphic” essayist/memoirist–her form isn’t standard comics, but a mixture of painting and photos.  I adore her work, her use of color, her upbeat ways of making meaning.

And if you want to feel good about ways to move forward with our communities–even when it comes to sewage in New York City–your time reading her latest blog couldn’t be better spent.

The book is Asterios Polyp by Dave Mazzucchelli. 

I love graphic novels and this one got a great write-up in Entertainment Weekly, so I grabbed a copy as soon as I could.

Almost everyone who writes about it says read it, then read it again.  I agree.

There’s a lot to like about this novel which tells the story of a middle-aged man whose life falls away to literally nothing and who sets out to rebuild it and himself in whole new ways.  I particularly loved the visual depiction of the two main characters’ ways of seeing the world–one in a precise, architectural, controlled format depicted largely in blue, and the other a more free-flowing, synchronistic, emotional worldview depicted in pink.  As their worlds come together or split apart, the colors and visuals represent a complexity not conveyed by words alone.   And when the words and the visuals each add more to the other, then a graphic novel is really working its magic.   This one goes even farther with nuanced characterization, terrific humor, and an eye-popping sense of irony.

Scott McCloud blogged on the book as well.  He’s an expert on graphic novels and offers more to think about in terms of medium than I can, so check it out.

I think all of us “non-graphic’ writers can learn a lot from reading graphic novels.  The best dialogue is compact, multi-layered.  Scenes can change with the simplest of cues.  Time spent helping a reader “see” a person or setting or perception clearly is time well spent.  In particular, this reminded me of the importance of understanding and conveying not only how different my characters are but how different the entire world is for each of them, as they move through it, experiencing it and creating it from their own unique perspectives.  Part of what can make mystery novels work is the fact that no two characters see the same thing in the same way.  It was good to be reminded how that extends not just to witness reports of an event, but to every single aspect of life.

I’m off to read the book again. . .