A delicious graphic novel (for adults) that is hard not to devour in one sitting. The characters are rich, the illustrations are spot-on, and the story is cleverly scandalous without being cheesy. It is based on Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, and centers around Tamara Drewe, a young temptress who moves back to her family's countryside estate. Her arrival gives the locals plenty to talk about. An entertaining read that adapted well to the big screen.
I found this to be an engrossing, if not particularly deep, read. The author's skill at storytelling is finely honed, and I was invested in the fate of the various characters right to the end.
This is a story about a handful of women who are in various types of relationships with parasitic men - as self-sacrificing, blind-eye-turning wives of philanderers, as starstruck, vulnerable fans of predatory, opportunistic pop stars, as deeply insecure, approval-seeking social butterflies who screw over other women to gain men's all-too-brief sexual attention and approval, as unwitting f*ck-buddies whose hearts are broken when the truth of their "partner's" lack of caring is revealed, as victims of a world that blames women for men's misdeeds. And so on.
I was wondering through the story whether the obvious point would be brought up, and it was, ever-so-briefly, in the title character's column, towards the end of the book: the only thing that could help all these women to have better self-esteem, and therefore, better relationships with men is feminism.
The author didn't really go far enough with this point, but at least she mentioned it, something that far too many people are ignorant of.
Even without an awareness of this meaningful undercurrent in the story, the book will entertain at a more superficial level, with its addictive twists and turns.
The art is sensitively done and a pleasure to look at, and the book borders between true graphic novel and illustrated book, containing large paragraphs of text, as would be found in a standard text-based book.
Four stars.
This is a story about a handful of women who are in various types of relationships with parasitic men - as self-sacrificing, blind-eye-turning wives of philanderers, as starstruck, vulnerable fans of predatory, opportunistic pop stars, as deeply insecure, approval-seeking social butterflies who screw over other women to gain men's all-too-brief sexual attention and approval, as unwitting f*ck-buddies whose hearts are broken when the truth of their "partner's" lack of caring is revealed, as victims of a world that blames women for men's misdeeds. And so on.
I was wondering through the story whether the obvious point would be brought up, and it was, ever-so-briefly, in the title character's column, towards the end of the book: the only thing that could help all these women to have better self-esteem, and therefore, better relationships with men is feminism.
The author didn't really go far enough with this point, but at least she mentioned it, something that far too many people are ignorant of.
Even without an awareness of this meaningful undercurrent in the story, the book will entertain at a more superficial level, with its addictive twists and turns.
The art is sensitively done and a pleasure to look at, and the book borders between true graphic novel and illustrated book, containing large paragraphs of text, as would be found in a standard text-based book.
Four stars.
This is a grown up novel of relationships, in graphic novel form. It's really more like a novel with some scenes shown in drawings rather than text, but there's considerable text to it. What I mean is, it's not like your kid's average superhero graphic novel; if the author hadn't also been a talented sketch artist, she could have done the whole thing in text.
It follows the lives of a bunch of people in a tiny English village - Beth, married to a best selling mystery author, who runs a writer's retreat at their farm and does all the thankless grunt work for her husband; her husband Nicholas, who gets all the glory but takes Beth for granted and continually cheats on her; Glen, a pudgy writer perennially working on his great novel, who has always been caretaken by women; Nick, Beth's gardener; Jody and Casey, two bored teens at loose ends; Ben, a charismatic rock drummer who broke up with his band; and Tamara, a journalist originally from the village who went to London and got gorgeous. When Tamara returns to the village, her presence sets in motion events that change these lives forever.
I really liked this book and would recommend it. I see the film made from it, with Gemma Arterton as Tamara, is being marketed more as a comedy; the book, however, is a comedy-drama.
It follows the lives of a bunch of people in a tiny English village - Beth, married to a best selling mystery author, who runs a writer's retreat at their farm and does all the thankless grunt work for her husband; her husband Nicholas, who gets all the glory but takes Beth for granted and continually cheats on her; Glen, a pudgy writer perennially working on his great novel, who has always been caretaken by women; Nick, Beth's gardener; Jody and Casey, two bored teens at loose ends; Ben, a charismatic rock drummer who broke up with his band; and Tamara, a journalist originally from the village who went to London and got gorgeous. When Tamara returns to the village, her presence sets in motion events that change these lives forever.
I really liked this book and would recommend it. I see the film made from it, with Gemma Arterton as Tamara, is being marketed more as a comedy; the book, however, is a comedy-drama.
