This belongs among the elite graphic novels along side MAUS & A CONTRACT WITH GOD (and possibly the LONE WOLF AND CUB series as a whole). Like MAUS the engaging art work draws you in allowing tragedy to rise around you like a tide that could easily swallow you. Like A CONTRACT WITH GOD, religion can be what holds you down by the feet as that very water rises. Like only PERSEPOLIS, a personal coming of age story amidst a chaotic social uprising—where the author doesn’t just become a static survivor adult but remains a strong willed yearning individual. That transition to adulthood is the most fascinating part of the book. The child running from the day to day threat of history is an amazing story—but the hard edged often uncomfortable adult depicted for the book’s second half is mostly what I remember. Both parts together create a compelling portrait of the author.

This book was everything I hoped it would be, yet somehow less at the same time. I was drawn in by the living house on chicken legs representing a kind of living history. Pretty cool villain using peoples fears to control them. Wonderful use of history and the myth of the old country Baba Raga (easily the most compelling part of the book). The two main characters have fascinating characteristics (one is virtually a shape-shifter while the other has the power of life and death in her hands) but somehow fall short of being interesting characters. That which should read as compelling comes up hollow. The main characters come off as whiny teenagers—maybe the story would have been better served had they in fact been teenagers. (Is this a YA novel in disguise?) The abilities of the villain seemed to fluctuate as well—wonderfully threatening until he failed to be much of a threat for extended portions of the book. And the parents of the main characters—seemingly an important link in the family history are mostly just disinterested ciphers. Despite all that, enjoyed this most of the way thru before the downsides caused it to sort of dissolve in my hands. Mostly feels like potential squandered. You’ve let Baba Raga down.

After a few decades of reading, it’s a delight to find a new book and KNOW it is now one of your favorites. That happened with Octavia Butler’s KINDRED. Because I loved KINDRED, I was given this graphic novel as a gift. Hungry to extend the delight of reading KINDRED, I plowed right into the graphic novel. I may have done that book a disservice. I suspect I was probably rushing—looking for the familiar or anticipating highlights when I should have taken it on it’s own terms. That being said, I was disappointed. I was underwhelmed because it failed to match my imagination and disgruntled by the inevitable editing process of whittling extended text down to an image. While this may not sound fair, they are the pitfalls faced by anyone translating art from one form to another. The original can become an obstacle instead of an inspiration. The translator must find a way to convey the intangibles that is unique. (see Paul Karasik’s CITY OF GLASS: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL for a wonderful example) There is a harshness to the colors that is a nice choice for slave times but would liked to have had the modern times differentiated from slave times in some fashion—softer shades, more details. One of the great parts of the novel was that the longer one stayed in the past, one began to change—to gradually become a part of the past in mind and body. Perhaps reflect that change by gradually changing the colors and tones from modern to slave times. Unfortunately the tones were harsh throughout. Much of the story presented in the graphic novel just feels like a shopping list of activity. If I had read this first, not sure I would have found it interesting enough make me read the source novel. That would have been a pity.

CITY OF GLASS is my favorite of Paul Auster’s NEW YORK TRILOGY.

From my review of NEW YORK TRILOGY: Each of the three books is loosely structured as a detective story. Very quickly, the mystery changes…and then changes again. What seems straightforward slowly bends in different directions. You could read each novel and argue that you have read the same thing three times…or make the opposite argument as well. When I think of the books I see three giant arrows pointing toward an empty center. Not empty, but something I can’t yet see. Each book is from the point of view of it’s detective. They proceed logically but as what they seek starts to shift, so does their logical footing. Each book starts as a lark, but soon shudders into darkness. Is this darkness the absence of love…or the penalty of imposing order on chaos…or even the personal hell awaiting writers facing blank sheets?

That description doesn’t scream graphic novel. Most novel to graphic novel translations tend to be too literal and literally boring. This, however, I found thrilling. Feels less an adaptation of the novel than and adaptation of my reaction to the novel. The moods and dislocations of characters—disorientation of the reader all managed in interesting and unique fashion. To achieve what the book achieves without simply being a carbon copy of the book is a marvelous deed. The only one of the multiple graphic novel translations of other works I've read to succeed and deserve to exist on it’s own.

I love Joseph Conrad. Everything is so vivid. His words are like painting before photography. Detailed as if under a spotlight with an array of colors and shades that make each image extraordinary. I think back to different scenes from his books as if they were paintings I once saw. The first time this happened was at the beginning of HEART OF DARKNESS when the narrator describes the descent of dusk over London and the Thames—that vanishing light is forever fixed in my mind. I think reading Conrad as a youngster formed just how I read—I tend to read slowly—inspiring a love for cerebral cinematography that can absorb time versus quick TV images that don’t last. Each story is a journey through someone’s personal struggles representing great big themes: colonization, alienation, isolation. Set against giant landscapes, the sea or mysterious lands or both, that dwarf our struggles. His characters are clear and sharp and strongly driven by a tangled crosshatch of motivations. English not his native language, Conrad takes to it like a religious convert. I hold an extra appreciation for that. His sentences can sometimes be very long but they submerge you into the story and I never feel there is anything that should be cut. What I don’t like is that he can come off as racist. The great Chinua Echebe famously took Joseph Conrad to task for this. With Conrad’s mind formed in the 19th century, difficult to escape the limitations of his era. His view of non-white cultures is often dismissive and diminishing—at the same time he doesn’t speak very well of anybody. There are great forces that pit us against each other. We are all flailing helplessly beneath a limitless sky—fighting over the stones at our feet.

That long-windedness aside—I enjoyed reading Conrad’s first book Allmayer’s Folly as a template for the rest of his writing. It stands on its own—creating a vivid backwater world of corrupt traders and broken dreams. Vivid in my memory—the story takes place entirely on a river until near the end when some seek escape by following the river to the sea and stand upon a triangle slip of coast facing the unknown. Solid Conrad.

Essential reading. Remarkably clear, concise and light essay presenting the current state of our gender dynamics locally and globally and how narrow no longer meaningful gender restrictions strangle and smother not only both genders but the advancement of the planet. Would love every school age child to read this over and over during their school years. From this platform is where you rebuild the world.

THE PRISONER was ground breaking TV from the late 60's I was fortunate enough to see as a kid--probably thanks to PBS where I also found Monty Python--both equally influenced the "adult" I turned into. Mind blowing show about mind control vs the individual among other things that seemed to stand outside of everything else being produced as entertainment at the time. This solid synopsis of the show and "decoding" of what was going on held my attention because I've been a fan for nearly 5 decades--and that has only compounded with interest over time. There are other books that the author even recommends for a fuller presentation of what was going on in and around the show--but this was meant as a personal view of what the show was trying to say and the mysteries it never quite revealed. On that level it was interesting if unexceptional. But why are you reading this when you should be running out to find access to this 17 episode show that may still be ahead of it's time. Stay away from the more recent reimagining of the series produced in 2009--they appear to have watched an episode or two of the original and then read 50 pages of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and started drinking.

This long short story or short novella is fun and different with at least one great jolt. Not the exact ending I wanted but well played. Will look for more by this author.