A Public Service Announcement! ;)

A Public Service Announcement! ;)

Monday, April 25, 2011

Audrey Niffenegger's *The Night Bookmobile* Selected as "One Book, One Conference" Selection for Recent TLA

Learn more here.

2 comments:

mjhollman said...

For Adults Only - - and Some Children


"The Night Bookmobile" by Audrey Niffenegger


Audrey Niffenegger, best-selling novelist of "The Time Traveler's Wife," calls this a graphic short story, and she created it all, text and
visuals. As they say at the Oscars, this is a script "adapted
from" her original short story.

I read a teaser about the plot, the story of a bookmobile appearing out of nowhere on a Chicago street at night, and ordered the book with dispatch, as
they used to say. No more of the plot here; it made me gasp.

But, here are some of the graphic narrative features I noticed:

1. The cells vary in size, shape and page space.

2. Images of the first encounter are repeated in subsequent encounter but with interesting variations.

3. Time passage, a crucial element of the narrative, is handled variously. On facing pages, we get individual same-size cells of a
"now" sequence. Opposite, much time passes with no
gutters at all.

4. The palette is a little strange - bright pastels, I'd say.

5. Style is MidWest realism -- a Chicago setting complete with the El and Wrigley Field sign.

6. Narration panels alternate with dialog.


And, it has a big library reading room on a full page! Paradise, hmmm?


Well, not quite. I wouldn't stop a young person from reading it, but I don't know that many would choose it. By all means, put it on your independent
literature shelves. I suggest it as a gift for your favorite
book-besotted friend or colleague, or a change of pace for a reading group, or
a text for a reading class. You get a two-fer -- a graphic narrative and a
philosophical treatise (sorta) about text. There's plenty to talk and
write about.

note: I wrote this a few weeks ago for the NWP reading group.

Bucky C. said...

Thanks for this, MH!