Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Day Eight: Asterios Polyp


It's Day Eight of The 24 Days of Books, and today we're talking graphic novels, specifically, Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli. Publishers Weekly calls Mazzucchelli’s new book “the comics equivalent of a Pynchon or Gaddis novel.” It is the story of Asterios Polyp, an award-winning architect none of whose designs have ever actually been built. His life at the age of 50 has fallen into shambles. After his New York apartment burns down, he sets out to create a new life in small-town America. All the while, Mazzucchelli reveals scenes from Polyp’s life that illuminate how he came to be in his current state of decline. Asterios Polyp is an excellent gateway graphic novel for those who are new to the genre.

Here are a few other great graphic "novels" to check out: Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (finalist for National Book Award); A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld; The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre, and Frederic Lemercier; and, finally, one of my all-time favorites, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel. Good stuff! We got lots more too.

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