Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Self Made Hero, a division of Metro Media Ltd (2010), Hardcover, 160 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member ragwaine
Glad I read this instead of the full novel. It gives you the idea without wasting your time reading 500 pages.
LibraryThing member questbird
I really enjoyed this romp, a graphic-novel take on a book which I haven't read (but might be more inclined to do now). Graphic style was very amusing, referencing various artists' work. I would read more by this author.
LibraryThing member therebelprince
A tortuous and sometimes torturous read - but would we expect anything less?
There's a problem with authors like Laurence Sterne or Rabelais, for example. A lot of people haven't read them, but claim they have; these people are bothersome. Some people have read them; these people are almost
Perhaps you can see the problem. If you haven't read Tristram Shandy (if "read" is the correct word for what one does in the presence of such an effervescent, destabilising text), you won't understand this. Rowson is not so much adapting Tristram for the graphic novel medium as he is deconstructing both Sterne's text and the very nature of text. Which is exactly what we should ask for from a graphic novel version of an 18th century novel that simply doesn't fit into literary history without accounting for the invention of time travel.
I'm not sure I like Rowson. There is something rather mean-spirited in his writing, don't you think? I'm unsettled by some of the morals which he draws from Sterne, or perhaps from our love of Sterne (yes, maybe his sentiment reflects literary humans more generally). And most definitely this work is caviar for the general. It's a book-lover's in-joke, primarily.
Still, while my experience was not worth four-stars, such a rating is justified by sheer brilliance, the delicacy, and the piquant grace notes to this work. Sterne's original narrative is augmented by ever-increasing bubbles of text, a sense of humour that swings rapidly from 'wry'to 'menacing', a deliberate recklessness instead of slavishness in the adaptation, and a cast of characters far exceeding the original (including some poor historians and writers just trying to figure out the text or craft a biography of Sterne himself!). If you've got Tristram under your belt, if you and Dr Slop have seen the chimes at midnight, and if you felt like Sterne was playing it far too safe... this may just be for you.
Madness of the highest order.
There's a problem with authors like Laurence Sterne or Rabelais, for example. A lot of people haven't read them, but claim they have; these people are bothersome. Some people have read them; these people are almost
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uniformly exhausting in their smugness about the fact, not to mention zealots about deconstructing a medium which the rest of us enjoy just fine as it is, thankyou very much. And the rest of the world? Well, they haven't read them, which makes them barely even conceivable as humans. Perhaps you can see the problem. If you haven't read Tristram Shandy (if "read" is the correct word for what one does in the presence of such an effervescent, destabilising text), you won't understand this. Rowson is not so much adapting Tristram for the graphic novel medium as he is deconstructing both Sterne's text and the very nature of text. Which is exactly what we should ask for from a graphic novel version of an 18th century novel that simply doesn't fit into literary history without accounting for the invention of time travel.
I'm not sure I like Rowson. There is something rather mean-spirited in his writing, don't you think? I'm unsettled by some of the morals which he draws from Sterne, or perhaps from our love of Sterne (yes, maybe his sentiment reflects literary humans more generally). And most definitely this work is caviar for the general. It's a book-lover's in-joke, primarily.
Still, while my experience was not worth four-stars, such a rating is justified by sheer brilliance, the delicacy, and the piquant grace notes to this work. Sterne's original narrative is augmented by ever-increasing bubbles of text, a sense of humour that swings rapidly from 'wry'to 'menacing', a deliberate recklessness instead of slavishness in the adaptation, and a cast of characters far exceeding the original (including some poor historians and writers just trying to figure out the text or craft a biography of Sterne himself!). If you've got Tristram under your belt, if you and Dr Slop have seen the chimes at midnight, and if you felt like Sterne was playing it far too safe... this may just be for you.
Madness of the highest order.
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Language
Original language
English
Physical description
160 p.; 10.31 inches
ISBN
1906838135 / 9781906838133