Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Pantheon (2012), Edition: 2nd ed., 500 pages
Description
Presents an illustrated tale, told in various books and folded sheets, about the residents in a three-story Chicago apartment building, including a lonely single woman, a couple who are growing to despise each other, and an elderly landlady.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jnwelch
OK, are you ready to take on a reading experience unlike any you've had before? Building Stories, by Chris Ware, was ten years in the making, and comes in multiple pieces in a Monopoly-size box. You won't find this one available on Kindle. It's not an off-sthe-shelf graphic novel, it's 14 different
In reviews I've read about this book, words and phrases that come up repeatedly are "architectural", "precise", "bleak", and "lives of quiet desperation." These might be best described as interlocking short stories. They aren't fairy tales with happy endings, but sympathetic, empathetic depictions of normal people with normal desires who are stymied by life, unable to fulfill their dreams, self-aware but self-imprisoned. I kept wanting to help them out some way, and then having to remind myself that they were just color on paper. The graphic format takes you right inside their lives, and the experience of building the stories from the parts you're given draws you in further.
Much of Ware's brilliance may lie in his subtlety, and ability to tell a story economically. We see much of the couple's relationship in only a few panels, as the man's youthful hopes and dreams dissipate and he takes it out on her, not even realizing how insulting he is or the sorrow he's creating. In another story, a woman at a party needs a trip to the bathroom to slip away from a character obliviously venting at length her obsession with the death of a neglected friend.
The would-be artist captures the reader's heart, as in books, pamphlets and newspaper-sized stories she encounters life's ups and downs, learning to enjoy sex, losing her parents, perceiving herself as a failure as an artist, getting married and moving to the suburbs, and seeing her marriage deteriorate. Her struggles with physical (she's a city girl at heart) and spiritual displacement is always accompanied by the practicality of her dealing with having a prosthetic leg. Because of the piece-together-the parts nature of this work, it took me a while to learn why she was missing a leg - was she born without it, did she lose it through disease, or was there an accident?
There are currents of happiness that occasionally surface in the bleakness - for example, her love for her daughter shines, and their playing together outside one day is beautiful and affecting. Brightly colored tales of Branford the Bee remind us of the importance of awareness, including self-awareness. Beyond his obsessions with sex and food, Branford has virtually no understanding of himself or his surroundings. In one sequence he cannot understand that he's trapped in a basement, looking out a window at the flowers he desires. All he knows is something inexplicable (could it be God?) is keeping him from the flowers, something he keeps bumping against but cannot overcome.
This is a challenging read, both conceptually as you read the various parts and piece them together, and because these lives are not easy ones. Loneliness, dissatisfaction, social yearning and social awkwardness, failures to meet dreams or at times to accomplish even simple tasks, permeate these stories. But it all rings true, and fills you in the way the best art does. Ware has constructed a building, and its encapsulated lives, for your exploration. The bleakness will be off-putting for some, the unusual format or use of graphics for others, but if you're game, it's a top to bottom brilliant experience.
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pieces: three are like magazines, two pamphlets, four are newspaper-sized, two are comic strips, there's a little storyboard, a hardbound book and one that's reminiscent of the Golden Books of your childhood. As you may have guessed, the title reflects two meanings: the reader builds stories from these materials, and these are stories that begin in a single building. Ware takes us inside the lives of four tenants of a Chicago apartment building: the elderly landlady who charges less than she might to make sure the building is full, a couple at odds over life's disappointments, and the character that captivates us the most, a young woman who has a prosthetic leg and had always wanted to be an artist. They rarely interact with one another, but play out their lives in their own graphic boxes.In reviews I've read about this book, words and phrases that come up repeatedly are "architectural", "precise", "bleak", and "lives of quiet desperation." These might be best described as interlocking short stories. They aren't fairy tales with happy endings, but sympathetic, empathetic depictions of normal people with normal desires who are stymied by life, unable to fulfill their dreams, self-aware but self-imprisoned. I kept wanting to help them out some way, and then having to remind myself that they were just color on paper. The graphic format takes you right inside their lives, and the experience of building the stories from the parts you're given draws you in further.
Much of Ware's brilliance may lie in his subtlety, and ability to tell a story economically. We see much of the couple's relationship in only a few panels, as the man's youthful hopes and dreams dissipate and he takes it out on her, not even realizing how insulting he is or the sorrow he's creating. In another story, a woman at a party needs a trip to the bathroom to slip away from a character obliviously venting at length her obsession with the death of a neglected friend.
The would-be artist captures the reader's heart, as in books, pamphlets and newspaper-sized stories she encounters life's ups and downs, learning to enjoy sex, losing her parents, perceiving herself as a failure as an artist, getting married and moving to the suburbs, and seeing her marriage deteriorate. Her struggles with physical (she's a city girl at heart) and spiritual displacement is always accompanied by the practicality of her dealing with having a prosthetic leg. Because of the piece-together-the parts nature of this work, it took me a while to learn why she was missing a leg - was she born without it, did she lose it through disease, or was there an accident?
There are currents of happiness that occasionally surface in the bleakness - for example, her love for her daughter shines, and their playing together outside one day is beautiful and affecting. Brightly colored tales of Branford the Bee remind us of the importance of awareness, including self-awareness. Beyond his obsessions with sex and food, Branford has virtually no understanding of himself or his surroundings. In one sequence he cannot understand that he's trapped in a basement, looking out a window at the flowers he desires. All he knows is something inexplicable (could it be God?) is keeping him from the flowers, something he keeps bumping against but cannot overcome.
This is a challenging read, both conceptually as you read the various parts and piece them together, and because these lives are not easy ones. Loneliness, dissatisfaction, social yearning and social awkwardness, failures to meet dreams or at times to accomplish even simple tasks, permeate these stories. But it all rings true, and fills you in the way the best art does. Ware has constructed a building, and its encapsulated lives, for your exploration. The bleakness will be off-putting for some, the unusual format or use of graphics for others, but if you're game, it's a top to bottom brilliant experience.
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LibraryThing member porch_reader
I loved this "book" before I read a word because of its unique format. [Building Stories] comes in a flat box and includes 14 separate pieces. Some are bound like books, others are in form of newspapers, and one looks like the board for a board game. All are in the format of graphic novels. To the
The box provides some indication of the order in which to read these pieces, but part of the experience is digging in and exploring. Each piece provides a part of story of a young woman and the significant moments in her life. We gradually get to know her, first learning small details and then seeing how the details knit together to form the fabric of her life. As the title indicates, Ware really is an architect, slowly building the stories that come together to a compelling whole.
While Bulding Stories has gotten attention because of its unique format, Ware doesn't neglect storytelling and character development. I was struck by how often I saw my own life in these pages. Even though the specific details of the main character's life are different from mine, the questions that she asks herself about the purpose of her life echo in my head as well. In all, this was a great first read for 2013
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question, "Will physical books be replaced by e-books?", Ware answers with a resounding "No!"The box provides some indication of the order in which to read these pieces, but part of the experience is digging in and exploring. Each piece provides a part of story of a young woman and the significant moments in her life. We gradually get to know her, first learning small details and then seeing how the details knit together to form the fabric of her life. As the title indicates, Ware really is an architect, slowly building the stories that come together to a compelling whole.
While Bulding Stories has gotten attention because of its unique format, Ware doesn't neglect storytelling and character development. I was struck by how often I saw my own life in these pages. Even though the specific details of the main character's life are different from mine, the questions that she asks herself about the purpose of her life echo in my head as well. In all, this was a great first read for 2013
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LibraryThing member eimeriina
His new book is a work of art and genius. It comes in a large rectangular cardboard box, assorted as 14 various sized booklets, pamphlets, magazines.
There is no particular order to read them in. They contain a story of the lives of residents in a three-story Chicago apartment, and they give each
As in his previous works, this one also offers very powerful and emotional stories. They follow around the four inhabitants, who are somehow connected to each other, while they try to find the meaning of their lives.
There’s the one-legged thirty-something woman, who is also the central character, living on the top floor, frustrated with her husband, gaining weight, and wondering what happened to her dreams. Then an old landlady, a spinster, living on the ground floor, still walking alone down memory lane. A youngish couple, living on the middle floor, having relationship problems. And, the only male view, Branford, The Best Bee In The World, who is literally a bee. These characters are structured in an easy to relate to way, which makes this great book really anyone’s story.
The feeling of loneliness haunts the reader through out the pages, but also the connection between the characters imply that it is impossible to be ultimately alone. Ware suggests in a way that people everywhere are connected.
The art is not just limited to the story or the presentation of the book. The actual graphics are unique, detailed, and beyond the standards of conventional graphic novels. In the different sized material, you can easily tell Chris Ware is very comfortable with his work both at large and small scales. And with the use of different narrative techniques in the same novel, he presents a new way of writing.
There are of course pitfalls. The no-particular-order reading is a bit of a risky gambit. The insights of the protagonist could be read too early, or too late… which would make parts of the story either incomprehensible or just slow down the drive.
But still this great novel. With the knowledge of one’s starting point can be another’s ending, it makes you want to reread it all. It is like a keepsake box, full of unforgettable memories.
*also published in newsforshoppers
There is no particular order to read them in. They contain a story of the lives of residents in a three-story Chicago apartment, and they give each
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reader the opportunity of experiencing a different and personalized book with the same material.As in his previous works, this one also offers very powerful and emotional stories. They follow around the four inhabitants, who are somehow connected to each other, while they try to find the meaning of their lives.
There’s the one-legged thirty-something woman, who is also the central character, living on the top floor, frustrated with her husband, gaining weight, and wondering what happened to her dreams. Then an old landlady, a spinster, living on the ground floor, still walking alone down memory lane. A youngish couple, living on the middle floor, having relationship problems. And, the only male view, Branford, The Best Bee In The World, who is literally a bee. These characters are structured in an easy to relate to way, which makes this great book really anyone’s story.
The feeling of loneliness haunts the reader through out the pages, but also the connection between the characters imply that it is impossible to be ultimately alone. Ware suggests in a way that people everywhere are connected.
The art is not just limited to the story or the presentation of the book. The actual graphics are unique, detailed, and beyond the standards of conventional graphic novels. In the different sized material, you can easily tell Chris Ware is very comfortable with his work both at large and small scales. And with the use of different narrative techniques in the same novel, he presents a new way of writing.
There are of course pitfalls. The no-particular-order reading is a bit of a risky gambit. The insights of the protagonist could be read too early, or too late… which would make parts of the story either incomprehensible or just slow down the drive.
But still this great novel. With the knowledge of one’s starting point can be another’s ending, it makes you want to reread it all. It is like a keepsake box, full of unforgettable memories.
*also published in newsforshoppers
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LibraryThing member mrgan
Chris Ware's latest "book" is a unique object: a box of 14 mini-books of all different formats, from hardbound "comics" to enormous, sprawling poster-stories. His art is as good as it's ever been. It's surgically precise, stunning, and recognizable as nobody else's but his.
However, narratively, he
Previously, Ware's anhedonia has been channeled into genuinely interesting, provoking tales, as in ACME #19. Here, the setting and the characters are as plain as you can imagine. In fact you don't have to do much imagining at all: they're you, the modern, 2012 you—nailed with uncanny precision. Except it is the dark core of you: every negative, uncomfortable, self-hating moment lined up into a set of panels, with all the stuff that makes life living carefully removed (except when it is put on the butchering table to be mocked).
It's pointless for anyone to say what anyone else *should* be writing about, especially when it is written and visually composed as skillfully as it is here. But whether there's a point to it or not, I can't help saying that Chris Ware seriously needs to find a new set of stories to write.
4 stars because the art deserves every star there is.
However, narratively, he
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has entered the darkest, muddiest part of his career. Building Stories is highly depressing even when compared to Ware's other work. Every story, every character, every situation in it is a study in failure, sadness, guilt, hate, disappointment, and misery. The total effect is a claustrophobic, suffocating misanthropy that amounts to pure abuse of the reader.Previously, Ware's anhedonia has been channeled into genuinely interesting, provoking tales, as in ACME #19. Here, the setting and the characters are as plain as you can imagine. In fact you don't have to do much imagining at all: they're you, the modern, 2012 you—nailed with uncanny precision. Except it is the dark core of you: every negative, uncomfortable, self-hating moment lined up into a set of panels, with all the stuff that makes life living carefully removed (except when it is put on the butchering table to be mocked).
It's pointless for anyone to say what anyone else *should* be writing about, especially when it is written and visually composed as skillfully as it is here. But whether there's a point to it or not, I can't help saying that Chris Ware seriously needs to find a new set of stories to write.
4 stars because the art deserves every star there is.
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LibraryThing member klburnside
I wish I'd written this review sooner after finishing the book. Building Stories comes in a box and consists of 14 separate pieces. Some are hard bound books, some are huge newspaper foldouts, and some are just short little strips. There is no specific order to read them in, the pieces just
Some pieces were definitely better than others. The author's ability to capture the inner thoughts of his characters really got to me. The ways heartache, insecurity, and loneliness are depicted in words and illustrations was really powerful.
This has been on my to read list for quite a while. Definitely worth the wait.
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gradually come together.Some pieces were definitely better than others. The author's ability to capture the inner thoughts of his characters really got to me. The ways heartache, insecurity, and loneliness are depicted in words and illustrations was really powerful.
This has been on my to read list for quite a while. Definitely worth the wait.
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LibraryThing member Helena81
I should preface this review by saying that I'm not at all into graphic novels/ comics. I'm not hostile or averse to them, it's just not something I read. However, this collection got so much praise and so many accolades last year, I felt I had to give it ago. I was surprised that I could enjoy the
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format so much. It was fun to read, kept me wanting more, the stories were cleverly interwoven, and it was beautifully drawn. I do think there's a definite chronology, however, and was glad I looked up a reading order online before I began. I have only two reservations. One is that I would have liked more about the unhappy young couple. The second is that, overall, the tone is incredibly, unrelentingly, bleak. Nevertheless, I am glad I purchased this set and may well read it again. Show Less
LibraryThing member tapestry100
Chris Ware's Building Stories is a graphic novel presented in a boxed set of 14 connected but not connected stories, told through various types of formats. In the box you will find pamphlets of various sizes, a book that resembles an over-sized Golden Book, a couple of softcover books, one
Building Stories is the story about a three-flat apartment building in Chicago and the people that live there: the elderly landlady, the married/possibly not married couple on the second floor who never seem to be happy with each other, and an amputee who lives on the third floor, and chose to live there as a means of getting exercise due to her lost leg. There is nothing fanciful in these people's stories; there is nothing idyllic about their lives. If anything, this is the only complaint that I have with the story as a whole: nobody ever really seems to be happy. I know that Ware is trying to show people and their real lives, but as I finished reading, I was filled more with a morose feeling than anything else. Don't get me wrong, the emotions that Ware is able to pull from his simplistic art and bare dialogue is astonishing, I guess I just wish there was something of a "happy ending" in the book, even though there is no true ending per se. We see certain parts of the character's lives, but like any life that we witness from the outside, I still think there is so much more to the characters than what we have been shown. We are presented with snippets of their past and present, but we don't really know what their future holds, much like any person that we may know. I think I would be interested to see Ware revisit these characters in a couple of years, and show us where their lives took them.
I'm torn on whether I want to read anything else by Ware. There was such a pervading sense of melancholy throughout the entire collection, I don't know that I would trust anything else of his to not have that same feeling throughout. Yet, he presents these emotions so well that I think it would be a shame not to read something else of his again sometime. Maybe I just need to give myself some time to absorb everything from Building Stories before I move on to anything else of his, as I think this story is going to stick with me for some time.
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clothbound hardcover book, a newspaper, a board that resembles the board from a board game, and a handful of other layouts. Not one of these needs to be read in order as you find them in the box (even though that's how I read it), but as you read them, they all find a way to interconnect to tell a story greater than their individual parts, hence you're building the story.Building Stories is the story about a three-flat apartment building in Chicago and the people that live there: the elderly landlady, the married/possibly not married couple on the second floor who never seem to be happy with each other, and an amputee who lives on the third floor, and chose to live there as a means of getting exercise due to her lost leg. There is nothing fanciful in these people's stories; there is nothing idyllic about their lives. If anything, this is the only complaint that I have with the story as a whole: nobody ever really seems to be happy. I know that Ware is trying to show people and their real lives, but as I finished reading, I was filled more with a morose feeling than anything else. Don't get me wrong, the emotions that Ware is able to pull from his simplistic art and bare dialogue is astonishing, I guess I just wish there was something of a "happy ending" in the book, even though there is no true ending per se. We see certain parts of the character's lives, but like any life that we witness from the outside, I still think there is so much more to the characters than what we have been shown. We are presented with snippets of their past and present, but we don't really know what their future holds, much like any person that we may know. I think I would be interested to see Ware revisit these characters in a couple of years, and show us where their lives took them.
I'm torn on whether I want to read anything else by Ware. There was such a pervading sense of melancholy throughout the entire collection, I don't know that I would trust anything else of his to not have that same feeling throughout. Yet, he presents these emotions so well that I think it would be a shame not to read something else of his again sometime. Maybe I just need to give myself some time to absorb everything from Building Stories before I move on to anything else of his, as I think this story is going to stick with me for some time.
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LibraryThing member clifforddham
Graphic novel. Really great interview on "All Things Considered" Weekends.
LibraryThing member melissarochelle
I kept seeing this book on "best books" lists, but I wasn't sure about it. When I finally read the short little blurb about it on PW Best Books list, I thought...OK, I want to read it. However, it isn't a book I would want to check out from a library (I mean, as a librarian I might even hesitate to
Fantastic book. I'm not a big fan of graphic novels...another reason for my hesitation...but this one won me over.
I love that you can pick up any of the 14 pamphlets/stories and get an idea of the characters. As you read, the story keeps building -- clever, eh ;) -- and the pieces all fall together. For this first reading, I simply picked up the stories as they were packaged in the box -- smallest to largest.
I can't wait to read it again and connect some of the pieces...Branford the Bee with Lucy reading the story...the window...the basement...the flowers...they're all connected and it's great.
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purchase it for the collection because of the many pieces within). So I put it on my Christmas list...and Santa Jesse came through :)Fantastic book. I'm not a big fan of graphic novels...another reason for my hesitation...but this one won me over.
I love that you can pick up any of the 14 pamphlets/stories and get an idea of the characters. As you read, the story keeps building -- clever, eh ;) -- and the pieces all fall together. For this first reading, I simply picked up the stories as they were packaged in the box -- smallest to largest.
I can't wait to read it again and connect some of the pieces...Branford the Bee with Lucy reading the story...the window...the basement...the flowers...they're all connected and it's great.
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LibraryThing member EricKibler
The most unusual and innovative graphic novel ever. Chris Ware is right up there with Will Eisner and Jim Steranko as one of the great auteurs of the comics medium.
It comes in a box like a board game. Inside are fourteen separate items: books, pamphlets, strips, a giant tabloid "comics section" and
The central characters are a building, a young woman who lost part of her leg in childhood, a bickering couple, a lonely old landlady, and a bee. Yes, a bee. With the exception of the bee, all of these characters remain unnamed. In the end, though, you'll find you know them better than the others in their orbit.
The amputee, though, is the real central character, and the more you read, the more the details of her life are filled in. Your experience of reading will be different from mine, since you'll be presented with every little revelation about her in a different order than I was.
This book is, as a friend stated, ergodic literature, meaning you interact with it by choosing how you read it. In many cases you even must choose how to read and process an individual page.
Explaining the book as I have still doesn't convey its emotional resonance. Ware's last long-form published book was the also brilliant "Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth", but whereas "Jimmy Corrigan" focused on the brevity and sadness of life, "Building Stories" offers a fuller picture: not just existential despair (although that is there), but happiness and human connection.
You won't find this in digital form. It's made to be perceived and read as a collection of physical objects. One of a kind!
It comes in a box like a board game. Inside are fourteen separate items: books, pamphlets, strips, a giant tabloid "comics section" and
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a fold-out "game board". They may be read in any order to create a novel.The central characters are a building, a young woman who lost part of her leg in childhood, a bickering couple, a lonely old landlady, and a bee. Yes, a bee. With the exception of the bee, all of these characters remain unnamed. In the end, though, you'll find you know them better than the others in their orbit.
The amputee, though, is the real central character, and the more you read, the more the details of her life are filled in. Your experience of reading will be different from mine, since you'll be presented with every little revelation about her in a different order than I was.
This book is, as a friend stated, ergodic literature, meaning you interact with it by choosing how you read it. In many cases you even must choose how to read and process an individual page.
Explaining the book as I have still doesn't convey its emotional resonance. Ware's last long-form published book was the also brilliant "Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth", but whereas "Jimmy Corrigan" focused on the brevity and sadness of life, "Building Stories" offers a fuller picture: not just existential despair (although that is there), but happiness and human connection.
You won't find this in digital form. It's made to be perceived and read as a collection of physical objects. One of a kind!
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LibraryThing member Raven9167
This "book" was an absolute trip and a half. That's really the most concise description I can come up with. How else do you explain something that not only moves in non-chronological order (unless perhaps you're really lucky), features entire narratives about the life of a bee alongside its main
But beyond what some might call the "gimmicky" of this work is a real, pulsing story. None of what happens here is truly outside the norm of human experience (except, perhaps, the fact that the protagonist has lost half of one of her legs) and because of that it feels all the more true. Everyone has felt lonely and isolated at times, and everyone has wondered why the life they're living is so very different from the one they dreamed up. And there really is something for everyone here - one piece spans an entire 24 hour period in the life of an apartment building's occupants, one piece focuses on the life of the apartment building's landlady, one piece addresses how the couple on the second floor met and how they fight with each other constantly.
I've loved graphic novels (or comic books) since I was a kid, but this is the first time I've seen something so rich and developed using the medium. I haven't read anything else of Chris Ware's, but after reading some more about him once I'd finished this, I understand him to be one of the giants of the graphic novel. I will definitely pick up some more of his work.
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protagonist, comes in a box resembling a board game because, you know, it has fourteen pieces rather than actual binding, and spans the emotional spectrum of joy to sadness to mere ordinariness? I can understand why this took so long for Chris Ware to create - the detail in these drawings is remarkable and the story, while quite sparse at times, conveys so much that it would take a monumental effort to finish this. What I think I found interesting was what Mr. Ware chose to omit and focus upon in the main protagonist's life - major life changing events like the death of her father and of her best friend, but also the everyday existentialist crises that we are all subjected to ("What am I DOING with my life?" seems to be a major theme). I also think this is a work I would have to revisit in order to get everything out of it - this is part and parcel of the fact that there is no real guide on what order to read each of the 14 pieces in, and thus you experience the story in a completely different way every time you pick it up.But beyond what some might call the "gimmicky" of this work is a real, pulsing story. None of what happens here is truly outside the norm of human experience (except, perhaps, the fact that the protagonist has lost half of one of her legs) and because of that it feels all the more true. Everyone has felt lonely and isolated at times, and everyone has wondered why the life they're living is so very different from the one they dreamed up. And there really is something for everyone here - one piece spans an entire 24 hour period in the life of an apartment building's occupants, one piece focuses on the life of the apartment building's landlady, one piece addresses how the couple on the second floor met and how they fight with each other constantly.
I've loved graphic novels (or comic books) since I was a kid, but this is the first time I've seen something so rich and developed using the medium. I haven't read anything else of Chris Ware's, but after reading some more about him once I'd finished this, I understand him to be one of the giants of the graphic novel. I will definitely pick up some more of his work.
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LibraryThing member salimbol
Highly unique collection of stories presented in various formats (hard back graphic novel, cards, fold-outs, board-game, etc). The stories focus mainly on one woman's life, but we also spend time with the other people who inhabited the same apartment building as her for some time. The reader isn't
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presented with any instructions about where to start; the best thing is just to dive in anywhere and piece things together in a non-linear fashion. A rich, wistful, unromanticised, warts-and-all slice of life. Just fantastic. Show Less
LibraryThing member williecostello
Chris Ware's new book –– or new "box", I should say –– is ridiculously fantastic. Fourteen individual comics intersect to form one big, nebulous graphic "novel", and it's wonderful from start to finish (wherever your start and finish may be).
For years, Ware has been pushing the limits of
With Building Stories, Ware goes beyond the graphic novel, by (literally) deconstructing the graphic novel. With no direction or order to its fourteen intersecting narratives, the reader is left to her own devices to piece together Ware's patchwork quilt. This piecing together of characters and stories from disjoint and sparse pieces of evidence has always been an element of Ware's style; but not until this work has it been such a conspicuous presence. Building Stories forces its readers to physically grapple with the act of interpretation, shaking them free from any usual sense of passivity. And that's awesome, fun, new, and wonderful.
At the same time, Building Stories is no puzzle; its pieces do not slowly fit together to reveal any big secret. Its concerns are mundane, its characters ordinary. Of course, this makes its story/stories feel all the more human and relatable. But then again, some readers will surely want more from their fiction: something extraordinary, even if a bit exaggerated. For these readers, Building Stories may bore, and even upset. (Like any Ware work, Building Stories is depressing.)
Beyond their narrative role, the fourteen pieces of Building Stories also serve as a sort of showcase of the wide range of comic expression. From fold-up minis to big newspaper inserts, from bound books to posters, Ware covers all the bases. It's just unfortunate that Ware's own visual style didn't change as much from format to format; what you often get is the same old Ware tropes, only in different sizes. Yet the experience from piece to piece is still varied enough not to bore the reader too much.
If you're already a fan of Ware's work, Building Stories is everything you could've wished for. If you're new to Ware, it is probably not the place to start; ACME Library #20, #19, and #16 would be better introductions. But Building Stories is definitely something to look forward to, something to treat yourself to after discovering the joy of Ware's genius.
For years, Ware has been pushing the limits of
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graphic expression, bringing stream of consciousness into the visual form, and to great effect. HIs talent for this way of writing/drawing has just been getting better and better in recent years. His last major published work, ACME Library #20 (Lint), very much felt like the apotheosis of his idiom, a tightly structured, sharply focused, yet imaginatively expansive work. It is, in my opinion, Ware's greatest graphic novel, and one of the best graphic novels, and I would still recommend it to anyone new to Ware.With Building Stories, Ware goes beyond the graphic novel, by (literally) deconstructing the graphic novel. With no direction or order to its fourteen intersecting narratives, the reader is left to her own devices to piece together Ware's patchwork quilt. This piecing together of characters and stories from disjoint and sparse pieces of evidence has always been an element of Ware's style; but not until this work has it been such a conspicuous presence. Building Stories forces its readers to physically grapple with the act of interpretation, shaking them free from any usual sense of passivity. And that's awesome, fun, new, and wonderful.
At the same time, Building Stories is no puzzle; its pieces do not slowly fit together to reveal any big secret. Its concerns are mundane, its characters ordinary. Of course, this makes its story/stories feel all the more human and relatable. But then again, some readers will surely want more from their fiction: something extraordinary, even if a bit exaggerated. For these readers, Building Stories may bore, and even upset. (Like any Ware work, Building Stories is depressing.)
Beyond their narrative role, the fourteen pieces of Building Stories also serve as a sort of showcase of the wide range of comic expression. From fold-up minis to big newspaper inserts, from bound books to posters, Ware covers all the bases. It's just unfortunate that Ware's own visual style didn't change as much from format to format; what you often get is the same old Ware tropes, only in different sizes. Yet the experience from piece to piece is still varied enough not to bore the reader too much.
If you're already a fan of Ware's work, Building Stories is everything you could've wished for. If you're new to Ware, it is probably not the place to start; ACME Library #20, #19, and #16 would be better introductions. But Building Stories is definitely something to look forward to, something to treat yourself to after discovering the joy of Ware's genius.
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LibraryThing member dtn620
4.5 stars. This book was great. 14 pieces, no beginning no end. Just stories and great art. The dialog has some of the most believable and authentic dialog I've read.
For whatever reason I have been unable to focus on my reading and this graphic novel took over two weeks to read. Hopefully
For whatever reason I have been unable to focus on my reading and this graphic novel took over two weeks to read. Hopefully
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finishing this will help get me back on track. Show Less
LibraryThing member fighterofevil
Inventive story telling. Very heavy material. Good read for something different.
LibraryThing member gregorybrown
WOW. I was a big fan of Ware's earlier book Jimmy Corrigan, but this latest one seems like a leap beyond. It plays a lot more notes than Corrigan's meditation on lonely behaviors, and the playfulness is put to a lot better use. The term "book" is a little loose in this case, since Stories comes as
These are weird and bad comparisons to use, but the whole thing feels like my favorite part of Infinite Jest: the middle-third where you get 20-30 page jags of some of the best writing you've ever seen, going on for hundreds of pages, seemingly (and pleasurably) without end. Of course, IJ has to come to an ending of sorts, but because Stories is in a dozen different pieces in no particular order, there's this very real feeling that it truly is endless, that you could loop back around to read them in a different order and forever stay in that zone.
The other comparison I would make is to Edward P. Jones' The Known World, which has these wild leaps in time, even in the middle of a sentence. You get the feeling that Jones has imagined his character's entire lives into the future, and that's a similar impression to what Ware brings. Pieces are set as early as the '40s and as late as the modern day, covering different spans of memory and time. One memorable piece—and probably the best to orient yourself by—covers 24 hours and is patterned after the Little Golden Books of my childhood, with the gold spine and hard cover.
Pro-tip: I read from smallest to largest, and left the giant-but-thin (as opposed to giant-but-many-pages) newspaper thing for last. It was a good accidental decision and a great closer for a line of dialogue that's borderline fourth-wall at the end. :)
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a giant box loaded with everything from small pamphlets to a giant board that folds out as if you were going to play a board game.These are weird and bad comparisons to use, but the whole thing feels like my favorite part of Infinite Jest: the middle-third where you get 20-30 page jags of some of the best writing you've ever seen, going on for hundreds of pages, seemingly (and pleasurably) without end. Of course, IJ has to come to an ending of sorts, but because Stories is in a dozen different pieces in no particular order, there's this very real feeling that it truly is endless, that you could loop back around to read them in a different order and forever stay in that zone.
The other comparison I would make is to Edward P. Jones' The Known World, which has these wild leaps in time, even in the middle of a sentence. You get the feeling that Jones has imagined his character's entire lives into the future, and that's a similar impression to what Ware brings. Pieces are set as early as the '40s and as late as the modern day, covering different spans of memory and time. One memorable piece—and probably the best to orient yourself by—covers 24 hours and is patterned after the Little Golden Books of my childhood, with the gold spine and hard cover.
Pro-tip: I read from smallest to largest, and left the giant-but-thin (as opposed to giant-but-many-pages) newspaper thing for last. It was a good accidental decision and a great closer for a line of dialogue that's borderline fourth-wall at the end. :)
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LibraryThing member dazzyj
Wonderfully drawn and poignant, albeit inconclusive and very depressing.
LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
In a large box, itself a witty graphic work of art, the reader discovers 14 discrete graphic publications ranging from books to folded “strips”. Everything, as billed, that the reader might need for building stories. This is Chris Ware at his finest, challenging the very form of the graphic
Of course this being a Chris Ware work, you also expect punning turns. And sure enough, at least some of the publications focus instead on the building in which the main character lives for a time.That building itself has an architectural and a social history and the story it could tell about life in Chicago over the course of a century would be just as fascinating, perhaps, as any story that focused on one of its inhabitants. But here too connectedness to a wider frame — the social architecture of an American century — draws our building into the lives of its inhabitants.
The tone across these works is nostalgic but melancholic. And although there are bright moments, even hopefulness, there are an equal number of dark moments and despair. What can’t be ignored, however, is the sheer audacity of producing such an artwork in an age of disposable literature and incorporeal “e”-books. Chris Ware and his publishers have re-established the necessity of physical publication and reconfirmed the notion that great literature is a treasure worthy of indefinite shelf life. But you’ll need an awfully big shelf for this box of wonders. Recommended.
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novel perhaps to breaking point. There is no set route through the items contained in the box. The reader could choose any order. But of course there is a linear progression for many of the works since they follow a woman from youth to lonely adulthood, marriage, and motherhood. Other items concentrate on Brandford, The Bee. But all of them intersect at points and nothing is entirely isolated. And that might be Chris Ware’s overall theme, since the loneliness and self-loathing that the main character experiences are self-inflicted. Connectedness comes in many forms. And even when we feel most isolated and alone, one step back reveals an intricate pattern of lines linking, waxing and waning perhaps but still connecting, each of us to a host of others. It’s almost as though we can’t help building stories.Of course this being a Chris Ware work, you also expect punning turns. And sure enough, at least some of the publications focus instead on the building in which the main character lives for a time.That building itself has an architectural and a social history and the story it could tell about life in Chicago over the course of a century would be just as fascinating, perhaps, as any story that focused on one of its inhabitants. But here too connectedness to a wider frame — the social architecture of an American century — draws our building into the lives of its inhabitants.
The tone across these works is nostalgic but melancholic. And although there are bright moments, even hopefulness, there are an equal number of dark moments and despair. What can’t be ignored, however, is the sheer audacity of producing such an artwork in an age of disposable literature and incorporeal “e”-books. Chris Ware and his publishers have re-established the necessity of physical publication and reconfirmed the notion that great literature is a treasure worthy of indefinite shelf life. But you’ll need an awfully big shelf for this box of wonders. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member funkyplaid
This is life in a box - many lives, in fact, sliding around within the container as it is carried from room to room. A different story each day, perhaps, read in a different atmosphere to force different perspectives, though none of that is really needed. Each folio inside is unique, but the tales
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intertwine as one with all of the beauty and bitterness and mixed-bag-bounty that our own soft packages can hold. Gentle, terrible, empathic, cruel, banal, ironic, and softly humorous, Chris Ware captures it all. His Building Stories are ours, each one an organ within an imperfect, turbulent, clawing, beautiful system. It's no longer a box but a lifetime - many lifetimes, and the pictorial treasures it holds make these words flaccid and unnecessary. Show Less
LibraryThing member maartekes
Great read. Really.
LibraryThing member alliewheeler
Brilliant.
LibraryThing member freelancer_frank
This is a book about the world from the 'God's Eye View' perspective. The title is a pun, meaning (among other things) 'creating stories', 'stories that build (in sequence)', 'stories that build (character)' and 'the stories as told by a building'. In tone and theme it reminds me of Kieslowski's
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'Decalogue' series, which was itself inspired by the security cameras on Communist Poland - that sense of recording everything objectively is present in Ware's work, also. The artwork is not only strong, it fits, in each case, the message and theme of each individual piece. The random arrangement of stories is more than a mere gimmick - it enhances the sense of objectivity of moral pity. One immediately empathizes with Ware's characters, even (and perhaps especially), Branford, The Best Bee In The World. The work is full of insight, beauty and fun. Show Less
LibraryThing member allriledup
I didn't know what to expect as I opened the box ... but the cumulative effect of the story I built will stay with me. The play on perspectives and glimpses of people's lives is thought provoking and the illustrations are beautiful. Sweet Bitter Sweet.
LibraryThing member cameling
A graphic novel in a totally engaging format. A box containing broadsheets, journals, pamphlets, books and a board, provides the reader with the blueprint of an apartment building and her tenants, an old lady landlord, an unhappy married couple and a single mother amputee. All the pamphlets, books
This is an incredible work and one to be treasured.
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and strips provide the life stories of these 4 individuals. There's even a little comic booklet about a bee and a diary entry of the building.This is an incredible work and one to be treasured.
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LibraryThing member markm2315
Thoroughly depressing, but quite brilliant graphic novel, produced as a collection of small books, newspapers, folded strips of paper, etc. There are no instructions on how to read all of this (I did it from small to large). A slices of life story with a triple pun on the title; the building itself
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is a character. Includes the story of Branford bee, the greatest bee in the world, and an edition of the Bee times with "God save the queen" in the header. I think the only other graphic novels I had read were Art Spiegleman's Maus I and II, but now I am intrigued... Show Less
Awards
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 2012)
Eisner Award (Nominee — 2013)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Quarterfinalist — 2013)
Harvey Award (Winner — 2013)
Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year (Winner — 2013)
Jan Michalski Prize for Literature (First Selection — 2013)
Pingprisen (2013)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction & Poetry — 2012)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction/Poetry — 2012)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2012
Physical description
500 p.; 16.6 inches
ISBN
0375424334 / 9780375424335