Blankets

Well...I just finished another, highly enjoyable, OGN (Original Graphic Novel)...this one is called Blankets by Craig Thompson.  I thought it was  great.   A really touching  coming of age story, first love story all rolled into one. The best thing about this OGN has got to be the artwork.  Easily the best drawings, I have been exposed to since I inadvertently started this graphic novel odyssey.  (Maybe I should change my seminar topic) All the drawings are black and white, but they are absolutely brimming with life, vibrant and complex.  It takes place in the Mid  West,  and I think mostly for metaphoric purposes, the vast majority of the book, though it takes place over the course of a decade or so, is mired in winter. Snow, snow, snow everywhere in this book.  Interesting reading for me this week, with this blizzard of our own to contend with.  Reading through Blankets, while looking out my window onto a frozen, whited-out Cayuga Lake, I couldn't help thinking that the whole world was somehow engulfed in snow.  This book, though is never really cold at all, these Wisconsinites really know how to make the most of the snow.  The drawings of the bare trees, coiling and spiring (is that a word?) into the air, are surreal at times.  Lots of fun to read, watch. 

Also, I tagged it as "religion" too, because part of Craig's coming-of-age involves coming to terms with his strictly, Christian family and community, he eventually renounces his upbringing, for something with a little more latitude, but it is not an angry, or overly resolute renunciation. He labors with it, and thinks hard about his decisions and their implications.  He refers to Blankets on the cover as "an illustrated novel", but it strikes me as highly autobiographical.  He doesn't even bother to change his name, and the narration is consistently limited to his first person perspective.   There is also  a bit of  sexual abuse, that is somewhat glossed over, but obviously present.  I would say this book, would work great along side many different types of literature.  The universal issues of love, family, religion, suffering/loss/abuse and life's fleeting, permanence all intertwine in this funh novel.  Check it out...