Book-It 'o12! Book #15
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one, two, and three just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary written by Keshni Kashyap and illustrated by Mari Araki
Details: Copyright 2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "In the tradition of Persepolis and American Born Chinese, a wry and endearing high school heroine comes of age.
Tina M., sophomore, is a wry observer of the cliques and mores of Yarborough Academy, and of the foibles of her Southern California intellectual Indian family. She’s on a first-name basis with Jean-Paul Sartre, the result of an English honors class assignment to keep an “existential diary.”
Keshni Kashyap’s compulsively readable graphic novel - with Mari Araki’s sweet, melancholy drawings - packs in existential high school drama - from Tina getting dumped by her smart-girl ally to a kiss on the mouth (Tina’s mouth, but not technically her first kiss) from a cute skateboarder, Neil Strumminger. And it memorably answers the pressing question: Can an English honors assignment be one fifteen-year-old girl’s path to enlightenment?"
Why I Wanted to Read It: The AV Club's Comic's Panel featured this book with a favorable review. Since I adored Persepolis and liked American Born Chinese, I was hoping it'd be the same with this book.
How I Liked It: The art and the story, being as how each belongs to a different creator, feel (as always) as though they deserve separate reviews.
The story's premise is woefully retread: the diary of a teenage girl consisting of the loss and gain of friends and of a gushy crush on a cool, popular boy. But certainly a stale premise can be executed with originality: we have a treasury of film (if not necessarily graphic novels) to attest to that fact. But starting from a weak point and turning out an entertaining original is the exception, not the rule. And Tina's Mouth is no exception.
While Tina's story isn't as trite as some in this genre nor is it as grasping as some fiction written by adults about teenagers (particularly in this new technological age), it still rings empty. The dialog of the teens, while not as awful as the genre can be, is still fairly stilted. That kind of goes for all the characters, including Tina's parents and teachers. At times, it even seems overly simplistic, particularly for a graphic novel (where we are more or less seeing all the action).
Discussing Tina's heritage and immersion is an interesting concept, but it's not really explored in the book (despite the way the book is marketed) and feels almost like an afterthought, despite the author clearly drawing on her own experiences. About the closest we really get to any kind of deep cultural consideration is Tina ultimately rejecting her parents' ideas of love as "practical" as their own arranged marriage (a concept she rejects and her siblings also dismiss on varying levels, respectively). She doesn't really strain and chafe against her heritage so much as it seems awkwardly inserted at times (as though an afterthought), usually as a reflection and therefore having nothing to do with the current story.
The book plays out fairly predictably and while Tina's consultations with (and consideration of) Sartre are interesting and easily the highpoint of the book, they aren't enough to support let alone overshadow the book's many weaknesses.
The art throughout is scribbled and plain enough to justify the author also being the illustrator. But the fact this book was done with a separate illustrator only makes it seem all the more lazy and unskilled. Generally, a graphic novel conveys concepts and interpretations that a strictly-print novel cannot. Perspolis is an excellent example of this, as is any of the volumes of Strangers in Paradise: the artists capture feelings and settings and let the images do the work. Even far lesser works like Page By Paige communicate beyond words, something that seems essential for the narrative structure of a teenage diary and thus a teenage mind coming of age. By contrast, the characters in Tina's Mouth often have little more than one expression apiece (particularly Tina) and the overly basic nature of the posing and lines might've been better served by suggesting that Tina herself was drawing the diary so such lack of technique could at least be partially excused. Could the art have saved this story? Perhaps. The words and the illustrations never really connect with one another (I'd say this is a product of a separate artist/separate illustrator scenario, but there's been so much proof to the contrary that that isn't a valid excuse) and even if the art had been terrific, the take away would've been "The story is lame but the artist is amazing. Let's hope she works with someone else next time."
Comparing this book to American Born Chinese is offensive. Comparing it to Persepolis is a crime. It doesn't even reach Page By Paige. It's not even that the book is bad, it's that it's so mediocre (and that the publisher made the extremely foolish mistake of evoking far greater works in the selling).
The graphic novel as a medium is still working at garnering acclaim and respect. Books like Tina's Mouth merely clog the shelves.
Notable: Authors writing fiction drawing on their own experiences but using modern youth enter extremely difficult waters. There are certain universal truths that carry from generation to generation (like gossip) and certain means of doing so that change. Also, cultural references are important. Include too many modern ones and you look as though you're trying too hard. Include too many "of your era" references and you might as well be writing a period piece.
Tina's Mouth has the odd feeling of not quite knowing what decade its in. Cellphones exist (as do camera phones), even if a friend of Tina's offers the advice that she contact her crush by a "good old-fashioned phone call," Tina is depicted listening to an iPod, and a dating website factors heavily into her brother's storyline. But Tina, for all her quests for knowledge, is never pictured perusing the web, and for all the gossip and teen drama, there isn't an online incident to be found. In other words, the "modern" references could all be swapped out for one's of the author's era (or vice versa). One sticking point that doesn't appear to have made it past whoever cut and pasted the modern tech into the story is the fact that a friend of Tina's parents has apparently become extremely wealthy through "a chip" (which Tina explains she mistook for the potato snack when it truth was actually a computer chip) which "changed everything" she says "eight years ago." A middle-aged tech millionaire overnight (and a teenager who doesn't know what a computer chip is) doesn't seem terribly plausible in the twenty-first century (particularly after the first decade) particularly when his success is attributed to "a computer chip."
A (presumed?) error early on had me actually thinking the book might be set in a different time period. Tina recounts the story of being alone with her crush in the photo studio (presumably in class) and discovering he (like she) had taken a picture of his grandmother. So we can assume they photographed (and let's say because it was for a class, maybe they were purposely not working in the digital medium) their grandmothers themselves rather than just developing photographs others took at an earlier (even years before) time. But a close-up on the wall above Tina's bed where she keeps "interesting artifacts" including a bug and a picture of Sartre, reveals the photograph with the writing "Nani 1908-1990."
So maybe her grandmother died before she was born (or when she was very, very young and this book is approximately the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century rather than the publication year) and thus she developed a photograph taken by someone else? It seems much more likely that the date was an uncaught mistake. Granted, as I've admitted many times before, I'm a stickler for these little details, but when it occurs early on in the book when setting is still being established, you're left wondering.
Title: Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary written by Keshni Kashyap and illustrated by Mari Araki
Details: Copyright 2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "In the tradition of Persepolis and American Born Chinese, a wry and endearing high school heroine comes of age.
Tina M., sophomore, is a wry observer of the cliques and mores of Yarborough Academy, and of the foibles of her Southern California intellectual Indian family. She’s on a first-name basis with Jean-Paul Sartre, the result of an English honors class assignment to keep an “existential diary.”
Keshni Kashyap’s compulsively readable graphic novel - with Mari Araki’s sweet, melancholy drawings - packs in existential high school drama - from Tina getting dumped by her smart-girl ally to a kiss on the mouth (Tina’s mouth, but not technically her first kiss) from a cute skateboarder, Neil Strumminger. And it memorably answers the pressing question: Can an English honors assignment be one fifteen-year-old girl’s path to enlightenment?"
Why I Wanted to Read It: The AV Club's Comic's Panel featured this book with a favorable review. Since I adored Persepolis and liked American Born Chinese, I was hoping it'd be the same with this book.
How I Liked It: The art and the story, being as how each belongs to a different creator, feel (as always) as though they deserve separate reviews.
The story's premise is woefully retread: the diary of a teenage girl consisting of the loss and gain of friends and of a gushy crush on a cool, popular boy. But certainly a stale premise can be executed with originality: we have a treasury of film (if not necessarily graphic novels) to attest to that fact. But starting from a weak point and turning out an entertaining original is the exception, not the rule. And Tina's Mouth is no exception.
While Tina's story isn't as trite as some in this genre nor is it as grasping as some fiction written by adults about teenagers (particularly in this new technological age), it still rings empty. The dialog of the teens, while not as awful as the genre can be, is still fairly stilted. That kind of goes for all the characters, including Tina's parents and teachers. At times, it even seems overly simplistic, particularly for a graphic novel (where we are more or less seeing all the action).
Discussing Tina's heritage and immersion is an interesting concept, but it's not really explored in the book (despite the way the book is marketed) and feels almost like an afterthought, despite the author clearly drawing on her own experiences. About the closest we really get to any kind of deep cultural consideration is Tina ultimately rejecting her parents' ideas of love as "practical" as their own arranged marriage (a concept she rejects and her siblings also dismiss on varying levels, respectively). She doesn't really strain and chafe against her heritage so much as it seems awkwardly inserted at times (as though an afterthought), usually as a reflection and therefore having nothing to do with the current story.
The book plays out fairly predictably and while Tina's consultations with (and consideration of) Sartre are interesting and easily the highpoint of the book, they aren't enough to support let alone overshadow the book's many weaknesses.
The art throughout is scribbled and plain enough to justify the author also being the illustrator. But the fact this book was done with a separate illustrator only makes it seem all the more lazy and unskilled. Generally, a graphic novel conveys concepts and interpretations that a strictly-print novel cannot. Perspolis is an excellent example of this, as is any of the volumes of Strangers in Paradise: the artists capture feelings and settings and let the images do the work. Even far lesser works like Page By Paige communicate beyond words, something that seems essential for the narrative structure of a teenage diary and thus a teenage mind coming of age. By contrast, the characters in Tina's Mouth often have little more than one expression apiece (particularly Tina) and the overly basic nature of the posing and lines might've been better served by suggesting that Tina herself was drawing the diary so such lack of technique could at least be partially excused. Could the art have saved this story? Perhaps. The words and the illustrations never really connect with one another (I'd say this is a product of a separate artist/separate illustrator scenario, but there's been so much proof to the contrary that that isn't a valid excuse) and even if the art had been terrific, the take away would've been "The story is lame but the artist is amazing. Let's hope she works with someone else next time."
Comparing this book to American Born Chinese is offensive. Comparing it to Persepolis is a crime. It doesn't even reach Page By Paige. It's not even that the book is bad, it's that it's so mediocre (and that the publisher made the extremely foolish mistake of evoking far greater works in the selling).
The graphic novel as a medium is still working at garnering acclaim and respect. Books like Tina's Mouth merely clog the shelves.
Notable: Authors writing fiction drawing on their own experiences but using modern youth enter extremely difficult waters. There are certain universal truths that carry from generation to generation (like gossip) and certain means of doing so that change. Also, cultural references are important. Include too many modern ones and you look as though you're trying too hard. Include too many "of your era" references and you might as well be writing a period piece.
Tina's Mouth has the odd feeling of not quite knowing what decade its in. Cellphones exist (as do camera phones), even if a friend of Tina's offers the advice that she contact her crush by a "good old-fashioned phone call," Tina is depicted listening to an iPod, and a dating website factors heavily into her brother's storyline. But Tina, for all her quests for knowledge, is never pictured perusing the web, and for all the gossip and teen drama, there isn't an online incident to be found. In other words, the "modern" references could all be swapped out for one's of the author's era (or vice versa). One sticking point that doesn't appear to have made it past whoever cut and pasted the modern tech into the story is the fact that a friend of Tina's parents has apparently become extremely wealthy through "a chip" (which Tina explains she mistook for the potato snack when it truth was actually a computer chip) which "changed everything" she says "eight years ago." A middle-aged tech millionaire overnight (and a teenager who doesn't know what a computer chip is) doesn't seem terribly plausible in the twenty-first century (particularly after the first decade) particularly when his success is attributed to "a computer chip."
A (presumed?) error early on had me actually thinking the book might be set in a different time period. Tina recounts the story of being alone with her crush in the photo studio (presumably in class) and discovering he (like she) had taken a picture of his grandmother. So we can assume they photographed (and let's say because it was for a class, maybe they were purposely not working in the digital medium) their grandmothers themselves rather than just developing photographs others took at an earlier (even years before) time. But a close-up on the wall above Tina's bed where she keeps "interesting artifacts" including a bug and a picture of Sartre, reveals the photograph with the writing "Nani 1908-1990."
So maybe her grandmother died before she was born (or when she was very, very young and this book is approximately the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century rather than the publication year) and thus she developed a photograph taken by someone else? It seems much more likely that the date was an uncaught mistake. Granted, as I've admitted many times before, I'm a stickler for these little details, but when it occurs early on in the book when setting is still being established, you're left wondering.