Christmas Surprise

[chi_editrix]

First Daughter continued her tradition of buying everything on my Amazon wishlist.  This really rocks, I gotta say.  Now the way books normally get on the list is either a review in one of the periodicals I read, or a recommendation from a friend.  I found a book reviewed in the NY Times a few weeks ago that I decided I Must Have.  I didn't even read the review carefully because I didn't want to spoil the book.  Consequently, I failed to notice that it was a graphic novel!!  ZOMG.  I confess to dipping into Lynda Barry occasionally but this was my first real grownup graphic novel. And to my surprise . . . I liked it!  I read it last night all in one gulp.  As I told FD later, it's like a cross between a book and a movie.  You don''t have to describe people and settings, you just draw them.  Which is kind of cool.  I don't know if I would call myself a convert (though I've always intended to read Maus) but at the very least I am no longer an old "get those comics off my bookshelf" curmudgeon

In case you care, it was Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds.  It didn't hurt that it's based on one of my all-time favorite novels whose acquaintance I first made on film.