Book-It 'o11! Book #7
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one and two, just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: You'll Never Know Book Two: Collateral Damage by C. Tyler
Details: Copyright 2010, Fantagraphics Books
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Product Description): "C. Tyler delves deeper into her family history in this emotional sequel to the Eisner-nominated You'll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man. The first volume of You’ll Never Know showed Carol’s initial, sometimes difficult attempts at grappling with her father Chuck’s traumatic World War II experiences by bringing them to light. As Book 2 begins, she is startled to discover that Chuck’s decision to suddenly, after 60 years, open up to her on the subject has motivations that go far beyond his desire to reveal his past - putting even more pressure on an already explosive relationship. In any event, Carol finally begins to delve into, and re-tell, Chuck’s horrific wartime experiences in Italy (which are worse than even she had imagined).
But back in the present, the cycle of family dysfunction continues as Carol’s own daughter runs into her own trouble, leading Carol into further exploration of her family’s buried traumas and sorrows - with an expanded reprinting of the out-of-print “The Hannah Story,” Tyler’s superb chronicle of the short life and accidental death of her older sister, a heart-rending story (named one of the “100 Best Comics of the 20th Century” in a Comics Journal survey) that in turn sheds light on her parents’ subsequent lives and patterns of behavior. Everything is connected, and the past is never just the past... 104 pages of full-color comics."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having read Book One, I was very eager to read the next installment.
How I Liked It: Disappointingly, this isn't the other half of the story, it's just another chapter. However, it's telling of Tyler's talent for plot-shaping that it's disappointing that one has to seek out the rest of the story to be satisfied: it's a compelling narrative that grows even more threads in this second volume.
Tyler offers stories from her father's past, but also a strong insight into her mother with the haunting "The Hannah Story". In the present, Tyler's daughter has matured from the placid teen of the first book into an at-risk and possibly psychotic adolescent. Her story arc is one that particularly leaves the reader craving the next installment; while the reveals of Tyler's parents are fascinating, we do not know the end result of her daughter's story.
Tyler's style, which ran distractingly inconsistent between "cartoony comic" and "serious portrait" in the first book, is much more smoothly blended in this second one. She integrates the two styles into one in a distinct and at times beautiful fashion. Like Terry Moore, Tyler in this second volume has become adept at knowing what style to employ at what plot point.
An excellent and compelling chapter that leaves the reader itching for the third (and reputedly final)installment.
Notable: Interestingly, although "The Hannah Story" was previously published in 1994, making it fifteen years older than Book One, Tyler's artwork flowed far more consistently between the various styles she employed with the narrative. Not having read any of her other work, I'm making an assumption on what I have read that perhaps the full-scale quality of the memoir was enough to throw her off her game and thus the dodgy consistency of art in the first book which she fortunately had smoothed back out by the second. Hopefully, this will carry on into the third.
Title: You'll Never Know Book Two: Collateral Damage by C. Tyler
Details: Copyright 2010, Fantagraphics Books
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Product Description): "C. Tyler delves deeper into her family history in this emotional sequel to the Eisner-nominated You'll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man. The first volume of You’ll Never Know showed Carol’s initial, sometimes difficult attempts at grappling with her father Chuck’s traumatic World War II experiences by bringing them to light. As Book 2 begins, she is startled to discover that Chuck’s decision to suddenly, after 60 years, open up to her on the subject has motivations that go far beyond his desire to reveal his past - putting even more pressure on an already explosive relationship. In any event, Carol finally begins to delve into, and re-tell, Chuck’s horrific wartime experiences in Italy (which are worse than even she had imagined).
But back in the present, the cycle of family dysfunction continues as Carol’s own daughter runs into her own trouble, leading Carol into further exploration of her family’s buried traumas and sorrows - with an expanded reprinting of the out-of-print “The Hannah Story,” Tyler’s superb chronicle of the short life and accidental death of her older sister, a heart-rending story (named one of the “100 Best Comics of the 20th Century” in a Comics Journal survey) that in turn sheds light on her parents’ subsequent lives and patterns of behavior. Everything is connected, and the past is never just the past... 104 pages of full-color comics."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having read Book One, I was very eager to read the next installment.
How I Liked It: Disappointingly, this isn't the other half of the story, it's just another chapter. However, it's telling of Tyler's talent for plot-shaping that it's disappointing that one has to seek out the rest of the story to be satisfied: it's a compelling narrative that grows even more threads in this second volume.
Tyler offers stories from her father's past, but also a strong insight into her mother with the haunting "The Hannah Story". In the present, Tyler's daughter has matured from the placid teen of the first book into an at-risk and possibly psychotic adolescent. Her story arc is one that particularly leaves the reader craving the next installment; while the reveals of Tyler's parents are fascinating, we do not know the end result of her daughter's story.
Tyler's style, which ran distractingly inconsistent between "cartoony comic" and "serious portrait" in the first book, is much more smoothly blended in this second one. She integrates the two styles into one in a distinct and at times beautiful fashion. Like Terry Moore, Tyler in this second volume has become adept at knowing what style to employ at what plot point.
An excellent and compelling chapter that leaves the reader itching for the third (and reputedly final)installment.
Notable: Interestingly, although "The Hannah Story" was previously published in 1994, making it fifteen years older than Book One, Tyler's artwork flowed far more consistently between the various styles she employed with the narrative. Not having read any of her other work, I'm making an assumption on what I have read that perhaps the full-scale quality of the memoir was enough to throw her off her game and thus the dodgy consistency of art in the first book which she fortunately had smoothed back out by the second. Hopefully, this will carry on into the third.