The Merchant of Venice (graphic novel)

By Gareth Hinds, based on the play by William Shakespeare, 2008.

As someone who took several Shakespeare courses in my undergrad and has volunteered for a few years at Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach theater, I approached this version of Merchant of Venice with an edge of skepticism. How could a graphic novel, while a worthy medium for many stories, capture the complexity of theme and language of the original? How could it not pale in comparison? I also questioned why it was created (likely, I thought, to tempt teens to like Shakespeare by transparently pandering to a format perceived as irresistible to them).

The side of me that loves how adaptable Shakespeare plays are won out over my skeptical side very quickly and I found myself thoroughly engrossed after just a few pages. This version of Merchant combines the advantages of reading the play with those of seeing it performed: you can go at your own pace in reading both the words and expressions. Plays are also meant to be watched and enjoyed, not reluctantly read for homework; the graphic novel format of Merchant helps resolve this contradiction that comes with studying performance on paper.

The Merchant of Venice as a graphic novel has some wonderful features lacking in a straight reading of the original text. Hinds’ Merchant is likely a much better option for most in getting a good overall feel of the story simply because readers do not have to struggle to understand the physical orientation of the characters and plot, freeing them up to think about how and why the story unfolds as it does. The characters’ motivations in this “problem play” were more apparent and seemed more contemporary because of the modern Venetian setting and simplified dialogue. Hinds preserves key speeches and the original essence of the story, presenting an elegant and well-told Merchant of Venice complete with a thoughtful Author’s Note at the end.

The author has also adapted King Lear, Beowulf, and The Odyssey to the graphic novel format.

Gareth Hinds author site

Dear Zachary: a letter to his son about his father

Created by Kurt Kuenne, 2008.

I watch a lot of documentaries. Not all of them are well made but I normally learn something anyway. Dear Zachary never feels like one of those “well, it was at least educational” films and even managed to stop my incessant channel surfing one night –it is an amazing portrayal of a very compelling story and possibly the best documentary I’ve seen. The film follows from Andrew Bagby’s murder by his girlfriend, to her pregnancy and the birth of baby Zachary, through the maddening process of two countries’ justice systems, and then to grandparents who move themselves to Newfoundland to be near their grandchild and their son’s murderer.  Along with sorrow and outrage for the people whose lives were devastated by Shirley Turner and inadequate justice procedure,  I was left with a profound feeling of respect for the Bagbys and their dedication to their grandson and their son’s memory.
I won’t be forgetting this one.

Official site for Dear Zachary (includes information about their fight for bail reform)

Sprout

*or, My salad days when I was green in judgment.

By Dale Peck, 2009.

Sprout Bradford has secrets, and not that he’s gay either. (Isn’t it nice when that’s not the big secret that drives the entire narrative?) He’ll admit that his mom is dead, that his dad’s an alcoholic, and that his alcoholic writing coach/teacher is dating his alcoholic dad. Formerly of Long Island, NY, Sprout lives with his father in Hutchinson, Kansas (population, 65) in a trailer surrounded by upturned stumps and vines of varying degrees of poisonousness and has had green hair for over half of his life. His Dad lets him use the car on Saturdays. He also carries a dictionary nearly everywhere and is constantly using words usually left out of regular conversation. And then there are those janitor’s closet moments…

Hilariously quirky and still complex, Sprout contains a delicious mix of sweetness and sorrow from first loves and carving a life out of what you’ve been dealt. I like how Peck deals with serious issues in a way that keeps characters from being passive victims. There are also healthy doses of humour and literary references as Sprout is preparing for the state essay competition, though I was never bothered much by not fully understanding everything Sprout says as nobody else really does either.

Official Dale Peck site

Generation A

By Douglas Coupland, 2009.

“Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favours when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago.”

Kurt Vonnegut, Syracuse University commencement address, May8, 1994

Zack, Julien, Samantha, Harj, and Diana are five people from different parts of the world who are stung by bees. This is a big deal because bees are believed to be extinct and the authorities are all over it, but also because video footage related to the stings goes viral on youtube, making them “The Wonka Children”.

Generation A is a very contemporary novel that explores the cultures of reading and storytelling that are supposed to be at odds with the digital lives portrayed. It is lovely to read a novel that engages in a real way with technology and how it changes us instead of portraying it as the end of culture or showing a dystopian future, never mind a novel that manages to be smart, intellectual, funny, serious, and trivial all at once … a mash-up in print!

I love that Douglas Coupland writes about generations after him in a way that is fair and truly engaged (he was born in 1961). He is also an artist, screenwriter, playwright, actor, and New York Times blogger who lives in West Vancouver.

Official Site of Douglas Coupland

Skim

Written by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, 2008.

 Skim and her friend Lisa are working on becoming witches when a classmate’s boyfriend dumps her and then commits suicide.  The GCL (Girls Celebrate Life!) Club is formed in response and begins a vapidly tyrannical reign over how the school should feel and behave in the wake of the event, paying particular attention to Skim who is falling into a deepening depression.  (In a class “self-love” exercise, one girl writes that unhappiness makes her sad, while Skim writes that ignorance makes her sad.  Agreed!)  As if navigating the demented dynamics of her school’s grief isn’t enough, Skim ends up falling in love and having to figure out how she feels about this constrained first of hers that she can’t talk about and that doesn’t seem to fit into the world around her. 

I forgot how lyrical this graphic novel is, especially when you take the time to look at the pictures properly along with the text.

Skim has won several awards and was short listed for a Governor General’s Literary Award in the Fall of 2008.  This first time nomination of a graphic novel for the prestigious award only included Mariko Tamaki and not her cousin and the illustrator, Jillian, creating contorversy over the recognition of illustration and text sharing equal importance in graphic novels.

Explore

By Christy Goerzen, 2009.

To avoid going to juvenile detention for his part in a break in, Mike Longridge has to spend 10 months outside with a group of Granolas in Gore-Tex and polar fleece as part of the Explore program. (Granolas are a type of person who are outdoorsy and generally wholesome, and tend to eat organic foods including granola. Many examples are found in BC.) New in town, Mike doesn’t seem to belong in Explore and struggles to fit the different expectations of everyone around him. Having a crush on a Granola named Lisa at least makes Explore worth going to, though his dad falls back into old habits and it looks like Mike may fit there more than he thought in the face of being moved yet again.

Explore is a short and worthwhile read with a fast-moving plot. I really liked that it was set in the Okanagan, mentions MEC, and feels like something that could actually happen in the schools that I went to (especially Outdoor School). The descriptions of the other kids in Explore are pretty funny and it also feels really contemporary.  Mike is capable of more than he thinks, despite what he and others tend to think about his unsettled home situation and the label of “damaged goods”.

This book is part of the Orca Currents series, which is aimed at kids aged 10-14 with lower reading levels. They are designed to be contemporary and rewarding for those who find reading to be challenging.

Also noteworthy is that this is a coworker’s first book.

Tales from Outer Suburbia

By Shaun Tan, 2008.

This is a book whose shadow lingers after you close it and you are glad that it does.

Tales from Outer Suburbia is a creative and genre-defying work made up of a series of 15 stories told in an array of pictures, words, and pastiches that run on the theme of suburbia. Tan’s particular suburbia is one from Australia but the book manages to have a quality of anywhere and nowhere to it while still coming across as intimate. One segment, “Alert But Not Alarmed”, explores a reality in which every yard has an intercontinental ballistic missile in it to protect neighbourhoods from harm, but overtime the missiles become banal objects serving as decorating projects instead of objects of fear. Even in his use of humour, Tan is very perceptive and contemplative.

I was personally tempted to rush through the stories in my utter rapture with this work, but ended up limiting myself to reading one or two segments at a time to fully savour the brilliant storytelling and incredibly detailed illustrations that often contain more of the narrative than the words do.

This book is classified and marketed as a YA (young adult) title, but it has definite appeal to an older audience (my father was intrigued) as well who will be able to understand more of the nuances than younger children. It also offers an opportunity to slow down your reading and pay attention to the pictures and reminds us that pictures are certainly not always indicative of simplistic content. Check out Tan’s The Arrival if you like the illustration style.

The Little Stranger

By Sarah Waters, 2009.

In post-war Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined with the Ayres family who reside on a one of a dwindling number of old estates in the area. The family seems to be dying out along with the previous way of life represented by Hundreds, the house, and there seems to be a sort of unsettled spirit at work aiding this decline.

I am a huge Sarah Waters fan and this novel did not disappoint. Her books are always stunning both in historical detail and style, plus TV adaptations of her work are excellent. The Little Stranger is another historical fiction novel which, though a bit like The Night Watch because of the time period and with an unsettling atmosphere rather like Affinity, is thrilling new territory.  Watching the increasingly unsettling events at Hundreds through the eyes of the slightly unreliable Dr. Faraday, Waters creates an atmosphere of intense uncertainty.  I was left wondering how much power our own psychological undercurrents really do have, paranormal or not in nature.

The Last Family in England

By Matt Haig; Vintage, 2004.

Looking at this novel and the synopsis, I likely would never have read it. Sappy animal stories are a no go for this dog person. Fortunately, it came to me via a friend whose taste I trust and she wisely didn’t describe this just as a story told from the point of view of a Labrador retriever. It is indeed told from the point of view of Prince but not in an off-putting or overly sentimental way, and has moments of great humour along with more serious content. Prince lives by the Labrador Pact (which the Springer Spaniels have revolted against) and tries to hold his family together when they seem determined to destroy themselves while also dealing with a murder at the park. For anyone who suspects their dog knows a lot more than she or he lets on, give The Last Family in England a look.

Wide Awake

by David Levithan, 2006.

The first gay Jewish man has been elected to be president of the United States but a voting scandal reminiscent of our own recent political history threatens the outcome. For Duncan, this disappointment is connected to a questioning of his relationship with his boyfriend Jimmy. After months of work on the almost-president’s campaign, Dunacan and his friends must decide: “What are you willing to do for something you believe in?”

An entertaining and inspiring novel about activism and the duty of each person to take action for their beliefs, Wide Awake takes place in a future where the political arguments are all too familiar yet retain a fantastic quality of things we sometimes dare not hope for.

Particularly given how Canadian politics seem to lack passion, Wide Awake is certainly invigorating. It is also the rare kind of book where you’re better off assuming the characters to be gay and of mixed race than straight and white, though it is certainly not only of interest to a GLBTQ readership. David Levithan has a very appealing writing style that is accessible and contemporary, as well as incredibly funny at times. If you like Wide Awake, try reading Boy Meets Boy as well.

 

David Levithan’s Official Site