Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine
52 Books In 52 Weeks: #14 of 52
I decided to include Summer Blonde in the “catching-up” dimension of my 52 books in 52 weeks challenge after going to my favourite comic book shop and being stared at incredulously at the shrugging motion I made when the clerk asked me if I had ever read some Adrian Tomine. He immediately pulled out Summer Blonde from the stack and emphasised on how important it was for me to acquaint myself with the book.
It was incredibly easy to get into these four stories of social and emotional isolation, if only because of the normalcy and typicalness of Tomine’s characters. They’re nobody spectacular, nobody you’d really consider having any kind of story to tell, and that’s the hook there. The stories they do have aren’t necessarily stories you’d want to tell. Intimate, aching, and heart-wrenchingly real, we peek into moments where the bitterness and solitude are the only company around, where the true burden of social acceptance and personal longing weighs in.
It’s interesting when you think about it: urban areas have never been so crowded in the history human civilization as they are now. We share more space with more people than ever before. Technology has made it easier than ever to communicate with others, what with cellphones, instant messaging, email, and all variations and mashups of those mediums. Yet we are still lonely and isolated, we crave human interaction yet we are awkward and defensive when it does happen. Summer Blonde doesn’t have the pretension to answer that, but it does have the delicate insight to show us just how fragile and, well, human, we all can painstakingly be.
Book: Summer Blonde
Publisher: Drawn And Quarterly
Next: Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress
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