We’ve come to the end of another year in reading, folks, and as stewards of this venerable repository of literary criticism, it is once again our sacred duty to dust off the abacuses (abaci?) and tabulate the best reviewed books of past twelve months.
Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2019, in the categories of (deep breath): Memoir & Biography, Poetry, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Essay Collections, Graphic Literature, Short Story Collections, Literature in Translation, Mystery & Crime, General Fiction, and General Nonfiction.
Today’s installment: graphic novels and non-fiction.
1. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
5 Rave • 10 Positive
“…a riveting graphic novel-memoir … Enemy deserves to be a popular recommendation at school libraries across the land—humanizing a brutal chapter in U.S. history that even many adults seem to understand only vaguely … At 82, Takei has evolved into an increasingly powerful voice for oppressed communities, and Enemy finds him at peak moral clarity—an unflinching force in these divisive times. Young readers would do well to learn his story of a childhood set against a historically racist backdrop, told in clear and unmuddled prose. As our politicians trade semantics, They Called Us Enemy calls upon readers to see past the walls, cages and words that divide us.”
–Michael Cavna (The Washington Post)
2. Clyde Fans by Seth
7 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed
“…genius … There is a kind of magic in this one. For a long time—it runs to almost 500 pages—you think you’re reading the story of two elderly brothers. It’s a terribly sad story, but it also feels quite small and clenched and familiar. Only when you finally put it down, do you realise you were utterly wrong. Out of the particular springs the universal. What Seth has given us is nothing short of the story of mid-20th century capitalism: of all that it promised, and all that it failed to deliver … Seth draws in shades of blue and black—the colours of melancholy, and of (to me) smoky jazz—and he pays special attention to things like advertising hoardings, rotary telephones and greasy diners. The look of Clyde Fans like all his books, is nostalgic without being sentimental. But it’s his extraordinary empathy that marks this one out: the way he depicts the queasy churn of his characters’ emotional lives; their delusions and missteps and repressed rage … It opens with an interior monologue that runs to almost 100 pages, something that should be practically illegal in a comic, but which, in his hands, makes you feel as if you’re sitting in a theatre, watching some brilliant actor perform Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams. Truly, it’s a masterpiece.”
–Rachel Cooke (The Guardian)
3. Rusty Brown by Chris Ware
8 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
“…heartbreaking [work], as they say, of staggering genius: feverishly inventive and intimately told, drawn with empathy, architectural rigor and a spooky sense of a divine eye. Opening in Ware’s native Omaha circa 1975, Rusty Brown is at least four books in one, with a sum much greater than all the parts, expanding not just the possibilities of the form but also the mental space of his reader. Along with David Bowman’s Big Bang, it’s the most audacious and inspiring fiction I’ve read this year … Ware’s superpower is to view characters through time, to chart their thickening bodies as well as the children they were … Rusty Brown is also playful and funny … All of Ware’s books gesture to infinity: With their microscopic paratextual matter, it’s likely that no one aside from Ware himself has ever definitively finished one of them. Of course, Ware’s true gift is not the density of his books but in how he compels us to feel amid such bounty.”
–Ed Park (The New York Times Book Review)
=4. Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers
6 Rave • 5 Positive
“Hot Comb is Flowers’ debut book and it’s a hugely impressive one, placing Flowers’ intellectual strength upfront. On one hand, these are slice of life stories, filled with life and energy, and the product of someone who is obviously a keen observer of humanity. Flowers’ dialogue is so natural and her portrayals of conversation so realistic, and her words are in perfect partnership with her cartooning. Her figures are alive, with rich body language … But Flowers’ skill at depicting the intimate are just one aspect of how fully-realized her talent springs forth in this book. What makes it so special is the way she wraps these elements around larger themes of race without ever making you feel like you are reading A Very Important Work With A Heavy Purpose. Rather, Flowers lets the characters be themselves, lets the situations unfold, and by bringing these together, lets the big themes come out naturally and—more important—decisively. The narratives in Hot Comb make the point. The characters make the point. You learn through the experience. You learn through empathy. Hot Comb is like a masterclass in how to make comics.”
–John Seven (The Beat)
=4. Off Season by James Sturm
6 Rave • 5 Positive
“… moving, disturbing, magnificent … isn’t a book with a political axe to grind, in which ideology stands in for our personal problems; it’s a book that illustrates how politics is inextricable from our emotional lives, and functions as both an influence on and a reflection of our interior lives … drawn with all of James Sturm’s potent strengths. Its simple layout belies the great sophistication of the panel composition, and his use of shadings within the gray palate is absolutely stunning. While there isn’t the dynamic range of action that characterizes his 2001 masterpiece, The Golem Mighty Swing, he can still infuse the simplest movements with an incredible sense of motion.”
–Leonard Pierce (The Comics Journal)
6. The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis
6 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Hannah’s experience is highly specific, and because Davis’ storytelling is so natural and lived in, Hannah’s feelings of uncertainty and fear become universal to anyone who feels a surge of panic when they hear about current events … Davis’ art style is vital to this emotional rapport. When you simplify a character drawing, it becomes easier for the observer to project their own identity onto it…This simplification is an essential reason why cartooning is such an expressive art, and Davis is a master of creating distinct characters with minimalist linework that invites deeper personal connection from the reader. The acting is full of emotion, and Davis captures facial expressions, body language, and gestures with curving, wiry lines that imbue the artwork with both spontaneity and grace … Davis does not create joyless art. No matter how intense the subject matter, she finds moments of humor that make the reader want to spend time with these characters and emotionally invest in their struggles … These design decisions all play a part in the book’s emotional tapestry, but the high point of this intersection between design and narrative comes during the book’s final pages … Each small change from splash page to splash page increases the gravity of the life-affirming event, ending the story by presenting readers with a physical embodiment of hope in the palm of their hands.”
–Oliver Sava (The A.V. Club)
7. I Was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib
5 Rave • 4 Positive
“In this time when immigration is such a hot topic, Malaka Gharib puts an engaging human face on the issue … The push and pull first generation kids feel is portrayed with humor and love, especially humor … Gharib pokes fun of all of the cultures she lives in, able to see each of them with an outsider’s wry eye, while appreciating them with an insider’s close experience … The question of ‘What are you?’ has never been answered with so much charm.”
–Marissa Moss (New York Journal of Books)
8. Kid Gloves by Lucy Knisley
6 Rave • 1 Positive • 2 Mixed
“Knisley is an essayist. Like Joan Didion and Roxane Gay, Knisley often works towards a thesis and richly illustrates it with examples from her own life. And Knisley illustrates her essays in every sense. Knisley has always communicated directly with the reader through narration boxes, rarely telling the story through scenes and dialogue. The word bubbles spoken by Lucy the character serve as a second layer of commentary … The rich emotional range she displays in her comics, as well as the realistic but simple clear-line cartooning, remind me of Kate Beaton and Carol Tyler. Knisley has always had a real aptitude for drawing people. In Kid Gloves, she reaches new heights of visual metaphor … extremely personal, but Knisley has been preparing to be this vulnerable for nearly two decades … a good read, full of pieces that work on their own while telling the story of Knisley’s pregnancy. It may be prone to tangents, but it’s very likely to have a real impact on readers.”
–Josh Kramer (The Comics Journal)
9. A Fire Story by Brian Fies
5 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Shares lesser-broadcast hardships as well as how quickly wildfire victims are expected to process a frenzied cycle of emotions … But a vulnerable Fies doesn’t grieve alone—the careful accounting here culminates in what’s better described as a work of comics journalism than it is autobiography … Aesthetically reminiscent of Sarah Glidden’s nonfiction works or Josh Neufeld’s reporting on Hurricane Katrina, A Fire Story utilizes the techniques typically practiced by those working in the comics medium—sequential art, word balloons—to present a rich newsworthy story. Fies’ sparsely embellished but expressive figures don monochrome apparel and populate uncomplicated building interiors. He produces explanatory diagrams about fire science and dissects a county’s flawed emergency response program. An integration of digital photos and satellite imagery of Northern California — while discordant at first, clashing with the otherwise clean lines and minimal illustrative style—beckon us in as observers and news consumers.”
–Dominic Umile (The Los Angeles Times)
10. Making Comics by Lynda Barry
4 Rave • 3 Positive
“As the title suggests, Barry’s book is an instruction manual, but while Making Comics aims to teach you how to, well, make comics, it may surprise even the reader who has no intention of doing that (me). Barry is so thoughtful—philosophical, even—about art and its purpose that it’s hard not to be moved … I do not draw (I want to start now!) but I found in this book a lot of smart advice that’s broadly applicable … what’s most delightful about Making Comics is its emphasis on action, on exercise, on practice—on actual making … Barry works within the academy and won a MacArthur this year; she’s as establishment a figure as it’s possible to be. She’s clearly brilliant but uninterested in showing that off. Just as critics might misunderstand her style as naïve, they might misunderstand her pedagogy as self-help.”
–Rumaan Alam (The New Republic)
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Our System: RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points
