Mail Order Bride, by Mark Kalesniko

Mail Order Bride, by Mark Kalesniko
Copyright 2003
Fantagraphics Books
Graphic Novel
261 pages
Author's Website
Challenges: Dewey's Graphic Novel Challenge

What led you to pick up this book? I love me a graphic novel and all. I picked this one up for a graduate class originally (back in 2006 or so), and I ended up not taking the class. However, I guest lectured in the same professor's undergrad version of the course, and he invited me to take part in a conference call with Kalesniko. It was great fun, and I really enjoyed chatting with the author.

Summarize the plot but don't give away the ending. From the publisher: Monty Wheeler, a pathetic, emasculated, 39-year-old virgin struggling with his own societal demons, expects Kyung Seo (his Korean mail order bride) to fulfill his female Asian fantasy stereotype: domestic, obedient, hardworking and loyal. But Kyung, tall and accent-less, is much more human than Monty is ready to accept. Kyung soon finds, in addition to predictable dissatisfaction with her husband's inane expectations, outspoken inspiration in Eve Wong, a western-born Asian woman. Could Eve be Kyung's ticket to rebellious self-fulfillment, or do her actions not always ring true? Through explorations of art, passion, identity and rebellion, the reader must ponder strength and cowardice while Kyung herself fights a potent war between independence and safety.

What did you like most about the book? This is one of those cases where I really liked everything about the book. The illustrations are stunning, the story is both provocative and quite funny, and it made me think! What more could a girl ask for?

What did you think of the characters? I found Monty exceedingly annoying. I wanted to shake him (and the majority of his friends) and tell them to snap out of their stereotypical assumptions. If you've read American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang, this book has much the same type of message. It confronts ethnic stereotypes in a very clever way.

Share a favorite scene from the book: Near the end of the book there's a big showdown between Monty and Kyung wherein they basically both come to realize that their assumptions about each other are not as black and white as they originally assumed. They realize they're both at fault for the disintegration of their relationship. It's a very powerful scene--both in image and written text.

Recommended for those who like graphic novels and a good story in general. If this were made into a written novel, I think it would be just as powerful and entertaining a story.

In general, I'd call the writing, illustrations, and story beautiful! And a really quick read. I polished it off in an hour or two.

Note: This is my fourth graphic novel for the challenge.

Fables: Wolves (vol. 8)

There's nothing quite like knocking off a whole book in an evening when still recovering from a reading slump. I just can't deal with big novels exclusively right now, so finishing up (my) available Fables graphic novels has been just the ticket. I still have a B&N gift card burning a hole in my pocket, so I suspect I might have to order Sons of Empire (vol. 9) before the day is up.

In Wolves, Mowgli of Jungle Book fame goes looking for the exiled Bigby Wolf. Upon finding him, Bigby must complete a covert mission for the Fabletown higher-ups before returning to his beloved Snow White and their cubs.

This is a long-awaited issue, as those who are currently into the series up to the Storybook Love volume will already know. I'll be cryptic and closed-mouthed, but this volume certainly lived up to expectations with lots of "ooh ahh" moments and just the right amount of mush.

I've already wooed over this series this week, so I'll save you from my usual gushing, but I really do recommend any and all comics fans, fairy tale fans, or adventurous readers unused to either genre to give this series a go. It's so very smart and funny and clever and wondermous.

Ok, so I gushed a little. It really couldn't be helped.

Fables, vol. 7 - Arabian Nights (and Days)

I just finished the seventh volume of Bill Willingham's Fables series, Arabian Nights (and Days). For the uninitiated, the Fables series chronicles the plight of a group of fairy tale, fable, folklore, and nursery rhyme characters from many a varied cultural tradition (although the European tales take center stage). In this installment several Arabian characters--Sinbad, first and foremost--visit the Fabletown complex in New York City to discuss an alliance against the Adversary that's slowly taking over Fable homelands. Alliance building is a tricky business, and as the blurb on the back cover asserts, the Arabian Fables are concealing Weapons of Magical Destruction!

As silly as it might sound in blurb form, this series is one of my favorites for several reasons, two of which are:

-Its ability to wonderfully and cleverly reimagine classic folk and fairy tale characters in extremely unique ways. Willingham pays homage to classic tales from the Grimms, Charles Perrault, et al, and simultaneously reinvents them for a contemporary audience. For more on this, read my Master's thesis, "More Than 'Interesting Dead Things': The Reanimation of the Oral Tradition Through Narrative Subversion and Visual Narrative Performance." It's all about this concurrent truth to tradition and reinvention.

-The whole series is a witty and biting critique of current race relations and political endeavors. Willingham makes reference to Jewish diaspora, contemporary race relations in America, and now, obviously, America's relationship with middle eastern nations and weapons of mass destruction.

It's just all so extremely well done--veiled inside a web of intertextuality and fun. Breathtaking. Just freakin' awesome.

If you haven't yet started reading the Fables series...get on it. You're missing out otherwise.

The Jew of New York, by Ben Katchor

A review in two parts....

Tuesday I left my copy of Great Expectations in my office, and I had absolutely no intention of going to work on Wednesday when a) I didn't have to b) it's a 40-minute drive there and back and gas prices are stupidly high. So, I just had to make arrangements for a short, temporary book to read in the between time.

I picked up Ben Katchor's much-praised graphic novel, The Jew of New York, which I chose for this challenge after hearing about it in a multi-ethnic literature survey course I guest-lectured in a year or two ago. It's a short book, only 94 pages, and given my usual speed at reading graphic novels, I expected to finish it over the course of Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Not so much.

This graphic novel drags like no other I've ever read. Seriously, I'm amazed at how much I dislike it. Especially since Katchor, a cartoonist for the New York Times, The New Yorker, Metropolis Magazine, etc. is highly praised in every comics forum I've ever run across. The Comics Journal, various reputable 'zines, my grad school professor who works in Jewish lit and multi-ethnic studies ALL praise him like he's the high priest of innovative comics. He's a talented guy...apparently.

I am, in fact, woman enough to admit that maybe...likely...I just don't get it. Stacked on top of that, is my admission that I generally don't really care for absurdist literary works, and Katchor's work is highly absurd. Some of the characters include a disgraced kosher slaughterer, an importer of religious articles, a man with plans to carbonate Lake Erie, and an anonymous man in a rubber suit. At first glance, this sounds like something I would enjoy. I enjoy weird characters, but not when they just wander around, wear bed sheets, sleep on lawns and skin beavers (hmmm, maybe I should spend more time examining the sexual implications).

The Jew of New York is essentially a series of character sketches, disjointed threads, that supposedly all come together in the end. How do I know? I consulted Google. I was so thrown by how much I dislike this book and don't get its "greatness" that I went a'Googling for nuggets to keep me going.

Until further notice, I'm going to assume that this book will come together in some thoughtful, meaningful, genius way that makes me admire it. But for now, I'm just sort of dazed.

Stay tuned...

Addendum:

I finished it. I sort of get what Katchor was going for. It's all very weird and ironic and tongue-in-cheek, and it was just painful to read. Additionally, I didn't find it a terribly well constructed example of graphic narrative. The text practically overtakes the images, the images generally don't help propel the narrative, and it was tiresome and frustrating for those very reasons.

Rating: 4/10 - Ugg.