Summer Blonde - Softcover

Tomine, Adrian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1896597572 ISBN 13: 9781896597577

Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly, 2003

Synopsis

With a deft and romantic touch, Tomine portrays the emotional ambivalence of drifting, urban twenty-somethings in stunning black and white. His stories are appealingly naturalistic, stylishly cinematic, and emotionally rich. His fans accuse him of eavesdropping on their most intimate moments, exhibiting their insecurities with both forensic detachment and surprising compassion.

About this title

Review

Adrian Tomine, creator of the critically acclaimed comic series Optic Nerve, has been called the comics voice of the twentysomething generation, but it's a title he rejects, and for good reason. The tales of disconnection and alienation collected in Summer Blonde--a selection of the best of Optic Nerve--aren't expressions of youthful angst so much as they are meditations on the discontent we all feel with contemporary life.

The four stories here have echoes of Raymond Carver in their minimalist style and focus on dysfunctional relationships, but Tomine's real strength lies in his identification of the "undercover craziness" in us all--the damaged selves that we hide beneath facades of normalcy. In "Hawaiian Getaway," for instance, a woman's inability to navigate office politics or family expectations leads to a breakdown, and she begins calling the pay phone outside her apartment and talking to the strangers who answer. Other stories are sharp indictments of the madness of modern society. In "Bomb Scare" the brutality and disregard high-school students direct at each other reflect the casual violence of the first Gulf War playing out on their televisions. In the title story, a stalker's interference in the life of a woman exposes the empty voids that lie under our social rituals and leads to an eruption of violence.

Some readers may wonder how to interpret the ambiguous endings of the stories in Summer Blonde, but this ambiguity is the whole point of Tomine's work. The world he creates is just as confusing and uncertain as our own lives. While his characters are often unlikable, simultaneously creepy and pathetic, they remain understandable because Tomine always ensures that we see ourselves in them. --Peter Darbyshire, Amazon.ca

Review

"Tomine, who has become a cult figure, has brought an aura of cool realism to the world of comics with its blend of the best of independent comics and contemporary fiction." --Los Angeles New Times

"Emotionally adroit...Summer Blonde is compulsive melancholy" --Village Voice Literary Supplement

"...has the kind of detail and romantic yearning which has made Tomine a cult figure to the still young and the kind of artistry which has made him a classic storyteller to anyone of any age." --San Francisco Chronicle

Edition details

• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1896597572
• ISBN 13: 9781896597577
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 132