Many thanks to my friend Ana for recommending this to me and alerting me that it was available in English!
This book absolutely blew me away. From theMany thanks to my friend Ana for recommending this to me and alerting me that it was available in English!
This book absolutely blew me away. From the very first page, the artwork drew me in and then just held me there. I loved how the texture of the paper shines through with each drawing, and the care with which each line is placed just so. The colors were also spot on, warmer for the events in the “now,” shaded towards the blue for historical events. The emotion that the artists were able to capture with just one frame is incredible as well — on page 47 there is a frame with Julien DuBois as a very old man, slumped in his armchair and hooked up to IVs, and you can just see the regrets and the sadness of all his years weighing on his shoulders.
The storyline is perhaps not the most original (child prodigies turned adult rivals, a descent into drugs and partying, a drastic event that finally lets the protagonist retire from the public eye), but it’s so engaging that I just kept turning pages, letting the story wash over me frame after frame. I adored the plot line with Maurice the cat, how he decided he was going to live with Julien (because is it ever really the human’s choice?), and then making friends with Adeline/Sophie when she comes to stay to interview Julien. Even the fact that Marguerite gets her few moments’ spotlight made me so happy. I also loved that Adeline/Sophie’s partner is a woman as well: normalizing LGBTQ+ relationships one book at a time.
I cannot recommend this graphic novel enough, and I look forward to seeing more projects from these authors!...more
As a woman who has always been larger than the acceptable vision of the ideal woman, I really related to Cass, though I’ve never had the type of self-As a woman who has always been larger than the acceptable vision of the ideal woman, I really related to Cass, though I’ve never had the type of self-confidence that Bagieu drew her with. In high school I had fun and I dated, but I tried to fade into the background as much as possible. I would have loved to have been as "out there" as Cass was, but I was too shy.
I think I would have gotten more out of this graphic biography if I had googled who the members of the Mamas and the Papas were. There are a lot of characters that Bagieu adds to the narrative, which can be slightly confusing if you’re not terribly familiar with them or the timeline.
I would have loved to have seen Bagieu go further and show us how Cass reacted to being such a huge star. I know she overdosed at a young age, which is a real tragedy. Bagieu’s end note about the best songs from the Mamas and the Papas makes me want to dig out my records....more
I was part of a fantastic book club when I still lived in Virginia, and I still get updates for the books they've chosen to discuss. This is one of thI was part of a fantastic book club when I still lived in Virginia, and I still get updates for the books they've chosen to discuss. This is one of those books. I read the blurb and knew it was a book that I'd be interested in, and once I realized that Mr Green grew up in southeastern Virginia, close to where I spent a good portion of my childhood and quite a few years of my adult life, I was even more intrigued.
Bergner paints a very honest portrait of Green, a young man who was so troubled that he ended up in juvenile detention, and was frequently put into solitary confinement for his safety and for the safety of those around him. What I found quite interesting is the differing accounts of Green's childhood from both his mother and himself. Having a toxic biological mother, this really resonates with me.
But this isn't just the story of a young troubled boy who eventually becomes a resounding success in his adult life, although he achieves great things that are almost unbelievable to the boy he had been. There's also a pretty frank discussion of race and racism, both in general life and in the opera world specifically. Green discusses how he was mocked as a kid for speaking too properly, for even being interested in opera, and how he was called an Oreo as a result. He's very open about the fact that African-Americans who speak "proper" English are looked down on as people who aren't true to their heritage. And even being interested in opera, a very white art form, added more fuel to his tormentors' fire.
But he never let it sway him from his ultimate goal. Singing opera is who he is, even though the rudimentary basics of singing and reading music and foreign languages sometimes elude him. Regardless, he tries and tries and tries again -- anything to keep him moving forward.
What I wish Bergner had covered in more detail was Green's time in college and grad school. He had pursued degrees in music, and yet, according to this book, had major stumbling blocks with the basics of singing opera when he was invited to audition for the Met. One wonders how that would even be possible.
That said, this is definitely a book to read if you enjoy books about people who have come from a terrible place to make something amazing of themselves. It can be difficult to read in places, especially for those who may have had difficult childhoods growing up. I wish Mr Green all the best, and I hope he continues to find success in opera....more
Oh, I so wanted to love this book. I love the Beatles, but I was born long after they broke up, and though I own most of their studio albums on vinyl,Oh, I so wanted to love this book. I love the Beatles, but I was born long after they broke up, and though I own most of their studio albums on vinyl, I was eager to learn more about their early days. This book is definitely good for that; the reader gets an excellent peek into the sheer insanity that was Beatlemania, and we get a glimpse of what the boys were like before they became so huge.
The problem is, however, that this book is written in a very pedestrian way. He said this, they did this, then they went here. The characters were extremely flat as well, and the reader was left wanting so much more. It was so hard to summon interest in this book because of the writing.
That said, it did teach me about the Manila Incident, which I hadn't known about previously. ...more
I didn't really care for this book. It's not really a memoir of Jim Morrison. It's more of a recounting of intimate encounters between Morrison and HuI didn't really care for this book. It's not really a memoir of Jim Morrison. It's more of a recounting of intimate encounters between Morrison and Huddleston. That's really all their so-called relationship turned out to be, simply sex. While there isn't anything wrong with that, I just felt that she kept wanting a meeting of the minds, but all Morrison wanted from her was a meeting of the bodies.
I also had a hard time with Huddleston herself. Granted, she is only a teen when she meets Morrison and fixates on him, which makes her actions rather forgiveable, but while other reviewers have mentioned that this is a coming-of-age memoir, I couldn't really see how she grew or matured at all throughout the book.
Jimi Hendrix's music is not new, not having been born in the last bit of the 1970s with a huge penchant for classic rock. But I had always assumed, baJimi Hendrix's music is not new, not having been born in the last bit of the 1970s with a huge penchant for classic rock. But I had always assumed, based on his onstage flamboyance, that he was the same way off stage. And that is not the case in any way.
This biography is fascinating, having been taken from interviews done with Hendrix throughout his career, and it is pretty literally Hendrix in his own words. The journalists that open the pieces give their impressions of him at the time, which just adds even more realness to the biography, even forty-two years after his death.
The thing that strikes me the most about Hendrix is his downright humility. I'd seen the interview with Dick Cavett on YouTube before I read about it in this book, where Cavett mentions that he's the greatest guitar player in the world, and Jimi looks down, abashed, and says, "Aw, no. How about the greatest guitar player sitting in this chair?" How many other megastars would have said such a thing, been so paradoxically self-effacing?
I was also impressed with Hendrix's refusal to be shoe-horned into one musical genre or another. He didn't want to be called blues, or rock, or pop, or jazz. He did it all, a veritable mish-mash of it that worked perfectly. I only wish I could have heard him play live, gimmicks or no, and followed along with the ways in which he tried to grow and mature and break out of the mold his fans and the industry had tried to keep him in.
Excellent read. Highly recommend, especially while listening to LPs by Hendrix and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, as I did....more
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