« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
October 12, 2016
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week - October 12, 2016
In the weekly Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week, the Montreal bookstore recommends several new works of fiction, art books, periodicals, and comics.
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is one of Montreal's premiere independent bookstores.
Madeleine E.
by Gabriel Blackwell
A man obsessed with a man obsessed. In Madeleine E., Gabriel Blackwell uses Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo as a springboard into a complex exploration of identity and memory. Dubbed a commonplace book—a collection of quotations to analyse a subject—Blackwell swirls memoir, fiction, film criticism, and quotes from such figures as W.G. Sebald and Rebecca Solnit, to create a kind of melancholic kaleidoscope (much like Vertigo’s title sequence).
Best American Comics 2016
edited by Roz Chast
Featuring beloved D&Q authors such as Joe Ollmann, Marc Bell, Lynda Barry, Joe Sacco, Ben Katchor, Chris Ware, Kate Beaton, John Porcellino, and Adrian Tomine, The Best American Comics 2016 is a wonderful collection of the top notch from the old stars’n’strips. The comics contained here range from the down-and-out to the psychedelic and back again, each carefully chosen by the great Roz Chast.
Nutshell
by Ian McEwan
Hats off to you, Mr. McEwan, for penning perhaps the youngest protagonist in the history of fiction! Nutshell is a sly retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the perspective of a foetus. Yep, an unborn child tells the tale of its mother’s murderous plot. Almost unfathomably brilliant, McEwan uses this fresh perspective to stun, delight, and at times horrify his unsuspecting reader.
Commonwealth
by Ann Patchett
In Commonwealth, Ann Patchett lays forth a sweeping tale of tangled family dynamics that spans half a century. The book kicks off at a christening party, where Franny Keating’s mother is kissed by an uninvited guest. This single act is the catalyst in the dissolution of two families, and Patchett traces the ripple effect across decades, lives, and relationships. This book is written to be deeply understood, with each character saturating the pages until they practically leak authentic personality. The scope family life is difficult to render while still keeping in focus the importance of the individual, a feat which Commonwealth achieves with apparent ease.
Standoff
by David Rivard
A new book of poems from the author of Otherwise Elsewhere, Standoff is a detention-slip to 21st century, which is to say the poems explore the vices of our postmodern hyper-culture. Wading through the bog of the present, Rivard has it in his heart to claim “I like reality”, while still acknowledging its shortcomings. Often beautiful and always observant, Rivard uses an accomplished arsenal of references, metaphors, and turns-of-phrase to carve a place for the Self “inside the murderous machinery” of the world.
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly links:
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly's blog
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Facebook page
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Tumblr
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly on Twitter
also at Largehearted Boy:
Support the Largehearted Boy website
other Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly new comics and graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
WORD Bookstores Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
