Word: novelizations
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...American cultures continue their slow creep into the American mainstream, it should come as no surprise that comics have begun to reflect that change. But where lesser comix have settled for throwing a token Latino into the story, La Perdida ($20; 275 pages), Jessica Abel's intense new graphic novel from Pantheon, goes deeper. In fact, it goes "native." Featuring a story about an idealistic American living in Mexico and written in Spanglish dialogue, La Perdida examines what is increasingly becoming a major cultural shift in the U.S. by looking at it from the other side. Like a mirror image...
Abel has made a name for herself by writing short fiction that mostly features loquacious urban hipsters. (Also a tireless supporter of the medium, she was one of the organizers of a short-lived series of slide-show comix "happenings" in 2001.) Her first novel-length work, La Perdida has an unusual style for comix: Unlike most of her fellow North American graphic novelists, Abel doesn't use humor, irony or traditional comic book genres. Instead, she has created something all too rare in the medium: a realistic drama for adults told in a straightforward manner. The approach makes sense...
...setting opens up the artwork enough to let in some light and air. Based on her stay there during 1998-2000, Abel evokes the location so well you want to immediately arrange a trip. She draws in black and white, which may seem like an odd choice for a novel set in "colorful" Mexico, but it suits the book's theme of cultural contrasts, to say nothing of how black and white emphasizes Abel's facility with a brush. She combines richness of detail with simplicity of arrangement into understated chiaroscuro effects that are as easy to read as they...
...edge of today's controversy over the purity of English. La Perdida includes a glossary for all the Spanish at the end, except strangely, a translation of the title. My crude Google-based research roughly translates it as "The Lost One." For a smart, involved and serious graphic novel read, La Perdida should be found...
...they inhabit what is quite possibly the most aptly titled novel in the history of literature—“Prep” by Curtis Sittenfeld...