Tale of Sand

I love graphic novels for a whole host of reasons. Mostly though, I love them because a good graphic novel presents the melding of art and literature into an experience that feels like a trip to an art museum and a library rolled into one. What could be better!

Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of graphic novels that don't come anywhere near managing this feat but "Tale of Sand" is not one of them. Based upon a lost, 1960's-1970's era screenplay by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl, the two geniuses behind the Muppets and Sesame Street, "Tale of Sand" is a mind bending blend of existential Americana tropes and utterly gorgeous poppy pastels drawn by Ramon Perez.

The plot, if it can be called such, follows the story of an unnamed man who, after arriving in an unknown town with no knowledge of who he is or why he is there, must participate in a strange event in which he is forced to flee across the desert chased by an assortment of villains. Sound strange? It is.

Yet "Tale of Sand" is more an evocation of emotion than a story and its blending of classic cartoon styles and realistic images, wild west and modern movie action, 1950's square culture and the 60's and 70's resistance to this culture all with artwork that is both understandable and yet modern-museum-worthy brings out a whole load of emotion.The most prominent of which is awe. "Tale of Sand" is art and literature that leaves your mouth slightly agape, just like a wonderful library or art museum.

The Case of the Missing Servant

There are two seasons of the year that I am not particularly fond of. Now these are not seasons as officially named, yet all who live through them are well aware they exist and I call them the in-betweeners. We happen to be smack dab in the middle of the first in-betweener which falls just after the enjoyable bits of fall and just before the whites of enjoyable winter. The other in-betweener occurs after enjoyable winter has ended and before green enjoyable spring has begun. The latter is also called mud season. 

During both of these "seasons," the frequent gray skies and cold rain leaves me staring out the window daydreaming of foreign climes. Usually, warmer foreign climes. Alas, due to the constraints of real life, I am unable to take 12 weeks off annually to escape these in-betweeners and therefore, I have to settle for a surrogate. Travel by book is what I call it and Tarquin Hall’s “The Case of the Missing Servant” was the perfect recent vehicle.

Written by a Brit but set in India, “The Case of the Missing Servant” is an absolute riot of a mystery that follows the comical and capable Vish Puri, India’s Most Private Investigator in pursuit of, as expected, a missing and likely dead servant. Like any mystery writer worth his salt though, Hall further weaves in two subplot mysteries that are equally compelling.

Yet, despite an ensnaring plot, or rather multiple ensnaring plots, it is Hall's deft characters, dry humor, and most of all his vivid depiction of contemporary India that are this works greatest strengths as well as the predominant drivers of “The Case of the Missing Servant.”  

Best described as Sherlock Homes meets Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Tarquin Hall’s “The Case of the Missing Servant” is a chariot that will make you chuckle and cheer while carrying you away from a dreary in-betweener November day to a more convivial clime. 

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Emily M. Danforth's "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" is a finely wrought, emotionally complex, if occasionally a tad mundane young adult coming-of-age novel with one key twist.

Growing up in cowboy country, the plains of Montana, Cameron Post finds herself, just like I did, transforming into a young adult during the 1990s. Unlike my journey though, Cameron's is far more tumultuous. She loses her parents at the age of 12, the day after she kisses her best girl friend and realizes she likes it. As a result of her parents deaths, Cameron's highly religious and conservative Aunt as well as her Grandmother move to Montana to take over her care. This turn of events sets the story on a fairly predictable but still enjoyable trajectory.

As teenage Cameron's identity begins to coalesce, she is forced to hide her budding lesbianism. Like any teenager though, her attempts to at once explore and bury her feelings leads to a series of very different relationships and eventually, to an unceremonious outing. And just as expected, Cameron's sexuality does not sit well with either her Aunt or the community leading to the final ripple in the tale as Cameron's Aunt Ruth decides to send her off to a religious boarding school that promises to cure Cameron of her sinful ways.

Altogether, despite the fact that "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" won't necessarily surprise you with its plot twists, Danforth's patience and just-right prose manages to create out of all of her characters full yet faulted individuals that will capture teens and adults alike. It is this skill that both keeps this tale from feeling either too preachy or predictable while forcing us to understand if not always relate with all of the different characters and their actions. In the end "The Miseducation of Cameron Post's" greatest strength is its reminder that it is what we share, love and loss, rather than where we differ that makes us human.