After graduating from college and spending a magical year abroad writing our best-selling A Year in Japan, Kate T. Williamson felt ready f...
read full description
reviews
Nov 22, 2010
jess
rated it: 
This is the sequel to A Year in Japan. Kate has returned home from Japan, she is working on her book, living at her parents' house and generally avoiding making decisions that will force her life in any particular direction. In that way, Crossroads encapsulates that post-college mid-20s aimless ambivalence that takes over your life if you don't fall directly into a predestined career after graduation. I appreciated the awkward, terrible questions from family friends, her parents' friends, neighb
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 29, 2008
Barky
rated it: 
Kate T. Williamson came back from Japan to work on her book (A Year in Japan) and remained “at a crossroads” for a little over a year while she lived with her parents and planned what to do next. It’s a weird place to be – back in one’s old room, among people who knew you when (and not just family, but friends, neighbors, etc.), answering uncomfortable questions about what you’re doing with your life. This is what she did, what her life was like, how the seasons passed during that time.
More...
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 06, 2011
Jennifer
rated it: 
This entire graphic novel made me inexplicably happy, if comforting melancholy interspersed with occasional humor is "happy." Williamson's art is compelling, even though I'm not always sure I like it. Her ruler-straight, unvarying pen lines are very noticeable, and tend to dominate the scenes. You could call her work naive, I guess, but that ignores her skill with color and her close observation of the world around her. Scenes from television shows, tiny architectural details, and
More...
Aug 04, 2008
Arwen
rated it:
Such a wonderful book for anyone who has ever been in that weird, I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing-with-my-life slump for a while. (Sort of like a midlife crisis only it can strike at any time.) Kate's endearingly rueful writing and beautiful watercolor illustrations are pitch perfect. Plus it will make you feel better because her story is as least as bad as yours.
May 14, 2008
Aurora
rated it:
I can't think of another book that so perfectly captures post-college apathy. Sitting around your hometown, thinking about some things you should maybe do with your life, then just watching some squirrels for a while. Things seemed to have worked out for her pretty ok, so that's reassuring.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 10, 2009
Menina
rated it: 
At a Crossroads - Between a Rock and My Parents' Place (Kate T. Williamson) foi outro que me deixou olhando para um ponto indeterminado no infinito e piscandinho bem blé. Aquela coisa, né? Olha que situação difícil na vida dessa pessoa (posso estar errada, mas não há nada no texto ou no que li sobre o livro que me faça achar que eu esteja): após ter-se formado em Harvard, onde estudou cinema, a autora vai para o Japão, onde passa um ano. De volta para os EUA, vai morar com os pais. Inicialmente,
More...
Oct 16, 2010
Kerry
rated it: 
I love the illustrations in this book! This book demonstrates a lot of complex issues from a graphic novel point of view. Where do you fit in when you are trying to find a job? How to explain that to others? The awkwardness of living with your parents as an adult. What is it like to go back home? How to report squirrels and make non-traditional Thanksgiving decorations? I enjoyed the author's creative take on the situations and could definitely relate to some of the frustrations. And maybe a li
More...
May 19, 2011
Ruth
rated it:
This autobiographical graphic novel takes us through a 2 year period when the narrator lives back in her parents' house after college while she's writing a book and thinking about what to do next. I really like the pace of it- funny chatty small anecdotes about her childhood room, various concerts she attends, her obsession with Hall and Oates (and that great punch-line about Phish), interactions with family, her general state of inertia, etc. are interspersed with pretty and wordless watercol
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 27, 2011
Andrew Shuping
rated it:
I hesitate to call this a graphic novel, because it's really more of a slice of life memoir that's illustrated. Don't get me wrong it's not a bad thing, but after reading books like Lucy Knisley's French Milk and To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story I guess I expect a bit more out of a diary comic, something with a story to it. Instead Kate takes us through her year living at home with her parents after touring Japan and it's her everyday life that she illustrates. While again
More...
May 07, 2010
Jason
rated it:
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
Yet another adorably cute graphic novel from an adorably cute 24-year-old hipster containing not even the slightest single bit of substance whatsoever. In this case, it's a record of the nearly two years the author spent living with her parents again as an adult, after getting back from a year More...
Yet another adorably cute graphic novel from an adorably cute 24-year-old hipster containing not even the slightest single bit of substance whatsoever. In this case, it's a record of the nearly two years the author spent living with her parents again as an adult, after getting back from a year More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 13, 2011
Claire
rated it:
Kate graduated and then moved to Asia (like ME!), came home and moved back in with her parents (like ME!), stayed longer than she had planned (like ME!) But the way she reacted to this experience made me sad and a little bored. I guess I kind of expected to laugh or feel some kind of camaraderie given our nearly identical situations, but I didn't really feel anything. The icing on the cake of my dissatisfaction was this: The solution of the problem of living at home? Deciding to move to New York
More...
Jun 16, 2011
Anna
rated it:
the pictures mirrored that of Principals of Uncerntainty and the story was so relatable. a fun, quick, easy read that will make you laugh out loud and shudder with understanding. we've all been there at that awkward point in our lives where we aren't growing up but we're also no longer teenagers. that crazy horrificly wonderful place where we sit back and think "huh. so this is life, is it?"
this book perfectly describes how that feels!
this book perfectly describes how that feels!
Oct 01, 2009
Maré
rated it:
A high 3. A 3.9 out of 5, you guys.
I was expecting something more in-depth. More daily and not so much that jumpy month-to-month stuff. The quiet Nothing-Times mean more to me. But in some ways, this book was a perfect honest expression of how time feels. The slow and sudden passing like summer.
I was expecting something more in-depth. More daily and not so much that jumpy month-to-month stuff. The quiet Nothing-Times mean more to me. But in some ways, this book was a perfect honest expression of how time feels. The slow and sudden passing like summer.
Sep 25, 2010
Julie
rated it:
A brief graphic novel, but some things worth noting. Beautiful watercolors. Good evocation of central PA and what it's like to move back in with your parents. Nice 80s music references. Story pretty common, but that's probably the point.
Mar 11, 2011
Kelly
rated it:
It's not especially hefty, but it's a nice portrait of living at home as an adult, and how that can be kind of...okay. Also, I loved the role that both Cher and Hall and Oates play in her journey.
Jun 28, 2011
Renee
rated it:
It's not bad, but it's not nearly as good or as beautiful as Williamson's A Year in Japan. The colors are muddier, and Williamson is much better at drawing scenery and objects than people. And, while I embrace schadenfreude, and while I identify with Williamson's struggle to find her way, the book has a cumulative sad-sack quality that transitions out of self-deprecation and into depression & self-pity. Pretty much every detail in the book is meant to reinforce the "I was so pathetic then"
More...
Feb 11, 2009
Lauren
rated it:
This is a beautiful book about being in-between phases of your life. The watercolors and quiet development of life as an adult in one's childhood bedroom make this a thoughtful and pensive book. If only one could give one's various lost years this must color, grace and humor.
Sep 01, 2008
Kevin
rated it:
I liked this. I was worried it would either be a) run of the mill overly introspective mid-20s "I don't know what to do with my life" crisis, or b) poor me I'm trying to write a book and living with my parents middle class white person woes. But it wasn't either.
The story is: she leaves Japan and returns home to live with her parents while she works on a book. It takes a while, some minor things happen along the way, then she finishes her book and decides what to do next. More...
The story is: she leaves Japan and returns home to live with her parents while she works on a book. It takes a while, some minor things happen along the way, then she finishes her book and decides what to do next. More...
Dec 07, 2008
Marybeth
rated it:
I now tell everyone that I'm at a crossroads and it starts the most wonderful conversations. I just adore her work.
Jan 28, 2012
Erin
rated it:
I liked this ok. I thought it was going to be funnier. It turned out a little boring.
Jun 17, 2008
Jeffrey
rated it:
A nice book, but I felt like I wanted something more. Maybe I would've liked a smaller book, and one that opened more fully to allow for the spreads to be seen entirely. Also would've liked a more handwritten feel to the text.
Content-wise, there's some nice moments and funny moments, and it's poetic at times, but I felt like I wanted the book to make a slightly bigger step to revealing something about life. I didn't really feel like Kate was at a crossroads, or that she had moved forward by More...
Content-wise, there's some nice moments and funny moments, and it's poetic at times, but I felt like I wanted the book to make a slightly bigger step to revealing something about life. I didn't really feel like Kate was at a crossroads, or that she had moved forward by More...
Aug 01, 2010
Rebecca
rated it:
Just graduated college, have an idea of what you want to do but its not working out the way you thought it would- well your not alone. I found myself at a crossroads once but unlike the main character in this graphic novel I did not get a year to figure out what I should be doing. If you have been at a crossroads about what to do after college you might appreciate this graphic novel.
Jun 22, 2008
k8lane
rated it:
A graphic memoir (illustrated with little text) about post-college crossroads. As someone who has temporarily boomeranged back into their parents house for several months between adventures, I could relate to almost all of it -- sometimes scarily and hysterically so. And, as an 80s kid, I appreciated the Hall n' Oates and movie references, so... this one was kind of made for me. A quick read -- makes for a nice afternoon read.
Jul 06, 2008
Kate
rated it:
I kind of expected this to be better than it was. The art in the novel is really well done and I quite enjoyed looking at it much more than I did reading it. It did have interesting parts, but I found it hard to keep my interest especially since it was such a disjointed sort of story. The main character kind of reminded me of myself. It was kind of odd that way but it was a quite a "cute" story with good art.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
