Luke's review
Shortcomings
by Adrian Tomine
Luke's review
Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
Luke's review
rating:
bookshelves:
graphicnovelscomics
I love Adrian Tomine's artwork and overall sensibility, and his collection of short pieces, Sleepwalk and Other Stories, is one of my very favorite graphic novels. With his longer works, I feel like Tomine has been right on the verge of putting together a masterpiece...but I don't think Shortcomings is it, even if Jonathan Lethem (according to his back cover blurb) might think so. The central themes--a reexamination of Asian-American identity politics, particularly in terms of how they affect relationships and sexuality--are all interesting to me...but it all feels a little bit heavy-handed and doesn't exactly shed any new light on the issues. Maybe it's for the non-Asian audience that he feels compelled to spell this all out in a basic kind of way.
Still, it's always a pleasure to look at Tomine's stuff. I'm no comics expert, but as far as I can tell, the guy uses the medium as well as anyone in the game--everything's just so seamless and evocative. Maybe Shortcomings ...more
Still, it's always a pleasure to look at Tomine's stuff. I'm no comics expert, but as far as I can tell, the guy uses the medium as well as anyone in the game--everything's just so seamless and evocative. Maybe Shortcomings ...more
