Jeff's review
Shortcomings
by Adrian Tomine
why not a higher score? your review seems pretty good, no?
i liked this, esp. the dialogue and the searing portrayal of self-destruction and loneliness. i think i groove to ben's anger -- it's NOT attractive, but i understand it.
this is a bit too bleak for my tastes, but it's a great read. the pacing is amazing. thanks for putting me onto it.
Yeah, I don't know. Perhaps I measure everything up against Allison Bechdel (which is, admittedly, unfair) or maybe its hard to give more than three stars for something that takes me an hour or so to read. In the end I didn't groove to Ben's anger. Alice was my favorite character.
alice is a great character, so much so that one wonders why the hell she stays friends with ben. maybe the book would have done well to investigate that. i think that i groove (not the right word, maybe) to ben's anger because it is the feeling (and he is the character) that's portrayed best in the book, so one really *understands* it. the other characters are interesting but under-investigated. especially the asian-american characters. not only why does alice stay friends with ben, but why is miko with ben in the first place, and what keeps her being nice to him? do these women feel pity for him? there seems to be a measure of respect in them for him, but where does it come from? why is it there? he's a really bitter, shriveled, disturbed *and* disturbing character, and one wonders why he's not entirely alone in the world. maybe the author is too indulgent towards him. he doesn't have *any* redeeming qualities (besides being good looking) yet he has at least two very nice women who are very nice to him!
Jeff's review
Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
Jeff's review
rating:
recommended for: indie crowd
Ben Tanaka is a passive-aggressive, grad school drop out who manages a cinema in Berkeley, CA. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, is growing tired of his pessimistic rants and (multi)cultural cynicism, not to mention his sexual attraction to white grrrls with blue eyes and blonde hair. Ben's best friend, Alice, is a Korean-American lesbian with a fierce sense of humor and an unwillingness to settle into the banal rhythms of mediocrity. Over the course of a few months all three are forced to confront their desires and their hyprocrisies as they navigate the challenges of identity politics and personal responsibility in 21st century America. Adrian Tomine's graphic novel feels like an alterna-indie ready made for the local art house cinema; but it's also refreshing in its candor and its unwillingness to play into the reductive polemics of easily digested cultural stereotypes. Of course, these characters move and groove in San Francisco and New York City so the stakes are not necessaril...more
why not a higher score? your review seems pretty good, no?i liked this, esp. the dialogue and the searing portrayal of self-destruction and loneliness. i think i groove to ben's anger -- it's NOT attractive, but i understand it.
this is a bit too bleak for my tastes, but it's a great read. the pacing is amazing. thanks for putting me onto it.
Yeah, I don't know. Perhaps I measure everything up against Allison Bechdel (which is, admittedly, unfair) or maybe its hard to give more than three stars for something that takes me an hour or so to read. In the end I didn't groove to Ben's anger. Alice was my favorite character.
alice is a great character, so much so that one wonders why the hell she stays friends with ben. maybe the book would have done well to investigate that. i think that i groove (not the right word, maybe) to ben's anger because it is the feeling (and he is the character) that's portrayed best in the book, so one really *understands* it. the other characters are interesting but under-investigated. especially the asian-american characters. not only why does alice stay friends with ben, but why is miko with ben in the first place, and what keeps her being nice to him? do these women feel pity for him? there seems to be a measure of respect in them for him, but where does it come from? why is it there? he's a really bitter, shriveled, disturbed *and* disturbing character, and one wonders why he's not entirely alone in the world. maybe the author is too indulgent towards him. he doesn't have *any* redeeming qualities (besides being good looking) yet he has at least two very nice women who are very nice to him!