Jason's Blog, page 72

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Some books I've read 21

L'étranger by Albert Camus
Okay, I can cross off Camus on the list of people I have never read! Woo-hoo! And the book is written in a quite simple language so I could read it in French. Actually, it still feels fresh, and makes me want to check out his other books.

Ceux de la Nuit by David Goodis
This is the French version of Night Squad. The book is kind of slow, and doesn't have the kind of desperation or bleakness about it that I've enjoyed in his best books. Actually, it has quite a hopeful ending, and of course, we don't really approve of that sort of thing on this blog.

Face à face by Gunnar Staalesen
Not one of his best books. The  story takes place mostly in Bergen, but with short stops in Oslo and Möre. The plot seems to be almost a variation of Chandler's The Lady in The Lake, and the whodunnit part of the book is maybe not the most convincing. His language is pretty straight forward, so it's good practice to read it in French.

La nuit, tous les loups sont gris by Gunnar Staalesen
An all Bergen story set in the early eighties, the plot going back to the second World War. It's another book that works pretty well, and then the credibility goes out the window a bit at the end, with the killer, holding a gun in his hand, explaining why he did it instead of just shooting the detective. There are 11 Varg Veum books in French, and I've gotten it in my head to read all of them.

Autant en emporte la femme by Erlend Loe
The debut novel, I believe, by Loe who later wrote Naive. Super. I read it in Norwegian when it came out over twenty years ago, representing this completely new voice in Norwegian litterature - the voice of generation X, in some way, but you can't really hold that against him. It holds up pretty well.

Palookaville 22 by Seth
Beautifully designed, as always. Apparently the penultimate chapter of Clyde Fans. I look forward to the next book so I finally can reread the whole thing. Possibly, Seth's cartoony drawing style fits better in It's A Good Life than in the darker, more Chris Ware influenced recent chapters of this story. There's also another chapter of Nothing Lasts, his childhood memoir, drawn in a looser style.

Shoplifter by Michael Cho
I like his Mazzucchelli inflenced drawings and the use of colour, but I felt no connection to the story, maybe because it's about a girl in her twenties and I'm not.

Le jour le plus long du futur by Lucas Varela
Moebius meets Chris Ware? A comic without text that also seems influenced by video games.

Doodlefinger

Dr. Doodle

The cat is not too impressed

Too many parrots and not enough cats in the book, apparently.

Got this today!

The French version of the new book. It should be out in the stores in France May 20.

Blue Moon

You Only Doodle Twice

Inky Frank

Just discovered Mitch Hedberg

Dude was funny.