When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over

by Mandy Ord

When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over is a quietly enthralling and keenly intimate work about the search for meaning in the everyday, and what it might mean to belong. A record of a year of a life, When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over is an attempt to pin down time, to capture the most beautiful and fleeting moments that we tend to rush past.

This is the story of a person and those that surround her. It’s about ageing, love, and loss, and how we might try to balance work and family and art in this confusing modern world. Funny, sad, and perfectly magnetic, When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over draws you in deep; before you know it you’re caring intensely about the lives into which we are given some precious glimpses.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Memoir

376 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2019

Reviews

[Michael Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over four panels a day for 365 days, Ord shows you life: messy, frustrating, joyous, tired, dull, thrilling life - it's lovely stuff.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept conflating this diary of a quiet but very busy and productive life with all the #covidlife stuff we all know now. There’s a general anxiety underlying everything. It took me the first third to get into the rhythm of so much shortness of narrative - sometimes the story is only one frame - but once I fell in line I found this a comforting read.

Edit: I really loved this, actually. It’s curled up in a corner of my brain and often pops into my consciousness.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this a few days ago and the more I think about it the more I'm taken with it.
A graphic novel memoir with each day divided into 4 panels on the page.
Mandy Ord's work is a bit of an acquired taste, she's an exceptional artist but portrays her own character as a flat-pack Picasso style, 2D but the facial features are mixed-up. A reflection of how she's feeling on the inside perhaps.
She shows herself bumping along in everyday life with all the ups and downs of working in a number of jobs, establishing a satisfying work life, paying the bills and deal with her health challenges. Her lovely relationships with her partner, her Grandma, other family, friends and workmates and her especially her dog Lou, all who I grew to love too.
I was quite entranced and was happy to bump along with her, I could see what was coming so the abrupt ending, that links with the title, hit me like a sledge hammer. Very powerful.
(I'll update this review with some of my favourite panels at sometime in the future, when I'm feeling less tenologically challenged)

[Ely · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited to see this on the Stella longlist for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the first graphic novel to make the list—how amazing is that? And secondly, I got to sit with Mandy Ord and watch her draw as a volunteer a few years back at MWF, so it was nice to see her name on the list.

I liked this from the get go. Mandy is incredibly honest and raw. She doesn’t sugarcoat anything and that’s always refreshing to see. This is a really sincere depiction of mental health—you have bad days and they don’t always make sense. This just really reminded me that sometimes things are rough, but you just keep going—I really needed that this week. It’s also really funny. I definitely snorted at this book more than I have at any book in a really long time.

With all of that being said, I didn’t anticipate feeling how I did at the end of the book. I closed the last page and promptly burst into tears. I cried for a good solid twenty minutes, and even as I’m writing this review hours later, I can feel the tears welling up again.

So I guess this is another favourite to come out of this years list.

[Kassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet, funny, and sometimes sad meditation on life. I had a nice little morning routine with this book for the last week of reading a month or two before getting on with the day, and I loved having these little meditations and moods with me as I was waking up and figuring out what the day would be like.

[Deb Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this tender and gentle book; reflects reality, compassion and love in this world and that made me feel reassured and like being wrapped in a big warm blanket. Very special

[Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the concept of this (four panels for each day) and in some ways the repetitive banality of everyday life becomes poetic in its own way. But I still got bored about halfway through with the same fragments about going to work, listening to Radio National in the car, watching TV, getting stuck in traffic, chatting to colleagues, ad infinitum. There are beautiful moments scattered sporadically throughout, and I think the story does come together in the end, but it feels like an act of endurance for both reader and writer. I guess that's pretty cool too (it's very contemporary visual art approach) but I wouldn't recommend it for its interest-to-page ratio, more as an artefact or an experience if that makes sense.

[Michelle Sadler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this to participate in City Of Melbourne Libraries Graphic novel book club, as it was on their short list. The only other graphic novel I have read is The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman, while Ord's book was not in that calibre and universal interest, it was still a page turner in a quieter more domestic setting. An interesting memoir.

[Jas Shirrefs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only finished today so I have not yet been able to fully articulate a review for you but here are some thoughts:

-I am interested in the limits to sharing within this life writing. I read a lot of life writing. It is my go to genre? Anyhoo, Ord often mentions things like 'going to an appointment' and I am immediately like oooo what is the appointment. Or she mentions 'i was in a bad mood' or like 'an old anxiety resurfaced' and I begin to wonder what is the mood exactly and what is the anxiety she is experiencing? I think its interesting within the ethics of life writing. Interesting within the sustainability of doing life writing. And as someone who does life writing/has a column where I just blab every secret I have it feels kind of empowering to read a good body of work that still keeps something for the author?
-I read this book in two sittings. I have been speaking i friends who have read it more slowly. I think it kind of felt like a meditation. It was slow and often repetitive and like... so is blooming life. I am currently working full time and studying part time and I felt this book was extremely relatable? Sometimes the nicest or most noteworthy part of your day is walking the dog or patting the cat and that is ok?
-I appreciate that the intertextual references are labelled I feel like that makes it so much more accessible?
-I had a friend make a really good point that often we don't encounter many narratives involving like solid long term couples and I kinda agree. Like that was a super special part of the text. Just watching Jodhi and Mandy go about their thing?

Edit/more thoughts:
Mate made a good point about time n space within graphic novels/comics. I think I perhaps analysed this very much from the perspective of essays or memoir in prose? The said limits to sharing are heavily influenced by the form and the parameters of four frames per day. Can't do it all in 180 characters on Twitter, can't fit the world in four frames.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a graphic novel presented in comic book format. It is written in a daily diary style, highlighting the simple things.

Mandy is a talented comic artist who balances her passion for this while; maintaining her relationship with wife Jodhi, keeping two part time jobs, teaching gigs, walking her dog Lou and sustaining friendships and family relationships, especially her beloved grandma.

She captures the mundane in all it's incidental frustration and magic; Melbourne traffic, sliced fingers, bird song and glorious skies. The things in our day to day life that gives us moments of Damn! to moments of Wow!

So there is no plot here. Unless you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to see if Lou gets his walk. It is a meandering, cathartic celebration of this thing called life we navigate each day with our hopes, dreams and love.

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A graphic depiction of Mandy's life for a full year - pulling squares of moments, thoughts, strange and beautiful moments, and documenting time. The illustrations are captivating, and Mandy's being is engrossing.

Living with her wife Johdi, their dog Lou, living in Melbourne, seeing family and friends. Managing anxiety, self doubts, and the wonder of whether she should be doing other things. Watching tv, relaxing after an intense day. Working several casual jobs, including as a disability support worker. Going to visit her Grandmother. It's all here, and captured and recounted, reflected upon and shared.

So relatable and real.

[Erin Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to get into this book but I just can't 😞 I understand it's meant to reflect reality and be a think piece but it's repetitive (which I know life is) and bit boring (which I know life is). Wish I saw what other people do. But I absolutely love the mentions of indigenous culture I thought that was really cool and shows how accurate to real life the book is, I find a lot of Australian books never mention first nation which bothers me. I think this books biggest pro and con is that it is too much like reality.

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving and intimate diary comic, a four-panel page per day over the course of one year. Each panel contains only a single isolated image or interaction or thought, but collectively they convey the whole and precious experience of a life.

This is the first graphic novel to be longlisted for the Stella Prize and I’m so glad, both that the award is recognising the form and that it’s this book in particular that has been chosen. I hope it will reach and touch many people as a result.

[Ally Van Schilt · Rating 4 out of 5]

First in my instalments of “work books” - it’s been so quiet and dead boring at work I decided to read behind the counter ahaha. And I’m getting paid to do it! Life could be worse. I really enjoyed this one, it was easy to pick up and put down as the world went on (slowly..) around me, and I had a good chuckle in parts. Particularly the parts involving intimacy and customer service. Parts of it really rang true and parts of it were sad. I’m glad I read it.
Stay tuned for “work books”.

[Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Ord's style and other works, but I feel like this project was somewhat misconceived. Harvey Pekar showed that you could make ordinary life pretty interesting, but discovering what Ord and her partner were watching on TV on any particular night and how bad the traffic was that day time and time again just became mind-numbing.

[alisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf. No plot line or character building of any sort. The art style is not clear, you can neither read the text nor see the visuals. The only good thing is the title.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandy Ord vs. the Absurd Universe!!!

[Leanne Tempest · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can review this book with a quote from the book - it ‘wasn’t altogether satisfying. I kept waiting for something to happen and then nothing happened’.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insight into the world of insecure work, and multiple jobs, but ultimately a bit disjointed because of the chosen format.