Sleepwalk and Other Stories

Optic Nerve #1-4

by Adrian Tomine

Collecting the first four issues of Adrian Tomine's acclaimed comic series optic nerve, this book offers sixteen concise, haunting tales of modern life. The characters here appear to be well-adjusted on the surface, but Tomine takes us deeper into their lives, subtly examining their struggle to connect with friends and lovers.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Short Stories, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix, Comic Book

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Adrian Tomine was born in 1974 in Sacramento, California. He began self-publishing his comic book series Optic Nerve. His comics have been anthologized in publications such as McSweeney’s, Best American Comics, and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and his graphic novel "Shortcomings" was a New York Times Notable Book of 2007. His next release, "Killing and Dying" will be published by Drawn and Quarterly in October 2015.

Since 1999, Tomine has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughters.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

PER FAVORE NON FACCIAMO GLI EROI



È una raccolta di storie che possono durare una pagina oppure più, anche quindici: quindi, tutte storie brevi, asciutte, essenziali, nel testo, nel disegno, nello sviluppo.

Storie, o forse, spezzoni, frammenti di vita quotidiana che non trasudano felicità e allegria: il dolore, la malinconia, il disagio, l’incertezza, l’inadeguatezza, la separazione, la difficoltà dell’esistere sono le fonti d’ispirazione.



Racconti che cominciano a metà, o prossimi alla fine: ma una vera fine poi non c’è, perché il racconto termina senza conclusione.
Men che meno morale.

Gente comune, ordinaria, in situazione apparentemente quotidiane, vite tangenti, gente invisibile, coppie a metà, rassegnati ma non sconfitti, tutti vittime del vivere.



Sì, questa volta sì, si può dire: minimalismo.
Sì, si può dire anche il mitico nome, Carver. Raymond Carver è presente in queste storie, le ha chiaramente ispirate.
Poi, Tomine ha aggiunto il suo talento, che è tanto.

Il disegno non è particolarmente bello, o gradevole: ma funziona molto bene col testo, qui non debordante, e con il plot. Sono disegni efficaci.

[Greta G · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A wave of sadness came over me as I switched off the light...I really wondered if I was going to miss anything or anybody at all while I was away."

Subtle, bittersweet stories about loneliness, alienation, confusion, longing to belong, friendship and love and the loss of it.
Emotionally absorbing and evocative, yet I couldn't quite identify with so much desperation.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I closed Adrian Tomine's Sleepwalk and Other Stories feeling depressed, something in Tomine's negativity, his view of the disconnect inherent in the relationships between his characters and contemporary life filled me with a (temporary, I hope) despair. These short graphic stories are deeply unsettling, there is no hope, no grand resolutions. Sleepwalk doesn't wallow in the angst of the various situations presented, but is resigned to an elementary bleakness.

Sleepwalk again proves that Tomine's style is better suited to the short story form. We are only briefly exposed to these drifting, disaffected lives, but that glimpse is enough to identify the hopelessness, the isolation, and the misunderstandings within. A minor issue is Tomine's overreliance on slabs of text, as if he is using a voice-over for his characters instead of relying on dialogue and image to show their stories. "Supermarket", the story of the girl in the grocery store and the blind man, completely devastated me, just ... painful in the obvious and honest depiction of enforced interactions.

Sleepwalk is a difficult book to recommend, but undoubtedly provides some basic understanding and insight into the emotional landscape of the alienated and the outcast.

[Paul Secor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not normally a reader of graphic books. The only graphic books that I can recall reading are American Splendor,Maus, and Persepolis. I picked this book up because I read Paul Bryant's review of Summer Blonde https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Our library system didn't have that book, so I went with Sleepwalk and it turned out to be a good choice.
The stories here are gems of captured incidents. Even though I can't say that I've experienced all (or perhaps, any) of the incidents in these stories, I identified and empathized strongly with many of the characters in them.
I'll be reading more Adrian Tomine - before this experience I was only familiar with an occasional New Yorker cover - including Summer Blonde.

[Tom LA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whoa, this Tomine guy is such a pleasure to listen to! As pleasant as a finger in your eye.

Get ready for a cold, slimy shower of negativity, page after page.

If these stories were short films, they would sweep the board at the Cannes festival (note: this is the exact opposite of a compliment).

I’ve never understood the pleasure that people get from listening, reading or watching deeply depressing and totally pointless stories.

Matter of tastes. Sure. But for me, it’s “Get away from me, Tomine”. I don’t have time for whiners.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly inspiring!

Tomine takes everyday mundane scenarios and turns them on their heads. He focuses on the breakdown of relationships, the socially awkward and the unpleasant side of catching public transport (I'm thinking of Hostage Situation).

There is something fundamentally poignant in all of the stories collected here and often leaves you taking a step back and attempting to assess the bigger picture or the wider message Tomine wants us to take away from his work.

I have never come across a graphic novel before which manages to convey a story in a single page (Drop) which was surprisingly haunting and left me thinking...shit, that could easily happen to anyone.

My favourites include: Sleepwalk, Drop, The Connecting Thread (which is one of the best short stories I have ever come across) and Pink Frosting (very gritty and sad despite the pretty title.)

I'm not going to give anything away because this is a book you have to explore for yourself and I defy anyone not to feel some profound emotion for the stories in this collection.

A lovely and bittersweet book which will radically change your perception of the world and its myriad characters. A must-read!!

[Ivan Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tomine sabe captar esas sutilezas del ser humano que otros con 500 páginas no son capaces ni siquiera de esbozar mínimamente. Y Tomine lo hace con historias cortas que no superan en ocasiones las dos o tres páginas, pero le bastan para retratar a la perfección personajes tridimensionales enfrentados a los sinsabores de la vida, al vacío existencial y la complejidad de las relaciones interpersonales, y lo hace huyendo de los arquetipos y los tópicos. Los relatos "Escala", "Dylan y Donovan", "El hilo conductor" y "Ojos color avellana", de lo mejorcito del conjunto.

[Eric T. Voigt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bunch of slice-of-life style stories that don't go anywhere satisfying. The ultimate in dejected anti-social asshole rambling. You'd think I could relate to these depressive pessimists but they were too self-harmed and there isn't a shred of humor to be found. All these characters are rotting logs without a thriving ecosystem willing to survive in their pity stank. So much pretentious imagery, so little to keep me interested. Excellent art, though.

[Andrés Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomine is a master of the short story. This is my favourite collection of his. It is at times sweet, sad, sinister, funny, tender, horrible... well... that's life, isn't it?

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite Tomine, the first of Tomine.
If you don't know Tomine, start here.

*plotless review, avoid looking elsewhere as blurbs about short stories tend unsurprisingly to spoil the plot of short stories*

Tomine's Optic Nerve Series:
#1-4 = Sleepwalk (sad and longing)
#5-8 = Summer Blonde (apathetic and jaded)
#9-11 = Shortcomings (jealous and frustrated)
#12-14 = Killing & Dying (realistic and fairly balanced)

On Sleepwalk:
For once, longer comic strips aren't always as good as shorter ones. For once, black and white seems to add to a comic. Normally it bothers me; colour is another level of detail. But this is more a narrative with pictures than pictures with a narrative, in reading the narrator's voice you want to have just enough to see the fundamentals of the scene and to let your imagination fill in the blanks. Colour here would be too intrusive, it would be too objective, it would make the reader feel that what they were being given a realistic depiction of narrator's reality and not one that had been passed through a messy emotional lens. Speaking of, the black and white suits the seemingly perpetual, immutable, undesirable emotion that the protagonist of each of these stories encounters (especially in the title story, Sleepwalk). The common thread in each story is not the severity or type of sadness, but the perceived permanence of some level of dissatisfaction. There are no profound thoughts here, but the scenes are true to life due to the 'camera' angles used—this is good directing.

In context of Optic Nerve:
I'll suggest that the ambience and protagonist perspective has emotionally matured throughout the series as I guess Tomine has with the years he has taken to make them. In this sense I like Sleepwalk as it feels more emotionally raw (like the emotional turbulence of puberty) than his later works. In Summer Blonde & Shortcomings there are more anti-heroes who cannot see their own flaws—the reader sees flaws in the personality or actions of the main character which the character themselves are unaware of (often until a pending consequence)—and to me this creates an undesirable distance from the character. In Sleepwalk, we are closer to home.

Killing & Dying on the other hand is a return to form (or... non-anti-heroes), but when compared with Sleepwalk, the characters are realistic, the tone is balanced, the rambling is gone and the action is refined. In summary, comparing Sleepwalk with Killing & Dying is like comparing the early work of many writers/artists: the former emotionally obtuse, non-linear/postmodernesque, visionary but inefficient vs. the latter more restrained, fastly linear, direct and efficient. At the moment, I'm a fan of the former.

Sleepwalk stories in Order of Preference:
Best
Sleepwalk (ON1)
Lunch Break (ON1)
Hazel Eyes (ON3)
Supermarket (ON3)
Layover (ON2)
Six Day Cold (ON3)

Good
Drop (ON1)
Echo Ave. (ON1)
Dylan & Donovan (ON3)
The Connecting Thread (ON2)

Ok
Pink Frosting (ON2)
Hostage Situation (ON3)
Unfaded (ON3)
Long Distance (ON1)
Summer Job (ON1)
Fourth of July (ON3)

[Sookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dejection, Rejection, social awkwardness, desperation, self deprecating humor, surreal conversations and self pity everywhere. There is no shred of hope, happiness or remotely bittersweet.

This slice of life is just...cloudy sky.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always a bit uncomfortable with the way 90s Tomine wrote women, especially with their relationships with the sad sack men that Tomine writes about. For some reason in this volume it got to me more. I enjoyed it less than his later stuff and even 32 Stories I connected with a bit better.

[Jolanta (knygupė)]

3,5*

Tokie, kaip ir trumpi filmukai vienišumo tema.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I'm not the right audience for Adrian Tomine?

[Javier Jiménez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta obra está compuesta por un conjunto de historias cortas. Algunas están muy cortas (hay una de solo una página) y otras llegan a tener hasta 30 páginas. El arte no es espectacular, sin embargo lo que vale la pena de estos relaton es la manera en que llegan a ser tan conmovedores. Este es de los cómics con más texto en cada página que he leído. Sin embargo, a su vez, también es de los cómics con menos diálogos que he leído. Y esto se debe a que en gran medida el texto que contienen las historias se refiere a pensamientos o reflexiones de los personajes.

En cuanto a los personajes, la mayoría son personas aisladas de la sociedad, que se sienten perdidas e incluso presionadas por otras personas para encajar en ciertas comunidades. También hay personajes que no tienen tantos problemas para mantener relaciones sociales pero que sí tienen complicaciones para seguir llevando su vida, ya sea por cuestiones familiares, amorosas o laborales, como cualquier persona.

Lo que más me gustó de estas historias es que cada una representaba de una forma magnífica la desesperación de los personajes, de manera que sentía lástima por su situación y en algunas ocasiones terminaba la historia con un sabor muy amargo. Porque sé que esas cosas pasan en la vida real. Y creo que hay personas a las que les cuesta encajar, sentirse identificadas en este mundo y muchas veces nosotros no solo no hacemos nada para ayudarlos o comprenderlos, al contrario, muchas veces empeoramos su situación. Los relatos que más me gustaron fueron: "Lunch break", "Supermercado", "Ojos color avellana", "Escapada Hawaiana" y mis favoritos "Sonámbulo" y "Dylan & Donovan".

Cabe mencionar que algunas historias me recordaron a cuando leí Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, personajes y estilo similares. De igual forma, en ambas colecciones hay relatos que sentí que terminaban repentinamente, sin un final como tal.

Disfruté bastante esta lectura, la sensación que me causaron las historias no me ha sido provocada por ningún libro o cómic previamente. Son relatos muy conmovedores.

[Shana Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I just wanted the Fourth of July to be over. I wished it was a normal day, where it didn't matter what you did." from "Fourth of July", Sleepwalk

I have to give credit to Jeremy Estes for lending me this book of illustrated vignettes, and to turning me on to "comics" in general.

Upon reading the conclusion of the first - eponymous - story in Sleepwalk my initial response was, "So what?" And I had the same response to the next story...and the next.

Then I realized, 'Hang on, I'm actually enjoying these stories and I find them totally relate-able.' I enjoyed them because they were about me. They were about a lot of people who came of age in the late 80s and early 90s. The stories and illustrations, even the characters' sense of style, undoubtedly resonate the melancholy, grungy, almost sinister tone that saturated the 90s. Of course, I mean, for those of us who chose Screaming Trees over N'Sync, Lemonheads over Celine Dion, STP over....well, you get the picture. We liked it dark back then.

My favorite story in the book was the last one, "Hazel Eyes". It focuses on a troubled soul, Tara, who finds she no longer relates to her old high school friends. Instead, she finds their interests insipid, their conversation trite, and their gossipiness inane. Sound familiar? It reminded me of how I myself had remained in my hometown after all my friends had gone away to college (or the army). In my and Tara's situations we were trapped and felt we had few choices when it came to who to spend time with. Tara, in a drunken stupor (a state which I believe many times reveals our true desires), dreams of fleeing her circumstances and never looking back.

I am sure deeper analysis of these poignant stories is in order, but will have to wait for some more opportune moment. This post didn't really do them justice, but hopefully whets the appetite of all you Gen-Xers.

[Kyle Berk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sleepwalk and Other Stories is an amazing collection. It contains a bunch of stories. Some of them are a page and others up to twenty I think.

My personal favorite being Lunch Break. But all the stories are the kind of stories that really gel with me. They’re very intimate stories about the narrators who tell them. They fully utilize the comic medium intertwining the visual aspect with dialogue.

This is a small collection that I wouldn’t know about if I didn’t find it in a bargain bin at a comicon. And I’m so glad I did.

Not every story is as good as the last but I glad I read all of them.

5 stars.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book’s average GR rating of precisely 4.00 stars pretty much perfectly represents my GR-lensified appreciation of all the guy’s work: falling somewhere short of amazing and yet perfectly enjoyable, i.e., eminently 4-stars-able.

[pierlapo quimby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abbiamo la stessa età io e Tomine.
Lui a vent'anni scriveva e disegnava storie così.
Io a vent'anni cosa facevo? Cosa?

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ανάμεσα σε διάφορα άλλα λογοτεχνικά είδη, είμαι ένθερμος οπαδός του "Βρώμικου ρεαλισμού", είδος στο οποίο διέπρεψαν συγγραφείς όπως οι Τσαρλς Μπουκόφσκι, Τομπάιας Γουλφ, Τζον Τσίβερ, Ρέιμοντ Κάρβερ και άλλοι. Έχω διαβάσει πολλά διηγήματα και μυθιστορήματα αυτών που ανέφερα (καθώς και άλλων συγγραφέων σχετικών με το συγκεκριμένο είδος), τώρα είναι μάλλον η πρώτη φορά που διαβάζω κάτι σχετικό σε μορφή κόμικ. Ε, δεν μπορώ παρά να δηλώσω ευχαριστημένος από αυτό που μόλις διάβασα. Απ'όλες τις απόψεις.

Και οι ιστορίες μου φάνηκαν ενδιαφέρουσες, ειλικρινείς, ρεαλιστικές και ιδιαίτερα ανθρώπινες, αλλά και το σχέδιο και το όλο στιλ παρουσίασης των χαρακτήρων και των καθημερινών προβλημάτων και ανησυχιών τους μου έκαναν την καλύτερη δυνατή εντύπωση. Δεν ξέρω πόσους από τους συγγραφείς που ανέφερα είχε διαβάσει ο Tomine όταν -όντας μόλις είκοσι και κάτι χρονών- έγραψε και σχεδίασε τις συγκεκριμένες ιστορίες και αν είχε επιρροές από άλλους συγγραφείς και καλλιτέχνες, πάντως οφείλει κανείς να συμπεριλάβει ψηλά στην λίστα και το όνομά του στο ευρύτερο είδος του Ρεαλισμού. Με τις ιστορίες του ο Tomine παρουσιάζει διάφορα θέματα που απασχολούν όλους τους απλούς ανθρώπους, όπως η αποξένωση, η κοινωνική απομόνωση, η μοναξιά και η αδιαφορία των γύρω μας. Σίγουρα όλο και κάποια ιστορία, όλο και κάποιος χαρακτήρας, όλο και κάποια πράξη ή σκέψη θα θυμίσει στον καθέναν μας κάτι από την καθημερινότητά μας, αλλά και τον ίδιο τον εαυτό μας. Δεν μπορεί, όλοι νιώσαμε, ή εξακολουθούμε να νιώθουμε, ή σίγουρα θα νιώσουμε κάποια στιγμή στο μέλλον, συναισθήματα που ένιωσαν και κάποιοι από τους χαρακτήρες των ιστοριών του τόμου αυτού.

Ο Tomine μέσα σε λίγες σελίδες λέει πολλά πράγματα, οι ιστορίες αλλά ακόμα περισσότερο τα κοντινά πλάνα στα πρόσωπα των πρωταγωνιστών κρύβουν συναισθήματα αλλά και βαθύτερα νοήματα. Το σχέδιο είναι πολύ καλό και "παίζει" λιγάκι με διαφορετικά στιλ από ιστορία σε ιστορία, ενώ και οι διάλογοι είναι ανθρώπινοι και ρεαλιστικοί. Χαίρομαι πολύ που αγόρασα και διάβασα το κόμικ αυτό (και που μαζί του αγόρασα ένα ακόμα δικό του, το "Summer Blonde"), το μόνο σίγουρο είναι ότι θα εμβαθύνω ακόμα περισσότερο στο έργο του συγκεκριμένου συγγραφέα/σχεδιαστή.

[Abeer Abdullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

despite my desperate desires to get my self to be, I am not an avid reader of graphic novels.
so I will approach this as a work of literature, short stories to be exact.
I always admire, revere and prefer minimalistic approach for many reasons most of which that it takes great talent to project so much
through a relatively small opening. and mostly because our lives are almost always extremely minimal. sadness that is daily and utterly ordinary is often heartbreaking.
this book (and its author) has been compared to the works of woody allen. I however saw absolutely no resemblance to that, I thought it felt more like raymond carver. minimalistic realism, or dirty realism, a term that i think is super cool, coined by Bill Buford who described it as:
"Dirty realism is the fiction of a new generation of American authors. They write about the belly-side of contemporary life – a deserted husband, an unwed mother, a car thief, a pickpocket, a drug addict – but they write about it with a disturbing detachment, at times verging on comedy. Understated, ironic, sometimes savage, but insistently compassionate, these stories constitute a new voice in fiction."

Sleepwalk, drawn simply enough and described even more simply, mostly focused on clean, direct plots that tend to be so grippingly familier it feels like a memory you had that overwhelmed you saddened you, and every time you look back, you feel slightly ashamed to have let it get to you so much. forgetting that most human unhappiness is daily, small and undetectable.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this - basically a bunch of off-beat, graphic short stories; great for quick reading on the bus or train. I feel motivated to read all of Adrian Tomine's work after this.

[Shay Mcallister · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the second graphic novel by Adrian Tomine I've read, at my boyfriend's urging. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like Tomine's stuff. There is nothing positive or uplifting - it's always about couples breaking up, someone loving someone else who couldn't give a shit, or other stories of messed up people and/or their bleak lives. I'll take a pass next time.

[tiffosaurus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of want my money back. Talk about mundane, nothing happens at all in any of these stories. The cover looks nice, though.

[oxatg · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF
50%

[Owen Townend · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm afraid I didn't quite enjoy this comic collection as much as Killing and Dying. I would say this is because there was so much more despondency.

Despondency can of course make for gripping drama but I couldn't help but feel beat down by the endings of most of these stories. They are perhaps too familiar to my own life and outlook sometimes and were generally without a message of comfort. Tomine's similarity to the likes of Daniel Clowes becomes very apparent in Sleepwalk, which is to say that they are both keen observers of human nature but particularly of its more disappointing aspects.

Regardless there are a couple of strong short sequential art tales featured that intrigued me through the awkward relationships and grim decisions. Indeed the closer to true black humour Tomine writes, the greater my enthusiasm.

I recommend Sleepwalk to fans of comics and graphic novels about bad love and hard lives.

Notable Stories

• Echo Ave – this five-page ‘Rear Window’ scenario moves from believable to lovable to inevitable.

• The Connecting Thread – while the words were superfluous to the pictures, the last line was killer.

• Supermarket – while I agree that work and personal life should be separate, this ending was quite cruel.

[Vanya Prodanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Никак не харесвам стила на рисуване на Tomine, но историите му с всеки следващ комикс, който прочета, ми харесват все повече и повече. "Sleepwalk" е сборник с много кратки истории, някои дори са не повече от 2 странички.
Мислех си, че предните му работи, които четох, са депресиращи, но този сборник успя да изсмуче всякаква надежда от мен още с първата кратка история. До края направо ми идваше да си прережа вените или да скоча от някоя висока сграда или каквото там би било удобно и бързо. Реално, нищо не се случва, абсолютно нищо, но същевременно усещаш такова психическо напрежение, че не е истина. Гениален разказвач е. Наистина, не харесвам стила му на рисуване, но си мисля, че историите му нямаше да са толкова влияещи, ако не му е такъв стилът - груб и реалистичен.
Не съм попадала досега на друг комикс артист, който толкова откровено и реалистично да пресъздава отрязъци от обикновения живот на обикновени хора и да превръща тези отрязъци в силни послания.

[Jo Cameron-Symes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of Adrian Tomine's books that I have read and I prefer it to Killing and Dying.

What first attracted me was the stark cover and description which I thought looked like a modern take on an Edward Hopper painting. After reading this collection however, what it most reminded me of was one of my favourite short story collections; Richard Yates,' 'Eleven Kinds of Loneliness.' Largely because Tomine's characters were often portrayed as being lonely in the city, as Yates characters often were.

Tomine's characters were either outsiders, shy or pondering at missed opportunities for developing relationships. If these stories were adapted into screenplays I could see Sophia Coppola directing them as shorts perhaps, for Netflix or similar, as she has an affinity for bringing characters like these to life.

If you like realism and graphic novel narratives then give this a try.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non ricordo affatto perché questo libro sia finito nei miei to-read, però ringrazio la me stessa che ha avuto la lungimiranza di salvarlo. Sono storie molto ben fatte, spesso tristi, e raccontano la vita di persone normali. Sono storie molto americane nella loro quotidianità, e dal taglio indubbiamente cinematografico.
Sostanzialmente Tomine ci permette di sbirciare nella vita privata di uomini e donne di ogni età e la cosa è stranamente gratificante. Nonostante la brevità delle storie, c'è anche una sensazione di... di densità, di completezza. Mi spiace doverlo restituire in biblioteca, è un libro che desidero possedere

[Jed Richardson]

Tomine is (maybe) my fav cartoonist so it was about time that I go back to his early stuff.

Pretty good! I genuinely think that Tomine is one of the modern masters of the medium, and this really just proved that he always had the juice, even if I think that he really he just improved with each subsequent work. His most recent stuff is just phenomenal. It's strange, I completely unintentionally read his entire oeuvre in reverse chronological order.

My favourites from this collection were SUMMER JOB, SUPERMARKET & PINK FROSTING. I also have real soft spot for THE CONNECTING THREAD; what an excellent premise. I know there's a degree of subjectivity to the ending of all these stories, but that was an instance were I was really longing for something greater. You could take that same premise and craft a incredible thriller story.

Anyhow, can't wait for him to release more stuff.