Challenging but replete with stimulating insights.
Interweaving prose and graphic art, Hendrix explores the lives, faith, intellectual world, and long, complex friendship of two titans of modern fantasy.
As in The Faithful Spy (2018), Hendrix’s hybrid-format biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this volume charges hard into deep and difficult territory—tracking, for instance, C.S. “Jack” Lewis’ progression from naïve believer to staunch atheist to profoundly religious thinker and probing reasons for the friction that grew between him and his close friend J.R.R. “Tollers” Tolkien in the 1950s. Tracing the shaping of their novels while contrasting the styles and personalities of the pair as they egged one another on, Hendrix also fills in the intellectual background with discursions into the differences between fairy tales and myths, largely delivered in extended graphic segments by an affectionately caricatured wizard and lion as they squire readers through a metaphorical series of significantly labeled doors. Though the author sets off direct quotes with asterisks and carefully sources them, he invents some dialogue; for a happily-ever-after ending, he’s also invented a loving reconciliation scene. Hendrix’s claim (although rooted in Eurocentric bias) that “these two tweedy middle-aged academics just so happened to re-enchant the world” carries plenty of heft. The monochrome art is charming and cues a younger audience than the text, which is complex conceptually as well as in its vocabulary and cultural and historical references.
Challenging but replete with stimulating insights. (author’s note, context on myths and fairy tales, notes on research and authenticity, glossary, endnotes, bibliography, index) (Graphic biography. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781419746345
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Abrams Fanfare
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A tribute to young people’s resistance in the face of oppression.
In 1983 South Korea, Kim was learning to navigate university and student political activism.
The daughter of modest restaurant owners, Kim was apolitical—she just wanted to make her parents proud and be worthy of her tuition expenses. Following an administrator’s advice to avoid trouble and pursue extracurriculars, she joined a folk dance team where she met a fellow student who invited her into a banned book club. Kim was fearful at first, but her thirst for knowledge soon won out. As she learned the truth of her country’s oppressive fascist political environment, Kim became closer to the other book club members while the authorities grew increasingly desperate to identify and punish student dissidents. The kinetic manhwa drawing style skillfully captures the personal and political history of this eye-opening memoir. The disturbing elements of political corruption and loss of human rights are lightened by moving depictions of sweet, funny moments between friends as well as deft political maneuvering by Kim herself when she was eventually questioned by authorities. The art and dialogue complement each other as they express the tension that Kim and her friends felt as they tried to balance school, family, and romance with surviving in a dangerous political environment. References to fake news and a divisive government make this particularly timely; the only thing missing is a list for further reading.
A tribute to young people’s resistance in the face of oppression. (Graphic memoir. 14-adult)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-945820-42-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Iron Circus Comics
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
