Reviews

Eu sabia que não ia conseguir pousar este livro. Sabia que mal o começasse teria de terminá-lo, sem pausas, sem interrupções. Ficou muito tempo parado à espera do momento para tal. Finalmente chegou e... sinto-me uma privilegiada por ter lido esta maravilhosa história. Terminei de a ler com o corpo a reagir: pele arrepiada, olhos húmidos, cérebro com mil pensamentos. Às vezes o simples é o mais bonito. A simplicidade e humanidade desta história tocaram-me de uma forma difícil de explicar. Tenho as mãos frias, mas o coração quente. Balada para Sophie é especial. Mesmo muito especial.

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5.0

‘But… how can someone be happy while trying to be someone else? You end up being a secondary character in your own life.’

Uh, holy shit. I’m typing this during the “I’m not crying, you’re crying” moments immediately upon finishing Ballad for Sophie, a graphic novel about the life of a fictional famous pianist superstar. Beginning in a small village in 1933 France, young, wealthy Julien Dubois first hears
François Samson, the impoverished son of a janitor, perform piano in a competition and their brief meeting kicks off a sweeping, emotional epic as their lives are irrevocably intertwined. Told as a series of interviews to a young journalist as Julien, now a recluse, is dying from cancer, this is a visually stunning tale of of jealousy, war, fame, shame and—of course—music. Written by [a:Filipe Melo|3475473|Filipe Melo|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1555151601p2/3475473.jpg], gorgeously illustrated by [a:Juan Cavia|3475474|Juan Cavia|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1611923862p2/3475474.jpg] with background art by [a:Juan Cruz Rodriguez|22338254|Juan Cruz Rodriguez|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], and translated from the Portuguese by [a:Gabriela Soares|17394682|Gabriela Soares|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], the writer and illustrators backgrounds in cinematography and directing are evident as reading this feels as close to viewing a big budget blockbuster film in a theater. It relies on a lot of musician bio-pic tropes, though being couched in the familiar also allowed it to extract an incredible amount of emotion. It gave me chills at times, pulled the heartstrings like it was conducting an orchestra, had a few good laughs, but what resonates most is the tenderness amidst it all.

This truly felt like a historical fiction film epic. The story follows Julien, though he insists to the journalist that he does not want to be the subject of her article, as he traces the path of his life, always living with an aware that François Samson is somewhere out there. And making music he believes is impossibly good. When his mother bribes the judges to allow Julien to win despite François being the clear victor, it sets up a jealousy where Julien just wants to beat him honestly. While their lives go in different directions, Julien always has François at the back of his mind like an itch he cannot scratch. Even as an old, weed smoking, former musician who hasn’t touched a piano in years, he still listens to François every day.

François (left) and Julien at two different, fateful meetings

This book gives the scenes a moment to breathe, taking place over many decades and keeping a steady and engaging pace. We watch a young Julien living on the streets and bonding with the other unhoused people during the war, and then using his mother’s connections to give up his self-hood and identity to become Eric Bonjour, a multi-million record selling artist. But does fame satisfy a true artist when they are merely a puppet on the strings of corporate record labels?

The book does tend towards a lot of clichés, such as Julien diving into ye ole spiral of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll, the affair, the abusive producer (who is drawn as a big evil goat because that is how Julien remembers him), and the twist ending, though it also is part of what makes it seem like such a big Hollywood-style narrative. The familiar territory embeds it into the whole cannon of music films, making it a cozy place to nestle within and harmonize with the emotions the art and writing is able to extract. Also it gives the artist the opportunity to do a few pretty impressive drug scenes:

But most importantly, it makes your impression of Julien a roller coaster of emotion, which, obviously, the journalist is also experiencing. After the life of the streets scenes full of camaraderie, we watch Julien discover ‘suddenly, in this story, the villain…was me.’ Melo’s biggest achievement is creating flawed characters that, even in their darkest moments, we can still empathize with. Is there a redemption arc coming, we must ask ourselves, and why does Julien seem so content in his dying days? There are also some extremely touching moments in this book, and Melo does well by creating moments that are somehow both tender and dark or upsetting at the same time.

Don’t say “aww” too soon on this one…

Ballad for Sophie took hold of me and I could not put it down. This is a big, epic tale and I love the framing of how, despite Julien being the center of the story, he is the secondary character for much of the tale with the mystery of François always on slow burn. Someone else is always making anything happen for him too, and must learn to embrace himself and find his own sense of self-agency. It’s a moving story with extraordinary artwork that helps make everything resonate and it seems only a matter of time before this is picked up for a miniseries or film. It’s also one of the few times I’ve found a graphic novel to have a lot of really quotable lines. You’ll laugh, cringe and cry at this one, and even the pretty glaring moments of cliche are more or less excusable in the context of the full effect. Ballad for Sophie is a hit for sure.

4.5/5