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A review by twilliamson
Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine
5.0
Adrian Tomine is a master craftsman when it comes to delivering character-driven story. Each of the four stories contained in this book features characters whose problems are complex and whose ability to navigate those problems is fundamentally underdeveloped. Tomine's characters, as a result, feel fallibly human, and the discomfort of watching their lives fall apart is one of the ways the book emphasizes the importance of empathy.
I've often felt that Tomine's stories about broken people are much more a reflection on the listless generation of Millennials, even if Tomine himself would belong to Gen X. The stories he writes captures the anxiety of trying to adapt to a modern society that dictates selfishness as a feature of consumption. So many of his characters don't know how to do anything other than use somebody else as a means to give structure to their lives; the human social language they speak is driven by ideas of a society enslaved by the ideological processes of late capitalism.
This isn't to say that Tomine's work is overtly political, but it's seldom, if ever, completely apolitical. Instead, Tomine asks us to come along on a journey to sample brief snapshots of the complicated, unhappy lives of his characters, as if seeing their flaws in the light of day may help us make sense of our own. It's one of the many things that makes him such a clear frontrunner in the world of comic literature.
I've often felt that Tomine's stories about broken people are much more a reflection on the listless generation of Millennials, even if Tomine himself would belong to Gen X. The stories he writes captures the anxiety of trying to adapt to a modern society that dictates selfishness as a feature of consumption. So many of his characters don't know how to do anything other than use somebody else as a means to give structure to their lives; the human social language they speak is driven by ideas of a society enslaved by the ideological processes of late capitalism.
This isn't to say that Tomine's work is overtly political, but it's seldom, if ever, completely apolitical. Instead, Tomine asks us to come along on a journey to sample brief snapshots of the complicated, unhappy lives of his characters, as if seeing their flaws in the light of day may help us make sense of our own. It's one of the many things that makes him such a clear frontrunner in the world of comic literature.