In: The Graphic Novel: Will McPhail

Product Information

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Harper) – If readers are willing to overlook yet another hideous American cover, they’ll find in Louise Erdrich’s latest novel - set in and around a small bookstore as it goes through the cursed year 2020 - as eloquent and at times stunningly accurate an example of so-called “COVID fiction” as they’re ever likely to read. He doesn’t want people to feel they have to connect with him, McPhail hastens to explain. “I know I’ve written a book about deep connections, but I’m still the guy from a little town in the north of England where no one discusses their feelings.” So how much is he prepared to tell me about those transformative conversations that made such an impact on him? “Um ...” he pretends to consider answering this. “Nothing at all!” Our main character spends most of his time alone in his apartment or drinking coffee in fancy cafes. Most conversations are shallow and inauthentic. When I first started reading this, I was delighted. It's so smart, cute, interesting. McPhail presents us with a white male MC who loves coffee and lives in the city and yearns for real human connections. He's charming, and the way his facial expressions are drawn puts a sparkle on the whole book. We start off with him searching for a bar at night to be sad in.

The Trees by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press) – Underneath its unprepossessing exterior (Graywolf avoided giving it a hideous cover by giving it not cover at all, just the book’s title on a piece of blank paper, like a manufacturer’s label stamped on a crate of pomegranates), this is a weirdly wry novel about race and perception that took me a couple of reads to appreciate - which is much appreciated in this era of tweets-as-manuscripts. In the end, I think I'm still going to give it five stars, although my enthusiasm for this awesome plot we were having dimmed once it was turned into a cancer book. I'm going to give it five stars because it is just SO FRESH and McPhail's writing is so on-point. His illustrations are also great. He should be very proud of himself. Do you hear me, Will McPhail? Be very proud of yourself and take this moment to revel in creating a very fresh and well done GN.Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. The house blend is aged in the cavities of reclaimed string instruments and their croissants ask not what they can do for you, but what you can do for them. In is most autobiographical in its humour, says McPhail, teasing his own “woke boy” tendencies and patronage of trendy cafes across Edinburgh. (His custom rivals JK Rowling’s, he claims: “If my book is anywhere near not a flop, I better get some plaques around this place.”) But In did spring from his own experience of breakthroughs in connection, the “conversations that feel kind of transcendent in their intimacy”, he says.

Starts as a charming romantic comedy and turns into something tender and affecting about our need for connection. I loved this one. ' David Nicholls It's more emotional than I thought. I'm quite emotionally hardened given I read a lot of existential philosophy and some of the cringey YA comics normally underwhelm me in trying to communicate revelations deeper than their form of articulation. But the ending to this is very well choreographed and powerful. It surprised me, because it begins with some slightly clichéd dialogues, but the imagery later on is really good and accessible to a lot of readers. It's very relaxed and down-to-earth and is trying to communicate something important and universal to anyone who's ever wanted to deeply connect with people. The book is very funny, a dry kind of humour, that aches as much as it makes you laugh. The portion of the book that handles his mother's illness is really only introduced after you've met the mother a couple of times already, which is a smart decision. It is where the humour dissipates and real life hits.

Customer reviews

A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. My current program is small, and I remember my friend and I talking on that first orientation day, two and a half years ago now. He just sat next to me, cut out all the shit, and asked “Alan, do you believe in God?” Imagine opening with that dude. I don’t much care about the topic of discussion, but rather the energy you are bringing to the table. He opened with something that takes people 5-6 meetups to get to, and even then they do it with trepidation. I respected it. This is my 2nd advanced reader copy (ARC) review. This means I received this ebook for free, in exchange for this review by Netgalley. I'm not financially motivated, as I read library books, so I only read ARCs I actually think will be good enough for me to rate and review honestly. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Viking) – This big, completely captivating novel by Ruth Ozeki features a boy who hears a vast, wild symphony of voices from the world around him and seeks only to make sense of it all; at first it seems whimsical, but it carries more heft and wonder than anything this author has ever written. Starts as a charming romantic comedy and turns into something tender and affecting about our need for connection. I loved this one. ‘ David Nicholls