Renee

author: Ludovic Debeurme
name: Wayne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2016/11/17
date added: 2016/11/17
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
'Renee' by Ludovic Debeurme is part two of a story started in a book called Lucille. There is a various cast of characters and it's the graphic novel equivalent (to me anyway) of an independent film. That means I liked it quite a lot.

The book is told in a series of vignettes that I thought at first were not connected, since I didn't read the first book. Lucille lives with her overbearing mother. Her lover Arthur is serving time in prison. Renee is a new character in this volume and her story follows her affair with a jazz musician named Jacques who is older than her. The mood is melancholy and the theme is despair and dissatisfaction. Arthur gets a new cell mate and he may be a pedophile. Renee didn't know Jacques was married when they met. Lucille misses or is haunted by her father. One of the inmate remembers the murder he committed at sea that landed him in prison.

The book has no borders. The characters faces distend and stretch grotesquely sometimes. A father hiding in a tree lowers his arm and they distend to become a swing. Strangers in a crowd have exaggerated features. The characters are not pretty, and some seem pretty ugly, like the prison inmates who have ugly faces as well as ugly souls.

It's a quiet contemplative read, but one I enjoyed like a good independent film. It made me think and reflect. I liked the experience.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Top Shelf Productions, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.


via Wayne's bookshelf: read http://ift.tt/2eM8Ql2