Blankets
Craig Thompson
Friends who have read lots of graphic novels always recommend this one to me. I finally managed to get my hands on a copy–and quickly read it on a train to Maryland. Yes, this review has been queued a while.
The copy I got through my library was HUGE (I think it was just a few pages shy of 600). I thought it would take forever for me to get to the end, but the story is so interesting that I flew through it. I finished it within two days. I came into the story not knowing what it was about, except that on the cover there are two people hugging in the snow and that there were seven trillion pages.
Reading the author’s story of brotherhood, first love and naive views of God, religion and life was sometimes wonderful. I found myself laughing, smiling and wishing I could go back to times when I had experienced the same thing. At other times, the story was painful and made me remember my own pain. I wanted to pull the main character from the panels and cradle him in my hands, and tell him that things would be okay.
The setting of the graphic novel isn’t like the one I grew up in, but we’ve all been in his shoes at some point or another–perhaps not to the same degree, but pain is pain, whether it is residue from a first love, or from a family that doesn’t quite see the world through the same glasses.
Also, the art is awesome. And I adored the main character from the first page. Anyone who is a fan of graphic novels should check this one out.