Sophie Yanow

I finished Sophie Yanow’s graphic novel _The Contradictions_ yesterday. It’s a story about a twenty year old American woman in Paris on in a study abroad context. She meets a woman who’s an anarchist, and they have an adventure. It’s so carefully understated, so simply phrased, and similarly drawn, so that nothing extraneous distracts from the pregnancy of interpretation. Each statement could be read a few ways, and the hints from facial expressions guide but a little. I like this. show more The page fades and you fall into the scenarios, the little unstated tensions playing themselves out here and there. The frustration of being young and newly aware of your place in a society you did not shape or opt into, the nascent hope of a better world even while you haven’t fully grappled with the complexities those possible worlds bring, all piled into the newness of a different place and the endless possibility of a new friendship, or something more. Negotiating norms alongside desire, plumbing comfort and stress side by side. All this comes through in simple black and white drawings of gangly folks whose understated facial expressions provide just enough of a glimpse into the oceans beneath that it seems more real than photographs. I liked it and recommend it. show less

A feckless American college student studying abroad in Paris finds herself crushing on an anarchist poser and ditches her friend to follow the hot girl on a hitchhiking adventure across Europe. I found myself disliking the book for quite a while, until I realized I was looking at it through the disapproving lens of a father with a daughter the same age as the author. Once I reflected on how I felt at 20, her actions become more understandable. The ending helped solidify my turnaround.

I love it when interesting graphic novels cross my desk. This one kind of reminds me of my daughter, as it's about a young woman with strong social and political beliefs who finds herself in Europe, doing a study abroad program. She has a hard time finding a community, until she meets Zena, and ends up planning a radical hitchhiking trip from Paris to Berlin. As expected, it is filled with missteps and unanticipated exploits, but despite what feels like the inherent risk of such a venture, show more nothing really bad happens. They have their radical political ideals, but they are both middle-class white American women, with nothing to stop them from exercising their privilege, except their own principles. So, they hitchhike and couch-surf, visit museums and take drugs, and in the end they are still friends, though perhaps a little weary of each other. It is the kind of adventure every young person should have, throwing caution to the winds, and trusting the universe to deal with them fairly. I suppose it's kind of a sad commentary on the state of the world, that I felt suspicious, even anxious, that it wouldn't end well for them. It gives me hope that it actually does. show less

I picked this book off the new graphic novels shelf at one of my local libraries, mostly because it was thin and would be a quick read. I plucked it off my to-read shelf before bedtime and didn't even glance at the description on the back before I started reading. I fell asleep ten minutes into it, about halfway through. In the morning I started reading again and realized I didn't really understand the point of this book from what I had read so far, so I read the first paragraph on the back show more cover. It's set during a 2012 student strike in Montreal and examines how modern city planning is intended to thwart citizen uprisings and revolutions, giving tactical advantages to the police and military. Huh. Well that seemed interesting, and indeed the second half of the book starting touching on the architecture stuff. But as in the first half of the book, the writing and art were so sketchy I felt as if I were reading a rough thumbnail guide or outline of what could have been an interesting graphic novel. It was a disappointing mix of moments, vignettes and memories that didn't make me care about the protagonist, the strike, or Montreal. The Notes section at the book's end, hinted at how much potential the author had squandered as far as the city planning/citizen suppression information. Finally, to demonstrate either how little I engaged with the book or how poorly the author executed it, after I finished reading the book I read the second paragraph on the back cover and only then realized that the protagonist of the book had been female. I had not picked up on that from the story or the art. show less