Gemma Bovery

A knowing graphic novel parody of Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary', written and illustrated by the wonderful Posy Simmonds. As is her wont, she gently mocks the English middle class and their desires. Here the target is expatriate English owning cottages in France. Gemma Bovery has married on the rebound and found herself living a boring dream in a French town. She proceeds to have affairs and go on spending sprees. The story is told by M. Joubert, a local baker who becomes obsessed with Gemma and her connection to the novel 'Madame Bovary'. While the book's sad ending for Gemma turns out to be inevitable, there is a lot of gentle social and cross-cultural humour on the way there.

A remake of Madame Bovary. Caustic and witty. Lots of text and breezy, appealing graphics. Gemma aspires to the perfect life, but reality doesn't please her. Actually, nothing really pleases her for long. She flits from interest to interest in the hopes that something will meet her expectations. Tragedy looms throughout the novel, but it still you cling to your seat to find out what will happen. Maybe I'll actually read Madame Bovary to see what that's like ....

Posy Simmonds is the most wonderful observer of life in Britain today, and her cartoons are stunning. This is a very clever parody of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, transmographied into a group of middle class English ex-pats trying to live the rural dream in deepest Normandy. Funny, irritating, embarrasing and delightful.

This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries.

This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries.

This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries.

This graphic novel was a great read. Normally I hate books whose plots center around infidelity, I get to anxious to enjoy them. However knowing the end at the beginning helped a lot. Gemma and her husband Charlie Bovery move to Normandy and their neighbor the baker Joubet starts keeping an eye on Gemma. Her name reminds him of Emma Bovery from the famous novel. He becomes obsessed with following her story because he feels she is going down a very familiar path. I love the way the story is told, going back and forth between the bakers point of view and Gemma's diaries.