Big Questions

Now this is what graphic fiction ought to be! There’s a touch of sort of sideways humor, a lot of violence, and a whole ton of philosophy, all from the viewpoint of a flock of birds. I can’t begin to characterize this book, but there are birds, ghosts of birds, some mean and macabre crows, an idiot and his grandmother, an owl, a snake, a pilot, a plane crash, the underworld, and some big questions. I adored this.

The first half of this book is gorgeous and I was rapt. The narrative comes on slowly, but when it does, you notice. Although a lot of the book is little birds saying clever things to each other, there's tension. You feel for these birds and their attempts to make sense of their world. Also, the dialog is funny.

Things unwind a bit toward the end. There were moments where I lost patience for page-after-page of two identically-drawn birds muttering philosophy 101 at each other. The plot begins to feel a bit plodding and haphazard.

Naive but well-meaning finches attempt to assist a surly self-destructive pilot and a slow-witted mute boy, as caustic crows provide commentary over dead flesh dinners, an owl stays on task, and a snake surprises. Sort of a bleak read, but if it's meant to be a fable we can conclude that morality is elastic, goodness is not often rewarded, and the masses are huddled out there in suspended animation. Oh, and guns are bad. Or at least that's how I saw it.

3.5. The incredibly beautiful artwork and poignant philosophical musings are often overshadowed somewhat by the fact that all the finch characters are exactly identical, so determining who is doing what and when, especially given the episodic nature of the narrative, is often very difficult. Also, not sure how I feel about the character of the Idiot--he seems like a needlessly literal and somewhat insensitive rendering of the Holy Fool archetype.

I wasn't going to buy this because it was fairly expensive, even used, but I kept flipping through it and couldn't stop reading it, so I had to. Then it took me almost a year to read it.
It's a doorstop sized graphic novel drawn in the ligne claire (clear line) style I love. I liked it a lot but I can't explain what it's about. Some finches and their interactions; a pilot who crashes; the birds think he’s emerged from an egg and that they should feed him; a retarded boy whose grandmother dies, leaving him to wander; a finch who is taken under the earth by a serpent.

This massive graphic novel grapples with some deep philosophical issues through the stories of a flock of tiny birds, a mentally retarded orphan, and a crashed jet pilot. I can’t say that I actually “got” what the author was depicting but the illustrations were beautiful and it did make me think a lot. Once I got into the book, I couldn’t put it down, or I wouldn’t have it the tome weren’t so heavy that my arms got tired.

My first time reading anything by this author. I enjoyed the novel and found the approach to storytelling and being a graphic novel different than anything I've previously read. Definitely this book has a tone and style all to its own. I enjoyed the birds and different characters. I think more could have been done to keep the story moving in different ways, at time I found the pace a bit slow. Overall would be interested in reading other novels by this author.