Carnet de voyage

from Laura:

Carnet de Voyage is Craig Thompson's travel journal while touring in Europe for Blankets and also researching for his next book, Habibi, in Morocco.

I love Craig Thompson's lines, which are so full of movement and energy, even after losing his drawing supplies and being temporarily reduced to ballpoint pen. I enjoyed the occasional appearance of a narrator/conscience/pep talker who helped him bear homesickness, worsening rheumatoid arthritis and a recent heartbreak ("You're just whiny and egocentric and somehow oblivious to the real suffering outside of you. It's an American trait. Boo hoo hoo, you lost your drawing supplies...this man draws with his mouth. Boo hoo hoo, your girlfriend left you...this old man is forced to beg show more on the street because there's no social security in Morocco. A donkey cart ran over his legs and now he's crippled. In Fez, you can buy ballpoint pens for Carnet. No need for fancy 'brush pens.'"). I loved his inclination to draw trees and cats above anything else.

A few more favorite quotes (better with accompanying images):

Aboard the bus, I sat next to the very first American I'd encountered in my Moroccan travels--Darren. We're the same age, both from the midwest, similar fundamentalist upbringing, but in contrast to me, he's the quintessential laid-back traveler--extracting pure joy from his journey. He quit his job, left his girlfriend, and sold all his belongings for an indefinite time abroad on an Ultimate Frisbee tour. Our pastimes encapsulate entire world views. While I'm hunched over a pad of paper in an almost fetal pose--he's extending his body in such a carefree manner--and frisbee's a cooperative rather than a competitive sport. That's the basis of my challenge in keeping this carnet...to draw as a manner of interacting with the world, extending myself...instead, I feel a bit isolated, neurotic, and burdened. Most often, I continue Carnet out of fear of disappointment in myself if I stop.

Our lives are so stupid and mundane and magical and sacred! I'm happy and sad and deluded and insecure and egocentric! show less

I hate this book for making me homesick for Strasbourg, though I lived there only 6 weeks, and though Thompson doesn't actually go to Alsace during his stay in France (at least, in the two months this journal covers).

I love this book for the beautiful illustrations of France and Morocco and all the people and things that Thompson saw. I love it for the reflections he has on love, and life, and working as a cartoonist. I love it for the determination he has, and the way he keeps drawing even though his hand is crippled with arthritis.

I feel like I got to know Thompson just a little bit through his journal, and it felt almost as though if I left my room, I would walk into the scenes on the page and be with him as he experienced show more them.

Thompson illustrated bits of his days almost every day during the months of April and May of 2004, and I am amazed at the amount of detail in them, and the techniques he used, considering how little time he had to do it (and also how much pain he must have been in from the arthritis). Between the time the journal ends and it was sent to the publisher for printing was a matter of weeks, which were also spent on publicity tours and other illustration jobs.

This travelogue was well worth reading, and a treat besides. It's definitely worth checking out. show less

Fieldnotes:
Morocco/South of France/Barcelona, March 5 - May 14, 2004

1 (Acknowledgedly) Self-Indulgent Travel Diary
1 Apparently Miserable Time
1 Temper Tantrum Before He Left
2 Injuries

29 Counted Instances of the Author Whining about Being Lonesome / My Lover Who Left Me / Wishing He Were Elsewhere
7 Weird Uncomfortable Goo-Goo Eyes About "Cute Girls" Who Were Uninterested
7 Scatological Jokes (Travel Diarrhea Just Isn't That Funny)
6 "Hick" Jokes That I Found Irritating

At least 2 references to "remembering this (something good) during my whiney moments"
0 Times he remembers such a thing during his MANY whiney moments

The Not-So-Short Version
I didn't like Blankets. At all. If I had realized that this was the same author, I would have left it show more at the bookstore. But I like to travel (both armchair and otherwise) and love to see sketchbooks of people's travels (especially as I don't have the talent to capture things I see in that way).

The author self-describes that his being "sickeningly sad and desperate to the core" is really "just whiney & egocentric & somehow oblivious to the real suffering outside of you" and a "doofy tourist acting out Orientalist fantasies in a poverty-stricken land". So if self-awareness makes you as a reader more able to stomach that behaviour, maybe this will work better for you.

Me? I found the author frustrating, sulky and unpleasant. I understand that he was grieving his prior relationship with a woman who was very ill, but that doesn't mean I want to wallow with him. I've spent a lot of time abroad and sometimes bitter and homesick and unhappy, yet this didn't resonate for me. I just rolled my eyes at the most recent drawing of him crying because he is so lonesome. Honestly, he just doesn't seem to be able to deal with his own company at all, which makes him a rather needy companion (even in print form). Add his need to see the "real" Morocco while simultaneously doing "his best to provoke the fundamentalists" and you have a person whose tribulations begin to seem awfully self-inflicted. Top off with a panel about travel diarrhea and this shall be immediately recycled.

His drawings of the cities he (sometimes) explores and the people he meets are gorgeous - though especially in Morocco, I really felt the lack of colors - drawing the Bab Bou Jeloud without any blue just doesn't capture it. show less

A graphic version of a travel memoir, in a sketchbook format. The author records a tour of Europe in support of his recently published book and the research that he does in Africa in preparation for his next novel. I found this a very engaging book to read -- I was totally immersed in experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of travel, in a way that I don't always feel when reading the usual travel memoir. This book made me realize how very different it is to read a graphic novel than it is a text-only novel. There's lots more back-and-forthing with the eyes to take in the whole story. Only downside was that I found the ending to be abrupt. Argh! Who cares if the page limits were reached? Maddening to end the narrative just like that.

I've never read anything by Thompson before (another Library Journal find) so it was a little funny to read this autobiographical account of a European book tour. It's a lovely graphic novel with portraits of the people he meets in France and an account of a side trip to Morocco. Now I'm curious and want to check out his other books. (June 29, 2005)

Now I'm envying Craig Thompson, jet lag, diarrhea or no. I was left with a vivid image of a trip, especially to Morocco. I read it all in one sitting this afternoon at my local library and its comparable to just having awoken from a dream, perhaps a stronger sensation than what I've experienced after some actual holidays. Craig knows a lot of nice people. My what camaraderie and refinement! Lucky man to have his publishing companies foot the bill. Lucky readers to have him document it so interestingly.

Thompson's drawings of street scenes, old friends, and friendly strangers are more real than any photograph, and his documentation of his insecurities, disappointments, and triumphs make me interested to read whatever he wants to put out -- tightly structured graphic novel, loose and quick travel journal, or anything in between.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2010/12/carnet-de-voyage-by-craig-thompson-2004.ht... ]