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Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel: A Graphic Novel (2014)

by Anya Ulinich(Favorite Author)

3.97 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0143125249 (ISBN13: 9780143125242)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

Penguin Books

review 1: This was a complete failure of the Bechdel test (if there were such a test of-the-page). In all honesty I wasn't even thinking about such a thing until I began growing so impatient with this protagonist that it occurred to me that all her concerns and conversations revolve around -- , ruminate upon --, hearken back to --, and agonize about -- ... you know what (men). Not only that, but there are often too many words per page and one could not establish a reading flow: almost entire recto/verso pairs of printed narrative intermixed with pages of drawings (and isn't that a cop-out if this is supposed to be a graphic novel?) So I decided this failed another Bechdel test - that of the inevitable comparisons of skillfulness at composing a graphic novel or me... moremoir.
review 2: The cover and the title are a mismatch with the content of this fictionalized graphic novel memoir. I would describe it as a dating/OkCupid story, with the protagonist Lena being a Russian immigrant living in New York City, who's been in the US for over two decades and has two children. While it opens with a trip back to Russia, the bulk of the novel is about Lena experimenting with online dating and a relationship with a man she calls the Orphan. I loved the artwork, and the way the author would draw a small little figure of Lena on the bigger Lena's shoulder as a sort of truthful little conscience. Flashbacks to childhood are integrated well into the current-day storyline. less

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