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The San Francisco Panorama (2010)

by Dave Eggers(Favorite Author)

4.18 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1934781800 (ISBN13: 9781934781807)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

McSweeney's

series

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern

review 1: McSweeney's 33 takes the form of a one shot newspaper called The San Francisco Panorama, about the size of a sunday paper. Besides the news section (brief), you get sections of investigative reportage, a sports section, a food section, a book review magazine, another magazine of various articles, and a comics section, all of which is presented in broadsheet fashion with two magazines inside. There are a huge number of contributors, many of them big names. Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, writes about the value of public schools, Nicholson Baker does a piece on closed paper mills in Maine and posits the idea that they save forests more than broadband stations. China Mieville writes about how bored he is with end of the world movies and suggests a reprieve. Salman Rushdie... more writes about Kara Walker, an artist who works with silhouettes. There's a fantastic appreciation of J G Ballard by Geoff Nicholson which'll make you want to re-read all of Ballard's work again. Also Dave Eggers interviews Junot Diaz and Miranda July interviews James Franco. The comics section is definitely worth a section as it's amazing. Chris Ware provides a build it yourself spacecraft for his comic strip "Rocket Sam", Dan Clowes spoofs "Lost in Space" with "The Christian Astronauts", while Alison Bechdel, Ivan Brunetti, Gene Luen Yang, Art Spiegelman, Adrian Tomine, Kim Deith, and Seth all provide strips. It's a definite highlight to an already gobsmackingly brilliant issue. The fiction in this issue, the reason why McSweeney's was created, is few at only 4 short stories by George Saunders, Seth Fried, the actor James Franco, and Roddy Doyle. Ironically, they're not that great except the always great Roddy Doyle who supplies a great story about a homeless Polish man and his friend who win the lottery. The best thing about this issue is the nonfiction. Investigative reporting on environmental degradation in California by Jesse Nathan, the cover story on the enormous new bridge being built in San Francisco and it's impact by Patricia Decker and Robert Porterfield, romance novels' cover men, an article on NASCAR racing, Sarah Palin's lack of ethics, film distribution, a playwright's fight against Wells Fargo to save a family from foreclosure, a 500 mile pilgrimage in South America, and a 5 month stint in Antartica for a local Oakland resident are all amazing. There's so much here I've barely cracked the surface in the review. I didn't read all of it, particularly sports as I've no interest in American football, basketball, or baseball, though Stephen King provides a massive article, wonderfully illustrated, about the 2009 World Series. But basically, there's so much here, so well done, there's something for everyone. Created over a year, this is McSweeney's most ambitious and best production yet. It continues to be a shining example of the relevance of the arts in the modern world and sustains a high level of creativity and imagination. You'll never read a newspaper with so much world class talent in one production, it's really amazing. In the mood to read something different? This is the one for you.
review 2: My favorite issue of McSweeney's ever. The newspaper format allowed it to do so many things, and so many of them well, that just -- wow. Really, really great stuff. I read it extremely thoroughly, though I have to admit I did skip one (very graphic) two-page photo spread of the butchering of a lamb. Some highlight include great short stories by George Saunders (this one especially) and Roddy Doyle, a number of beautiful comics and generally-gorgeous, large-scale art, a handy guide to how to pronounce authors' names, a nifty anecdote about Charlie Chaplin (he once finished third when he discreetly entered a Chaplin lookalike contest? awesome), some cool interviews, great stories about NASCAR and mortgage foreclosure and ultraorthodox Jews and walking across Spain and the longest-burning underground coal fire in America and Antarctica and growing pot in California, and so many other things (I loved the range of it all most of all).I recommend this one very highly. less

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