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The Book Of Human Insects (2011)

by Osamu Tezuka(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1935654209 (ISBN13: 9781935654209)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

Vertical

review 1: This was an odd mixture of enjoyment and alienation for me. I'm not a huge Tezuka aficionado, so it was a new experience to read his stuff, especially the more "adult" driven work. It feels weird to read: there are big themes and interesting characters, but a cartoony sensibility puts a limit on how affecting their stories can be. The drawings of jazz clubs and urban industrializing 1960s Japan are just magical. The set piece where one character is killed in rhythm with a nearby piledriver was pure genius in composition and pacing. The story was goofy in the way the main character is an All About Eve thief of multiple skills: acting, architecture, design, photography. She's impossibly malevolent. A little more nuanced characterization would have been nice, but maybe that j... moreust wasn't how the story was meant to be told. And the amoral ending is bleak in both a really intelligent and really unsatisfying way.After multiple scenes of the exaggeratedly lithe main character luxuriating nekkid, you just want to grab Tezuka and shout at him: Okay, I get it already, she's sinuous and always has erect nipples every time you draw her with her shirt off. Move on! And yes, she's very S-shaped with pointy toes. I didn't understand why the four chapters were named after the four insects they were named after. Maybe that was a bit of cultural information that didn't translate.
review 2: This is only the second novel of Tezuka that I have read, but if this is any indication of the quality I should expect from his vast oeuvre (this book is rated nowhere near his best among critics), then I am in for a treat. Tezuka, eternally optimistic and idealistic though he was, nevertheless released a series of incredibly dark and cynical graphic novels throughout the 1970s. 'The Book of Human Insects' is one such novel, with 'MW' being another classic example, and one that I am currently reading. The atmosphere of Polanski's darkest films pervades 'Human Insects', and Hitchcockian influences are also very much present. The suffocating air of dread, hopelessness and alienation is brilliantly conveyed by the - relatively simple - manga art(though abstract is probably a better word. The art is really quite intricate) and strangely addictive: a real showcase of what a master storyteller Tezuka really was.Novice Tezuka readers are probably better off with one of the author's earlier works given the fact that this book is a bit difficult to get into. Nevertheless, this is a must for seasoned comic fans and Tezuka afficionados alike, and should definitely be picked up somewhere down the line. less

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