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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I purchased this behemoth of a book immediately after I opened it. The amount of detail Blair (the illustrator) on each page and each panel is astounding. The artistry alone warrants significant praise! Even more astounding is that the story meets the level of skill found in the illustrations.
The tale is enthralling and told masterfully! The settings, pace, emotions, and voices of the characters gave a level of depth unprecedented (as of now for me in relation to the other graphic novels I've read). The reader along with the son of the protagonist faces the struggle of finding humanity in "bad guys". The story stands as a testament of hope.
I recommend this book to everyone, but one must exercise patience. As mentioned, the book is THICC
The tale is enthralling and told masterfully! The settings, pace, emotions, and voices of the characters gave a level of depth unprecedented (as of now for me in relation to the other graphic novels I've read). The reader along with the son of the protagonist faces the struggle of finding humanity in "bad guys". The story stands as a testament of hope.
I recommend this book to everyone, but one must exercise patience. As mentioned, the book is THICC
reflective
fast-paced
A unique tale of one man, his father and his father's writing and legacy. This story is the true story of a Chicago mobster who ended up blind and in prison with the Nathan Leopold, killer and Chicago legend.
I greatly enjoyed the way the story was told, the illustrations were used to really show both the son and his father along with the various literary references. Different links of the story were expertly woven between the words and the artwork. Now that I have learned of Matt Rizzo's story I can't imagine being introduced to it any other way. The artwork has extraordinary detail and was beautiful to look at.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book for an honest review.
I greatly enjoyed the way the story was told, the illustrations were used to really show both the son and his father along with the various literary references. Different links of the story were expertly woven between the words and the artwork. Now that I have learned of Matt Rizzo's story I can't imagine being introduced to it any other way. The artwork has extraordinary detail and was beautiful to look at.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book for an honest review.
A fellow bookseller handed me this book, we were lucky enough to be sent a copy. I wrote a recommendation for the store, but I just had too much else to say.
Matt Rizzo was a real person, born on the West Side of Chicago in 1913. Kicked from the house of his parents at 16, he was arrested at 18 for armed robbery with a group of young men who were connected to organized crime in the area. Matt was blinded by the shopkeeper's buckshot.
After refusing to turn on his accomplices, he was sent to Statesville in Joliet, IL - the same prison as Nathan Leopold, one half of "Thrill Killers" Leopold and Loeb, infamous for the Nietzsche-inspired cold blooded murder of a 14 year old boy and the trial that would become the spectacle of the decade. The pair spent most of their time behind bars teaching fellow inmates, as well as getting shaken down by them. Eventually, when the money stopped coming in, Loeb was stabbed to death in the shower. Leopold was moved into "the bug," so called because the area was surrounded by guards with the prisoner in the center being watched like a bug under a glass dome, too depressed to teach. But this story starts long after the "crime of the century," after Clarence Darrow's famous 12 hour speech on behalf of the young affluent murderers, after the infamous duo had done a decade in prison.
Matt arrived at Statesville having only been a blind man for a short time, the gigantic echo chamber of a building filled with danger and noise must have been immediately overwhelming and constantly terrifying. The prison had never housed a blind man, so they placed him in the bug next to their most infamous inmate. Leopold was intrigued and learned braille in order to teach this newly blind young man how to read without sight. Rizzo worked his way through Dante's Inferno, each night discussing it with Leopold - both men consumed with grief and using the words of Dante to process oppressive prison life and mutual tragedy.
The narrator of the story, however, isn't Matt but his son Charlie Rizzo, who after having lived most of his life with his mother in California returns to live with his father in Chicago upon her death. The title "The Hunting Accident" refers to what Charlie believes blinded his father - something he understands as fact until he runs into some trouble himself in his teens.
Possibly the most affecting part of this book is why it was written, how it came to be. Matt Rizzo died in 1992 wishing only for his work to be published - a request his son took to heart, and ten years later he got a small portion of his father's work and their story in the Chicago Tribune, for a father's day piece. The thought was nice, but the article didn't quite encompass the intricate web of events and personalities that made the lives of Charlie and Matt Rizzo so fascinating.
Along with David Carlson's sensitive and thought-provoking narrative, Blair's illustrations move fluidly between reality and daydream, often conveying not only movement and actions but visual representation of emotion. He communicates Matt's blindness (p.99), Charlie's anxiety (p. 85), and Leopold's grief (p.242), so powerfully. The Hunting Accident is a moving account of a strange life; one that hooks into the mind, pulling it forward into the unbelievable truth with a stimulating mix of fact, embellishment, poetry, and confession.
Leopold and Loeb:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb
The Chicago Tribune article from 2002:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-06-16/news/0206160175_1_braille-blind-chicago-apartment
Matt Rizzo was a real person, born on the West Side of Chicago in 1913. Kicked from the house of his parents at 16, he was arrested at 18 for armed robbery with a group of young men who were connected to organized crime in the area. Matt was blinded by the shopkeeper's buckshot.
After refusing to turn on his accomplices, he was sent to Statesville in Joliet, IL - the same prison as Nathan Leopold, one half of "Thrill Killers" Leopold and Loeb, infamous for the Nietzsche-inspired cold blooded murder of a 14 year old boy and the trial that would become the spectacle of the decade. The pair spent most of their time behind bars teaching fellow inmates, as well as getting shaken down by them. Eventually, when the money stopped coming in, Loeb was stabbed to death in the shower. Leopold was moved into "the bug," so called because the area was surrounded by guards with the prisoner in the center being watched like a bug under a glass dome, too depressed to teach. But this story starts long after the "crime of the century," after Clarence Darrow's famous 12 hour speech on behalf of the young affluent murderers, after the infamous duo had done a decade in prison.
Matt arrived at Statesville having only been a blind man for a short time, the gigantic echo chamber of a building filled with danger and noise must have been immediately overwhelming and constantly terrifying. The prison had never housed a blind man, so they placed him in the bug next to their most infamous inmate. Leopold was intrigued and learned braille in order to teach this newly blind young man how to read without sight. Rizzo worked his way through Dante's Inferno, each night discussing it with Leopold - both men consumed with grief and using the words of Dante to process oppressive prison life and mutual tragedy.
The narrator of the story, however, isn't Matt but his son Charlie Rizzo, who after having lived most of his life with his mother in California returns to live with his father in Chicago upon her death. The title "The Hunting Accident" refers to what Charlie believes blinded his father - something he understands as fact until he runs into some trouble himself in his teens.
Possibly the most affecting part of this book is why it was written, how it came to be. Matt Rizzo died in 1992 wishing only for his work to be published - a request his son took to heart, and ten years later he got a small portion of his father's work and their story in the Chicago Tribune, for a father's day piece. The thought was nice, but the article didn't quite encompass the intricate web of events and personalities that made the lives of Charlie and Matt Rizzo so fascinating.
Along with David Carlson's sensitive and thought-provoking narrative, Blair's illustrations move fluidly between reality and daydream, often conveying not only movement and actions but visual representation of emotion. He communicates Matt's blindness (p.99), Charlie's anxiety (p. 85), and Leopold's grief (p.242), so powerfully. The Hunting Accident is a moving account of a strange life; one that hooks into the mind, pulling it forward into the unbelievable truth with a stimulating mix of fact, embellishment, poetry, and confession.
Leopold and Loeb:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb
The Chicago Tribune article from 2002:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-06-16/news/0206160175_1_braille-blind-chicago-apartment
I saw this on my fellow librarian’s to-be-cataloged cart and was intrigued by the art style. When I realized the story took place where I live, (Chicagoland) work (Joliet Public library) and volunteer (Old Joliet Prison), I was even more intrigued. The story is fascinating and well told.
Wow...I really enjoyed that... I had never heard of the Leopold and Loeb murder and was a little unclear as to how much of this was a true story. By the end I was fully invested. Landis Blair's crosshatching is perfect for the mood.
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
There are a lot of pages in this graphic novel but I anticipated it would be a relatively easy read. I was wrong. It is so intense that I could only read chunks of it at a time. It's the story of Matt Rizzo, a young blind man who in the 1930s ends up in prison. As much as he wanted to die, he connected with another nefarious prisoner who helped him find redemption through reading Dante's Inferno and writing poetry.
After he was paroled, he kept his past a secret, married and had a child. The marriage fell apart when his secret was revealed. It's only when his son, Charlie, begins to follow the gangster path, that he tells the truth about his history.
David L. Carlson has included Matt Rizzo's own words in this biography. Landis Blair's darkly detailed, gritty art integrates the text in such a way that you have to spend time absorbing them. It's the combination that makes the book so profound.
After he was paroled, he kept his past a secret, married and had a child. The marriage fell apart when his secret was revealed. It's only when his son, Charlie, begins to follow the gangster path, that he tells the truth about his history.
David L. Carlson has included Matt Rizzo's own words in this biography. Landis Blair's darkly detailed, gritty art integrates the text in such a way that you have to spend time absorbing them. It's the combination that makes the book so profound.
This is BRILLIANT! The interwoven stories and incredible art work all mesh together to tell a tale somehow even better than the sum of its parts. Every piece is treated with a deep understanding and compassion that perfectly encapsulate this complicated thing we call life. Will read again.