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A review by chadleyc
Russian Olive to Red King by Kathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen
4.0
This was...interesting.
A woman goes to work in a remote location. She is stranded in the wilderness. Her depressed lover has trouble leaving the house. And then there's an essay about elephants, death, and motels.
A lot of people have described this as an "experimental" work. It isn't really experimental. It's a piece of literary fiction in a graphic novel format. So, I guess, experimental for the graphic novel world, but using some standard tropes of modern literary fiction.
Russian Olive to Red King is by turns whimsical, dreamlike, and heartbreaking. I very much enjoyed the visual flow of the story and how the characters were on parallel tracks. Stuart Immonen's art has always been a favorite and I enjoyed Kathryn's writing immensely.
The only reason that this is 4 stars instead of 5 is that I felt the essay at the end took up too much of the book. Graphic novels are a marriage of art and word, but the minor visual aspects during the essay chapter didn't help the essay flow . The essay itself is a fine piece of writing, but it felt too stark after the wonderful marriage of art and writing in the rest of the book.
Still, pretty darn cool.
A woman goes to work in a remote location. She is stranded in the wilderness. Her depressed lover has trouble leaving the house. And then there's an essay about elephants, death, and motels.
A lot of people have described this as an "experimental" work. It isn't really experimental. It's a piece of literary fiction in a graphic novel format. So, I guess, experimental for the graphic novel world, but using some standard tropes of modern literary fiction.
Russian Olive to Red King is by turns whimsical, dreamlike, and heartbreaking. I very much enjoyed the visual flow of the story and how the characters were on parallel tracks. Stuart Immonen's art has always been a favorite and I enjoyed Kathryn's writing immensely.
The only reason that this is 4 stars instead of 5 is that I felt the essay at the end took up too much of the book. Graphic novels are a marriage of art and word, but the minor visual aspects during the essay chapter didn't help the essay flow . The essay itself is a fine piece of writing, but it felt too stark after the wonderful marriage of art and writing in the rest of the book.
Still, pretty darn cool.