A review by vivamonty
Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel: A Graphic Novel by Anya Ulinich

3.0

This is the second graphic novel I've read this past week about failed relationships, which is more luck of the draw than a harbinger of crisis. I enjoyed the other one (Good Riddance) much more because I felt it was more insightful in its exploration of love and loss. This one dwells much more on the main character's neuroses. There's some interesting stuff here about the immigrant experience and how infatuation tends to erect a facade of happiness. But the bulk of the book, which is presented as fiction but is transparently a memoir, is the author vomiting existential and romantic crises onto the page. The artwork is well done and fits the text in many ways, but it infrequently drives the storytelling, which can be frustrating because you have to then wonder why the author didn't just make this a prose novel like her previous work. Still, I'm glad I read it, even though it was a slog in some places.