Asterios Polyp

by David Mazzucchelli

I started this blog to help promote things that I like, and to hopefully convince other people to try the same things. I have never kidded myself that my thoughts were particularly profound or any more informed than the next blogger, but writing these short reviews have forced me to think more about what I'm reading (or listening to), and to appreciate these things on a new level.

When it comes to this book though, I think I'm out of my league. I enjoyed reading it immensely, although I don't feel very qualified to discuss it in depth. I have only a passing notion of architecture and design theory, and am sure I missed many of the allusions and references in this book. As well, I feel that I should read it through a couple more times before I would attempt any kind of scholarly appraisal.

So, all that said, I'll discuss this comic as a casual reader. It's really frigging good.

The book starts in Asterios's cluttered, well-lived in apartment. The picture here is not that positive - we get the impression of a lonely, disappointed man. Then lightning strikes his building, setting everything on fire, and he flees his old life.

From that point, the book moves through a few different narrative strands. We see, through flashbacks, Asterios meeting, falling for, and marrying his soon to be ex-wife. We get to see how that happens too. These pages tend to be in blues, and reds, (most of the book has purple). As well, the story continues to follow Asterios, as he ends up in a remote small town (Apogee), getting a job at a mechanic's shop, and renting a room with him, his reincarnated wife, and their child (and his imaginary friend). These pages are more yellow in hue, and much looser in look.
The third strand is narrated by Asterios's unborn twin brother, who provides us with an omniscient view into Asterios's mind, and details other interesting things.

As these pieces of the story continue, we begin to piece together the different aspects of Asterios's life and character. It's fitting that Mazzucchelli's last comic work was an adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass, because much of the book reads like an Auster novel.

What really sets this book apart though is the brilliance of Mazzucchelli's art. He's always been an accomplished cartoonist, but he really is working at another level here. In some parts of the book, the characters are portrayed as they see themselves, so that Asterios resembles the beginning stages of an artist's layout, while Hana virtually glows with an aura of warmth. Each character has their own typeface, and no small detail is overlooked - even the money talks ("$").

This is a beautiful book, with many stunning sections. There is a montage where Asterios helps Hana remove a defective Q-Tip from her ear, that manages to encompass all the banality and glory of their marriage in a few short pages. The Orpheus-inspired dream sequence is stunning.

I would like to read the book again before I would comment on the theme of duality that runs through the book, or discuss any of the other themes. This is the type of book I can see being pulled off the shelf on a yearly basis, as it deserves a lot more reflection and time than one short read can give it.