Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139233 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 102 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781896597126
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review

Customer Reviews

Brilliantly Heartbreaking
The sixteen stories contained here are predominantly quiet angst-ridden portraits of young men and women who are experiencing some kind of loss. Several lurk in the disorienting and heartbreaking wake of breakups. "Six Day Cold" is perhaps the most touching of these, showing a young man with a severe cold encountering his ex-girlfriend on the street. She takes care of him, bringing him soup and whatnot-and the way Tomine captures the unseen wistful looks he gives her is shattering. It's an awkward emotional terrain he captures with equal precision in the title story.

Indeed, awkward situations are Tomine's forte, from threatening teenagers on a bus in "Hostage Situation," to a family vacation in "Dylan & Donovan" to the realization of shifting friendships in "Hazel Eyes" or a supermarket worker encountering a blind customer out on the street in "Supermarket." Tomine's ability to rapidly capture the exact right emotional tone of each situation and character is amazing. The longest story, "Summer Job" is pitch-perfect in showing a slacker-punk middle class kid on summer vacation from UC Berkeley (A Berkeley resident, Tomine sets many of his stories in and around Bay Area.). The kid's arrogant disdain for the Kinko's-like job he takes and his complete obliviousness to the economic realities of his co-workers is dead on and enraging.

Another common theme is loneliness, from the difficulty in long-distance relationships in "Long Distance" and "Layover" to an old widow remembering better days in "Lunch Break" or the creepy tale of a young woman who's stalked via the personal ads in "The Connecting Thread." Thus, it should come as no surprise that on the whole, the collection can be rather depressing (apparently Tomine's other collection, 32 Stories, is more upbeat). Of course it should be noted that the artistry is consistently graceful and real over the 102 pages, and the book's design and production is lovely and understated. This is the graphic novel to give people who would never consider picking one up.

Disparate
"Disparate" is really the only word one could use to describe Tomine's writing style. His depictions of the inner pains that many of us know, especially from our late teens and early twenties, are almost painful to read with all of the insecurities that they bring flooding back. This angst ridden collection of stories is the collected works of his first eight editions of the comic book "Optic Nerve" which Tomine produces yearly.

Sleepwalker is an excellent introduction to his work, where as his other trade paper back "32 stories" is a collection of his earliest work and while some of the stories are very amusing, it's also very raw, and out of the normal vein of work Tomine is known for.

good good good
there's only one word for adrian tomine-- good. he is so good. his comics are wonderful. the drawing is great, and the stories...well, the stories generally deal with relationships gone bad, in one way or another. although his comics can be very sad, they are also very very good. most of the stories in "sleepwalk" are pretty morose, check out "32 stories" for more funny, upbeat material. "sleepwalk" contains the first four issues of "optic nerve." overall: fantastic.