240721: comfortable book for architects and architecture-interested. coffee table. big. heavy. extensive. many new buildings, many familiar- but then 240721: comfortable book for architects and architecture-interested. coffee table. big. heavy. extensive. many new buildings, many familiar- but then I look at art-architecture books (49). just photos, no plans, little capsule commentary. only in person seen ones in Canada (Vancouver, Montreal) and Hawai'i......more
24021: there is apparently genre of television limited-run something like 'soap operas' known as 'telenovelas' in Brazil. having never seen one but ha24021: there is apparently genre of television limited-run something like 'soap operas' known as 'telenovelas' in Brazil. having never seen one but having read of their usual melodramatic nature, I think this might be prose version. it is entirely probable all cultures have equally extravagant family dynamics in lives and arts. one of which reflects the other but it is unclear who is reflected and who is real. so I go by descriptions of other GR reviewers who are Brazilian, and seem united in claiming its verity. this is not my family. we are quiet, polite, calm. we are Canadian. but as tropical vacation, as spectacle to entertain, as saudade to live, this is very good work......more
210428: this is my new favourite amado. what has bothered me on several other workif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
210428: this is my new favourite amado. what has bothered me on several other works of his, particularly more recent, is the rampant sexism. still here, still strong, but woven so tightly into comic/satirical recount of bahia's native autodidact genius, that it seems incidental local culture. to me anyway. archango is a man denigrated and ignored in his lifetime and afterward by certain educated and upper class until, decades after his death, famed american nobel winner says this is why he came to the city. archango is truly man of the people...
archango is an interesting portrait of what amado characterises as heroic: proud black man (mulatto), lives large, beds women (many), takes his duties as 'eyes' of syncretic african god seriously, if nothing else, streetwise intelligence, brave etc. only difference is he also seems to be intellectual, writes several books, researches on 'african influences in bahia' among others (lineage, cookbook). when the nobel winner mentions him the pr industry gets involved and there is centenary of his birth, though there is satire about exactly how he is changed from his actual life...
the way this book is written is probably one reason why i like it so much. there are historical passages of his life interwoven with more current (1969). there are the comic misadventures of poet who starts to research on archango, contrasted with how he lived much more successfully, there is how he is promoted from mere 'runner' at the medical school to pillar of society, contrasted with passages of his actual historical life, his poverty, his generosity, his fierce opposition to doctrines of racism in favour of, more or less, everyone 'mixing'. this is personal affection i have always felt for amado: my background is mixed (hawai'ian/white canadian) and i always thought of brazil as one big kaua'i (mom's home island). by now i know this is not the case, but remember whenever there my cousins and friends there who were all 'mixed' and how this seemed the way the world should be......more
230219: well i love Naked Lunch.. this is sort of an early-twentieth century precuif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230219: well i love Naked Lunch.. this is sort of an early-twentieth century precursor. surreal, vicious, ugly, sensual... very darkly comic. fun. review to follow.....more
i now have an entire new art to look for. new names, new history, new interpretations. and a reason to maybe go to houston...(where the collection is)i now have an entire new art to look for. new names, new history, new interpretations. and a reason to maybe go to houston...(where the collection is)......more
i am trying to figure out what exactly i want in a graphic work, and to some degree these are emblematic, if only one is a favourite (The Spirit) https://www.goodreads.com/review/list..., the only one i got on sort of impulse buying (needed a break after reading some philosophy), one a gift (Patience) from my friend the comics illustrator, the other two just saw at the library...
i had read the novel by Milton Hatoum (The Brothers)- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... so i knew the story, i knew it was brazilian, i knew it was exotic, i knew it was translated. i actually prefer the graphic to the novel, the style of art with black/white, compositions often tilted, figures and landscapes often blended together, the images tell the story with representational focus but abstract, immediate, the plot driving through Manaus from the wealthy bourgeoisie to the criminal underworld, the characters particularly of the brothers well-delineated, foreshadowing and thematic intensity work well... mainly i liked this more than the book because it was a swift, easy read, and the artwork made me think of Tardi...
Liberty Meadows vol. 2, well, i liked it but the story, being mostly episodic, mostly comic, mostly familiar from the last time i read Liberty Meadows, do not know what i expected: do know that the artist is very good on smooth, curving lines, the animals are cute, goofy, the humans perfect for each character- and Cho must really like big-breasted women cause he draws her from many expressive angles and the nebbish character seems a stand-in for an assumed straight male reader, which is fine i guess but limits her role, his plot, his misfortunate inability to talk to her, to ask her out... i suppose i would have liked some plot, some complexity, something more than antics of the animals and relentless sexism...
Patience- friend gave it to me liked the plot, wondered how i would take it: yes the plot is cool, is intriguing, is a good mix of romance and 'sci-fi' and revenge and action, moves through well-defined eras with strong characterization, the thug as well as the narrator, the art?... i guess it is just my tendency to find plots in written work and go to graphic work for the art, and this art did not work for me like Ghost World by Clowes, if it was deliberately flat, simple, stiff characterizations and postures, then maybe i need to look at it again. as is, this made me wonder if the artist for Liberty Meadows had drawn this work, i might have liked it more... but would the story work as well?
The Best of The Spirit- i had heard of Will Eisner, had glanced through Contract... but was always put off by the artwork, so here i was pleasantly surprised by what i imagine is only graphic technology of the day, of the solid blocks of colour, of the simple figures, none of this detracted from the remarkable and concise plots of each adventure- i was amazed, i think i have to look at his other work, i enjoyed how he tells the story in images, how swift, how direct, with just the right amount of comic and satiric moments... definitely my favourite of these four works......more
291017 from 230216: just read this again and again it is definitely a graphic favoif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
291017 from 230216: just read this again and again it is definitely a graphic favourite. story, themes, characters, plot- everything in exactly the right medium. could be anywhere, could only be where, could be best here. i can see why it was awarded......more
041115 from ??? childhood: much later later addition. i have now read this twice- over a gap of decades, so who knows how many books. i seem to recall041115 from ??? childhood: much later later addition. i have now read this twice- over a gap of decades, so who knows how many books. i seem to recall something about usual american bestsellers having the average vocabulary of an 8th grade reader, and this is certainly the case here (i might have been in 7th grade). for poetics i might give this lower marks, but language is not important only to be simple, ordinary, accessible, to lead the reader into the plot with minimal distraction...
the other reason i would give it lower is not the fault of the text: somehow i remember too clearly the movie, the scenes, the actors chosen. so i am comparing the written to the visuals. this is another mid 70s paranoid conspiracy thriller The Day of the Jackal, Marathon Man, Six Days of the Condor... read when too young to know much, reread now to reassess, which is my momentary project, to immerse, experience, remember the era much as crime pulps recreate the thirties, forties and fifties, as fantastic pulps like e r burroughs recreates tens to twenties. and this is very much of its time. in language, cliche, stereotypes, attitudes, technology, and of course paranoia. i have only ever read two by levin, Rosemary's Baby, but this is better for me than that if maybe less than The Stepford Wives ... you cannot get better villains than nazis or more horrific plot than nazis again... so i reaffirm my young rating with only some reservations...
this is a much later addition: so i am reading it again- decades later...
first review, by memory: i was not yet 17 (usual cutoff date) for years, so i do not know if i should count it on here... but then i remember reading this at night under the covers, so it was effective, to me as a kid anyway... thought i had already put this on here. cool idea, favourite conspiracy book up there with day of the jackal, another i was too young for... wait a sec: i think i will read it again just to check......more
301218: read 021115. i did not then and do not now have any argument that promotes this to five stars. i just did. it is called ‘the world’s game’ and301218: read 021115. i did not then and do not now have any argument that promotes this to five stars. i just did. it is called ‘the world’s game’ and ‘the beautiful game’ but then my love is almost entirely as spectator, sure i played as kid, not sure if we had actual positions or i just liked wandering upfield... and so this book might to educate, experienced, readers where the game is a big deal, seem thin or contrived as any of those sports-heroes bio films ever seen. but i like this weird fantasy/sport/mysticism and the exposure of making myth. this is how i would like to imagine the players the play the games the emotions...
i remember discussing with girl about relative merits of art (we were at some ballet...) and sport (i had wanted to watch something not very important...). she claimed art always expressed some emotions, summoned love, mourning etc. i said the only difference was that in sports you never know the ending, less the emotions you will have getting there... and i was really living through the most boring three hours in monkey suit with beauty beside me, but then she had come to some game for me. maybe my love of sport is too much to the art end (beautiful losses, ugly wins...), to team or player or season narratives, but this book works both for me......more
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