Título: AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy
Autor: Jeffrey Brown
Sinopse: The final chapter of Jeffrey Brown's so-called "Girlfriend Trilogy." AEIOU continues to explore the subtleties of relationships examined in Clumsy and Unlikely, concentrating this time on the differences between knowing and loving someone, invoking the reader's relationship with the book as a parallel to being involved with someone. The story is told with Brown's trademark expressive drawings and juxtaposition of humor and heartache. From Publishers Weekly Apparently, one of the side effects of dating Brown is that he draws a comics memoir about you afterwards. This work, originally published in a limited edition, is Brown's follow-up to his previous dating books Clumsy and Unlikely, and documents the author's relationship with his third girlfriend (a co-worker at a video store) in detail, dredging up some emotionally loaded details. Like those other works, it's drawn in a deceptively low-key, dashed-off-looking way, with one or two little square panels on each page; and it again focuses on the banalities of predate small talk, mid-relationship kidding around and angsty postcoital chatter. Brown and Sophia hang out, have sex, break up, talk on the phone about their relationship, get back together, break up again, make out, argue, etc. There's no plot and no resolution, just a series of snapshots of the moments of intimacy that stick in a lover's memory. Brown draws beautifully—offhand-looking doodles have a magisterial sureness. There are a couple of fine set pieces, too, especially a section called "The Long Pause Before a First Kiss." Ultimately, though, Brown adds little to his previous observations on relationships. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist The misbegotten relationships that Brown began recounting in his graphic-novel debut, Clumsy (2003), and continued chronicling in Unlikely (2003), just flow on. Like its predecessors, his relationship here seems doomed from the start. Needy, awkward Jeff is tragically drawn to troubled young women like Sophia, who comes with sexual hang-ups and is a cutter, to boot ("I just don't believe in my heart of hearts that sex with you isn't just another form of self laceration," she tells Jeff--in bed). Again, Brown tells the story in a series of brief scenes of the couple on the phone, having sex, chatting in bed, preparing meals, and hanging out. AEIOU differs from its forebears in that the couple remains together at the end (an author's note indicates that the inevitable breakup has since occurred). Brown's shaky, awkward drawing style seems to spring directly from the shy, tentative character of the Jeff of the strips, with whose sensitivity one sympathizes while wanting, nevertheless, to hear one of his girlfriends tell her side of the story. Gordon Flagg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved About the Author Jeffrey Brown is the best selling author and illustrator of the middle grade Jedi Academy series, as well as the Darth Vader and Son series. When he was a kid, Jeffrey always dreamed of growing up to draw comics and make books for a living—and now he’s living that dream! Jeffrey has written a number of autobiographical books for adults ( Clumsy, Unlikely, and A Matter of Life, among others, all from Top Shelf Productions), humorous graphic novels about cats ( Cat Getting Out of a Bag, Cats Are Weird, from Chronicle Books), and parodies like Incredible Change-Bots (and its two sequels, all also from Top Shelf). His most recent project has been 40,000 years in the making: Lucy & Andy Neanderthal! Lucy and Andy are a brother and sister living in the stone age, where they struggle to survive mammoths, cave bears, and their own sibling rivalry. Lucy & Andy Book Two: The Stone Cold Age is available now.
Contexto da obra
Quando a classificação é mais ampla, o contexto do livro costuma depender ainda mais de autoria, tema e edição. “AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy”, de Jeffrey Brown, publicado pela editora Top Shelf Productions, em 2005 e com 224 páginas, integra a categoria Livros Variados. Por isso, autoria, edição e tema acabam tendo ainda mais peso na forma de apresentar o livro.
Editora: Top Shelf Productions
Páginas: 224
Ano: 2005
Edição:
Linguagem: pt_BR
ISBN: 1891830716
ISBN13:
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Top Shelf Productions costumam oferecer narrativas gráficas que transitam entre o surreal e o cotidiano, com personagens que enfrentam dilemas pessoais e sociais em ambientes ora urbanos, ora fantásticos. O catálogo revela uma predileção por histórias que misturam humor ácido e sensibilidade, variando entre o drama emocional e o absurdo cômico. Muitas obras exploram relações humanas complexas, memórias e identidades, enquanto outras se aventuram em mundos imaginativos com monstros e magia. A leitura tende a ser marcada por um ritmo que equilibra momentos introspectivos e cenas de ação, com uma linguagem visual que pode ir do minimalismo ao detalhismo expressivo.
