Publisher's Weekly Review
For decades, Mazzucchelli has been a master without a masterpiece. Now he has one. His long-awaited graphic novel is a huge, knotty marvel, the comics equivalent of a Pynchon or Gaddis novel, and radically different from anything he's done before. Asterios Polyp, its arrogant, prickly protagonist, is an award-winning architect who's never built an actual building, and a pedant in the midst of a spiritual crisis. After the structure of his own life falls apart, he runs away to try to rebuild it into something new. There are fascinating digressions on aesthetic philosophy, as well as some very broad satire, but the core of the book is Mazzucchelli's odyssey of style-every major character in the book is associated with a specific drawing style and visual motifs, and the design, color scheme and formal techniques of every page change to reinforce whatever's happening in the story. Although Mazzucchelli stacks the deck-few characters besides Polyp and his inamorata, the impossibly good-hearted sculptor Hana, are more than caricatures-the book's bravado and mastery make it riveting even when it's frustrating, and provide a powerful example of how comics use visual information to illustrate complex, interconnected topics. Easily one of the best books of 2009 already. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Even by the standards of the graphic novel, this cosmic epic pushes the creative envelope. With previous credits including superheroes for Marvel Comics and the transformation of Paul Auster's City of Glass into a graphic novel (2004), Mazzucchelli returns with a title that suggests a mid-period Pink Floyd song and an illustrated narrative that is every bit as mind-blowing. It begins with a bolt of lightning that destroys the New York City apartment of the title character, a pompous academic who is celebrated (or who celebrates himself) as a "paper architect." He draws plans for buildings that will never be built, and his theories inform many of the panels, rendering them as the graphic equivalent of metafiction, design about design. For many pages at a stretch there are few or no words, as a single panel might stretch across a page or two. Yet the narrative functions something like memory, flitting from the presentin which Polyp finds work in a small-town auto shop, after losing everything in his apartment fire, and inserts himself within a community that proves surprisingly accommodatingthrough critical junctures of his past. It seems that Polyp was actually a twin, and that his stillborn brother might be providing narration. He has also somehow married a beautiful, talented, Japanese-American artist named Hana, though something went wrong with the marriage well before the lightning bolt. In this graphic novel of fate, chance and shooting stars, Polyp insists that "I am the hero of my own story," yet the art provides plenty of evidence to the contrary. A visual and even philosophical stunner. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Highly regarded for his work in comics both mainstream (Batman: Year One, 1988) and alternative (his adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass, 1994), Mazzucchelli has been largely MIA for the past decade. His long-awaited return is an ambitious tale of a celebrated middle-aged paper architect that is, one who has never actually built anything. After the sudden destruction of his home by lightning, he abandons his wretched life, skulking off to a small town, where he rediscovers his humanity. The simplicity of that facile summary, along with the deceptively cartoony drawing style Mazzucchelli has adopted for the work, makes it easy to miss its genuine accomplishment. The sparseness of his illustration gives necessary clarity to his complex storytelling, which employs intricate and imaginative panel arrangements and a constantly shifting chronology. The theme of duality recurs throughout the meticulously constructed work, most overtly in the form of Polyp's twin brother, who, despite having died in their mother's womb, plays a crucial role in the proceedings. It's a testimony to Mazzucchelli's skills that by the end of Polyp's odyssey, the arrogant academic has been rendered a tragic and sympathetic figure deserving of the tale's (possibly) happy ending.--Flagg, Gordon Copyright 2009 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
ALTHOUGH Harry Truman left office widely disliked and dismissed more than half a century ago, the effort to resurrect his reputation is now a thriving industry, with politicians and pundits of all stripes trying to tie themselves to the tough, blunt old cold warrior. Contributing to this effort, the husband-and-wife team Allis and Ronald Radosh have written "A Safe Haven," the story of Truman's integral role in the birth of Israel. While some of Truman's foreign policy accomplishments - the creation of the Marshall Plan, the United Nations and NATO, and his defiance of the Soviets - have gotten the credit they deserve, the Radoshes say, his involvement in the creation of Israel remains overlooked. That may not be quite right. Most modern histories already acknowledge Truman's early support of the Jewish state; it's hard to overlook the fact that he recognized newborn Israel just 10 minutes after its delivery. That said, what these histories don't recognize - and here's where the Radoshes make their contribution - is just how hard Truman had to work to get there, battling enemies, allies and many in his own administration to make certain that Israel made it to independence with American backing. It was, as the Radoshes make clear, a long, tough slog. Truman, who fell into the presidency unprepared after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, inherited a mess in the Middle East. The suave and urbane Roosevelt (one of the Radoshes' villains) had pursued a policy of "obfuscation" on Palestine, assuring both Jews and Arabs that he was sensitive to their concerns. This meant that on taking office, Truman had to deal with a tangle of contradictory commitments. He also had to face down two implacable opponents of Jewish statehood: Great Britain, the colonial power in Palestine, and his own State Department, which bitterly opposed granting the Jews a homeland. Yet Truman - a biblical literalist and a Christian Zionist - had long been a fierce believer in Jewish statehood for reasons both religious and moral. The Old Testament said that Jews belonged in Israel. And Truman was appalled by the Holocaust (which gave him nightmares), as well as by the scandalously poor treatment of postwar Jewish refugees in European displaced-persons camps. And so this "simple man" waged a long and often bitter diplomatic campaign to help ensure that the Jews got a country of their own. Truman's remarkable perseverance is recounted by the Radoshes in readable prose, with good anecdotal color, a general sense of fair-mindedness (except perhaps toward the Arabs) and impressive detail. How much of this will be interesting to the general reader is another question. At times the detail slips from impressive to oppressive. And the authors don't help matters by failing to adequately signpost their narrative, stopping their recounting of events to explain why various moments were particularly important. Nor do they do quite enough to substantiate their claims that without Truman's help, Israel might never have come into being or have survived its first few years. After all, the real work of midwifing the nation wasn't done in Washington conference rooms but on the rocky soil of Palestine itself, where a ragtag bunch of European immigrants fought to establish a new country. Nor do the Radoshes sufficiently account for the fact that early American support for Israel was actually quite limited - Israel initially got its arms, for example, from the Soviet bloc. And then there's Truman himself, who proves a slightly awkward hero. The problem is his philo-Semitism, which was of the creepy sort that relies heavily on Jewish stereotypes and could easily curdle into its opposite when the president was annoyed by the Zionists' endless badgering, leading to anti-Semitic tirades. Still, the creation of Israel remains a remarkable, odds-defying story that bears retelling from different angles. And at a time when Washington and Jerusalem find themselves at odds and some are questioning the future of the alliance, it's worth recalling how the relationship began, and the role of the straight-talking haberdasher from Missouri who worked so hard to make it happen. Jonathan Tepperman is the deputy editor of Newsweek International.
Library Journal Review
This is a big, fat pleasure is to be relished. Titular Polyp is a "paper architect," an academician with nary a concrete example of his work. He has also imploded into inertia during a mid-life crisis. From his urbane, abstract, self-created realm he is exiled (by lightning, no less) into the "real world," somehow finding himself working as a grease monkey in the Midwest. Flicking back and forth in time, the story recounts cocksure Polyp's messy past with his wife, Hana (reminiscent of Updike's Rabbit). Polyp's stoical development is a reverse of the usual tame-your-rampant emotions type. Rather, he tempers his previous reticence and aloofness by developing emotions, behaving tenderly toward Hana, and caring for others. The acclaimed artist behind City of Glass, Mazzucchelli here offers confident illustrations that masterfully interweave with the dialog and propel the story forward. Though the characters are cartoonish in appearance, the book's grimy details (e.g., litter; wax dripping down a candle) demonstrate the difference between comics and a graphic novel. Characters differ in appearance widely, each seemingly created by a different artist.-Douglas Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Middletown (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
