
A darkly funny portrait of middle America seen through the stunted, numb minds of its childrenNick Drnaso's comics mercilessly reveal the sterile sameness of the suburbs. Connected by a series of gossipy teens, the modern lost souls of Beverly struggle with sexual anxieties that are just barely repressed and social insecurities that undermine every word they speak.
A group of teenagers pick up trash on the side of the highway - flirting, preening, and ignoring a potentially violent loner in their midst. A college student brings her sort-of boyfriend to a disastrous house party with her high-school acquaintances. A young woman experiences a traumatic incident at the pizza shop where she works and the fallout reveals the racial tensions simmering below the surface. Again and again, the civilized façade of Drnaso's pitch-perfect surburban sprawl and pasty Midwestern protagonists cracks in the face of violence and quiet brutality.
Drnaso's bleak social satire in Beverly reveals a brilliant command of the social milieu of twenty-first-century existence, echoing the black comic work of Todd Solondz, Sam Lipsyte, and Daniel Clowes. Precisely and hauntingly recounted, each chapter of Beverly reveals something new - and yet familiar - about the world in which we live.
A group of teenagers pick up trash on the side of the highway - flirting, preening, and ignoring a potentially violent loner in their midst. A college student brings her sort-of boyfriend to a disastrous house party with her high-school acquaintances. A young woman experiences a traumatic incident at the pizza shop where she works and the fallout reveals the racial tensions simmering below the surface. Again and again, the civilized façade of Drnaso's pitch-perfect surburban sprawl and pasty Midwestern protagonists cracks in the face of violence and quiet brutality.
Drnaso's bleak social satire in Beverly reveals a brilliant command of the social milieu of twenty-first-century existence, echoing the black comic work of Todd Solondz, Sam Lipsyte, and Daniel Clowes. Precisely and hauntingly recounted, each chapter of Beverly reveals something new - and yet familiar - about the world in which we live.
Publisher:
Montreal : Drawn & Quarterly, 2016
Edition:
First edition
ISBN:
9781770462250
1770462252
1770462252
Branch Call Number:
741.5973 D8339B 2016
Characteristics:
133 pages : chiefly color illustrations ; 25 cm



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Add a CommentStrange and macabre but interesting I guess...
What...did...I...just...read? This was one of the weirdest graphic novels I think I have ever read...and not in a good way. I understood some of it, but definitely not all of it. The art was distracting -- it reminded me of that King of the Hill cartoon. And while it was a series of short stories, they all were tragic and depressing. But I have to say, some of the depictions of suburbia are too true for comfort which is why I gave this 2 stars instead of 1 star. Just...weird.
Clean, crisp drawings; bittersweet linked stories of small town life in middle America.