The book tour, by Andi Watson
This book came in to my possession almost by chance. I had some money to spare this month and wanted to spend it on a graphic novel (living lavish, i know) this one, out of all the other ones in the book store that day, looked most appealing to me after a quick sift through the pages. Its fitting then, that the book is all about a guy that gets majorly screwed over by circumstance.
The book tour tells the story of G.H Fratwell, a relatively unknown english author who, upon the publication of his latest novel has to now go on a book tour to promote It. The book tour is a colossal disaster from day one, and on top of that he becomes the main suspect of some murders he didnt commit.
The story is almost simple in its structure, with Fratwell going from bookstore to bookstore, and hotel to hotel, and misfortune to misfortune, all without cracking that very British "politely inconvenienced" face.
Its a very kafkaesque tale, not only in its themes and presentation, but with a lot of references peppered in. For example, the title of Fratwells novel -- "No K" is one of many references to The trial, a short story that this book is clearly inspired by. You can see a very heavy kafka influence not only in the plot itself but the tone of the story, finding humour in the absurdities that Fratwell goes through, and in Fratwell himself almost perpetuating some of the things that happen to him by wanting to not inconvenience whoever It was that was making him miserable at the moment. It is a book ultimately about Fratwell and his downward spiral, as he realizes no one around him really cares about him, his book, or wether or not he killed a woman. I wont spoil the ending here, but make sure to be prepared If you like things neatly tied up. The ending DID work for me, and it kind of gets me reflecting upon the work and making me want to read again, which is good!
The art also wraps around the story pretty perfectly, with very simplified designs for every character (especially our main character) and more detailed backgrounds and buildings. It is pretty to look at and delicately drafted, and gave me the feeling that the street itself was swallowing up Fratwell, while providing a lot of character to all of the generic european towns and bookshops he visited. One of my favourite sequences in the novel is the opening one, where we see a character arriving in town through a lot of big wide pannels of cityscape. It reminded me almost of a movie, and in fact the timing displayed throught the whole story is really tight, this being not only pacing, but the pannel-to-pannel and page-to-page timing that really makes you feel those akward situations Fratwell puts himself in, and even the timing of the "jokes" the book has.
Ultimately, while i could write a lot more about the themes and overall message of the story (its pretty dense and would take me at least another re-read), its a light read that one could do in a rainy afternoon. It IS quite derivative of Kafka, but in a way that didnt bother me as someone who didnt really know all the references going in (but might bother someone who does for all i know) id definately reccomend this if you want a real dream-like experience, where in the end you can really chew on the story for a while.
Thanks for reading and make sure to tune in next week where i will read uhhh another comic.
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