The Shiniest Jewel: A Family Love Story
by Marian Henley
Springboard Press, 176 pages, $21.99.
This is a new, and I think first, graphic novel from Marian Henley. I wouldn’t be surprised if her name doesn’t ring any bells, though I suspect you may have seen her work once or twice before. For a long time (1981-2003), she was best known for the comic strip Maxine, one of those weekly, “single woman takes on the world,” proto-”Sex and the City” type alternative strips that could be found in magazines like Glamour and dealt with the standard fare like men, relationships and shopping.
Now she’s attempted to tell the story of how she, in her 40s, adopted a child from Russia and finally married her long-term boyfriend at the same time her father was terminally ill.
As memoirs go, that’s not bad stuff. Sure, it’s might not have the same unique, one-of-a-kind narrative pull of, say, Persepolis, but with an eye for detail and some deep digging, you could come up with a really engaging, insightful story.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the case at all here. Henley frequently indulges in obvious and twee visual metaphors. This is the sort of book that features lots of little hearts with happy faces on them flying around and being stung by Cupid’s arrow, or being torn apart into pieces when given bad news.
Henley doesn’t seem able to really delve beyond the surface. Her running commentary, both visual and verbal, keep things very much at the surface level, so that she often comes up with pat answers or trite expressions to describe her situation (Upon exlaiming “the cat was out of the bag,” she actually draws exactly that). Her minimalist, thin-line style doesn’t help much here. I never got a real feeling of place that would help convey the toll of the journey she took from the US to Russia and back. It all looked like one big, square, white room to me.
There are snatches where you can see a better book peeking out from behind this one, most notably when Henley recites one of her father’s letters from World War II, or when describing the Igor’s arrival in their new home. But overall, The Shiniest Jewel plays it far too safe. I kept wanting more from Henley than the greeting card sentiment she was offering. Of course, there are those readers for whom the term “greeting card sentiment” is far from a negative application. If you’re one of those folks, then by all means, have at.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I agree whole-heartedly. I found this to be a shallow and self-absorbed book (cartoon? long-greeting-card?) that left my shaking my head on the money I spent (wasted). Although self-absorbtion can sometimes be very fascinating (when explored to depths that lead to understand or increased openess), that is not this case with this piece.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I disagree wholeheartedly.
I’ve been a fan of Ms Henley’s work for many years, so I had an idea of what to expect. A book subtitled “A Family Love Story,” also prepared me not to expect psychological dissections in the vein of Dostoevsky. Upon reading your review, I pondered how she might have better delved beneath the surface, by say, connecting the dots between the adoption and 19th Century Russian agrarian reform. No, too elitist. Or she could have indulged in self-loathing revelations about tawdry one-night stands and substance abuse (if they were applicable). No, there are more than enough of those in in the graphic novel cannon. The book is charming, honest, and unpretentious. As to objections to her sparse style, it’s like saying that Chris Ware’s style is too formal and complicated. He has his style and Ms Henley has hers, and the world is a better place because of both. Cheers.