Paulsen quotes Katherine Anne Porter: "Art is what we find when the ruins are cleared away." In exploring this provocative remark, he reveals much about his own art. Seedy, independent Mick arrives in Bolton, Kansas, to design its Vietnam Memorial. For days, he observes and draws—animals, people, the graveyard—followed by narrator Rocky, a "caramel-colored" lame teenager adopted, at nine, by good-hearted Emma and Fred. Enthralled by Mick's art, Rocky realizes that she, too, is an artist; Mick agrees, offering pointers and the respect due a fellow professional. But the town is appalled by Mick's drawings: his telling chalk reveals too much—including Tru (who hired him) in the nude. As Mick anticipated, people react most negatively to what he considers his strongest work. Then, skillfully, he leads them to accept a monument to please everyone: 18 trees, one for each of Bolton's military dead, going back to the Civil War. Rocky calls BoRon "a microcosm of the world." Of course—but only as seen in the idiosyncratic if wise vision of Mick, who wryly succeeds in giving the town a dignified monument despite itself. He also transforms two lives: Rocky finds a calling; Tru, awakened to her own humanity, joins Mick when he goes. Meanwhile, several "ruins" are suggested—wars and bar fights; the lives of Mick, Emma, and Fred (who drink a lot but function well); orphaned Rocky;, Mick's rejected drawings. Each gives rise to some sort of art or to a creative relationship; the macho view of the artist lurks, but not offensively. An intriguing, ironic tale, written vividly and with memorable humor. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-385-30518-4
Page Count: 151
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION
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Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises.
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What would you do with one day left to live?
In an alternate present, a company named Death-Cast calls Deckers—people who will die within the coming day—to inform them of their impending deaths, though not how they will happen. The End Day call comes for two teenagers living in New York City: Puerto Rican Mateo and bisexual Cuban-American foster kid Rufus. Rufus needs company after a violent act puts cops on his tail and lands his friends in jail; Mateo wants someone to push him past his comfort zone after a lifetime of playing it safe. The two meet through Last Friend, an app that connects lonely Deckers (one of many ways in which Death-Cast influences social media). Mateo and Rufus set out to seize the day together in their final hours, during which their deepening friendship blossoms into something more. Present-tense chapters, short and time-stamped, primarily feature the protagonists’ distinctive first-person narrations. Fleeting third-person chapters give windows into the lives of other characters they encounter, underscoring how even a tiny action can change the course of someone else’s life. It’s another standout from Silvera (History Is All You Left Me, 2017, etc.), who here grapples gracefully with heavy questions about death and the meaning of a life well-lived.
Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises. (Speculative fiction. 13-adult).Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-245779-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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A slightly abridged graphic version of the classic that will drive off all but the artist’s most inveterate fans.
Admirers of the original should be warned away by veteran horror artist Bernie Wrightson’s introductory comments about Grimly’s “wonderfully sly stylization” and the “twinkle” in his artistic eye. Most general readers will founder on the ensuing floods of tiny faux handwritten script that fill the opening 10 pages of stage-setting correspondence (other lengthy letters throughout are presented in similarly hard-to-read typefaces). The few who reach Victor Frankenstein’s narrative will find it—lightly pruned and, in places, translated into sequences of largely wordless panels—in blocks of varied length interspersed amid sheaves of cramped illustrations with, overall, a sickly, greenish-yellow cast. The latter feature spidery, often skeletal figures that barrel over rough landscapes in rococo, steampunk-style vehicles when not assuming melodramatic poses. Though the rarely seen monster is a properly hard-to-resolve jumble of massive rage and lank hair, Dr. Frankenstein looks like a decayed Lyle Lovett with high cheekbones and an errant, outsized quiff. His doomed bride, Elizabeth, sports a white lock à la Elsa Lanchester, and decorative grotesqueries range from arrangements of bones and skull-faced flowers to bunnies and clownish caricatures.
Grimly plainly worked hard, but, as the title indicates, the result serves his own artistic vision more than Mary Shelley’s. (Graphic classic. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-186297-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
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