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More copies of this ISBN:Was She Pretty?by Leanne Shapton
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In this brilliant gem of a book, artist/writer Leanne Shapton weaves together a voyeuristic tale of love and life through epigrammatic vignettes and sleek line drawings. Entire relationships are encapsulated in a few, stingingly perfect lines: "Colleen was Walter's ex-girlfriend from med school. She loved to dance with men at weddings." Pricking our insecurities, Shapton introduces us to Kim, whose ex "kept a drawerful of love letters in a kitchen drawer...She would stare at it while she cooked." And Ben's ex, "a physiotherapist for the U.S. men's and women's Olympic swim teams. She wore small white shorts year-round." Fascinated by her own jealousy, Shapton interviewed acquaintances about their anxieties and peccadilloes, and the result is a book of surpassing originality: one of those unusual books that comes along to delight us all, like An Exaltation of Larks or Love, Loss, and What I Wore or Griffin and Sabine. Was She Pretty? can also share the shelf with the work of the legendary William Steig, whose early, psychologically revealing work inspired Shapton. An unflinching observer of human behavior, she invites us to peer into the hearts and minds of her characters — while reminding us that we shouldn't be surprised if we see ourselves staring right back. Review:"Illustrator Leanne Shapton's debut reads like a graphic-novel-cum-children's-book: each spread includes one or more scratchy, b&w line drawings plus short, facing-page, poetryesque texts. Its content, though, leans much more toward Sex In the City than Shel Silverstein, exploring conflicting feelings aroused in women by their boyfriends' ex-lovers. It's narrated (and drawn) by a sharp but weary onlooker who is very intimate with all the principles, who seem to form a loose circle of friends. A picture depicting 'one of the women Len used to know' shows a dour, hot, tight-sweater-wearing woman who is summed-up with deadpan wit: in one sentence, she's 'an opinionated academic,' in the next, it's revealed, with barely concealed jealousy, that 'She wore braces and they looked fantastic.' Shapton also captures a complex brew of nostalgia, lingering attachment, relief, rage and intoxication harbored by the men: they keep letters, hairclips, phone numbers and are occasionally also honest with themselves. In a serial description of Margaret's adventures reading her boyfriend Scott's journals, which deatail his past relationships, 'Scott described seeing Diane on the subway with another man, and feeling jealous, but sorry for the man.' Diane looks very mean, and the book is pitch perfect from start to finish." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Illustrator Leanne Shapton's debut reads like a graphic-novel-cum-children's-book: each spread includes one or more scratchy, b&w line drawings plus short, facing-page, poetryesque texts. Its content, though, leans much more toward Sex In the City than Shel Silverstein, exploring conflicting feelings aroused in women by their boyfriends' ex-lovers. It's narrated (and drawn) by a sharp but weary onlooker who is very intimate with all the principles, who seem to form a loose circle of friends. A picture depicting 'one of the women Len used to know' shows a dour, hot, tight-sweater-wearing woman who is summed-up with deadpan wit: in one sentence, she's 'an opinionated academic,' in the next, it's revealed, with barely concealed jealousy, that 'She wore braces and they looked fantastic.' Shapton also captures a complex brew of nostalgia, lingering attachment, relief, rage and intoxication harbored by the men: they keep letters, hairclips, phone numbers — and are occasionally also honest with themselves. In a serial description of Margaret's adventures reading her boyfriend Scott's journals, which deatail his past relationships, 'Scott described seeing Diane on the subway with another man, and feeling jealous, but sorry for the man.' Diane looks very mean, and the book is pitch perfect from start to finish." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Deceivingly simple, Leanne Shapton's Was She Pretty? pairs melancholy, broad-stroked portraits with stories about sundry men and their exes...in just a few sentences. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly Review:"[T]hese women, like all the exes, are summed up in only a few skeletal lines of words and ink and thus have no persona, no life....We are thus left with an imprecise, lugubrious portrait of modern single women, which soon becomes wearing..." Marisha Pessl, The New York Times Book Review Review:"[A] modest achievement. The drawings, while not virtuosic, are expressive; the language is correspondingly plain yet evocative. Permeated with fears and desires, Was She Pretty? effectively creates a dreamlike experience." Salon.com Review:"More bitter than sweet, more funny than sad, Was She Pretty? reads like a cross between a children's book and a collection of poems, with a ferocious Dorothy Parker twist." Daily Candy About the AuthorLeanne Shapton is an art director, illustrator, artist, and publisher based in New York. She has contributed work to The New York Times, Harper's, The New Yorker, GQ, Jane, Flaunt, and Seventeen, among others. She runs J&L Books with the photographer Jason Fulford. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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