Synopses & Reviews
First serialized in The New York Times Magazine “Funny Pages”
The celebrated cartoonist and New Yorker illustrator Seth weaves the fictional tale of George Sprott, the host of a long-running television program. The events forming the patchwork of Georges life are pieced together from the tenuous memories of several informants, who often have contradictory impressions. His estranged daughter describes the man as an unforgivable lout, whereas his niece remembers him fondly. His former assistant recalls a trip to the Arctic during which George abandoned him for two months, while George himself remembers that trip as the time he began writing letters to a former love, from whom he never received replies.Invoking a sense of both memory and its loss, George Sprott is heavy with the charming, melancholic nostalgia that distinguishes Seths work. Characters lamenting societal progression in general share the pages with images of antiquated objects—proof of events and individuals rarely documented and barely remembered. Likewise, Georges own opinions are embedded with regret and a sense of the injustice of aging in this bleak reminder of the inevitable slipping away of lives, along with the fading culture of their days.
Review
"Through a Citizen Kane-style mélange of interviews with those who knew him, the emerging portrait has the messiness of reality....Much of Sprott was serialized in The New York Times Magazine, but this enormous (14'' x 12'') book makes him feel larger than, well, life. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly
Synopsis
First serialized in
The New York Times Magazine's “Funny Pages”
The celebrated cartoonist and New Yorker illustrator Seth weaves the fictional tale of George Sprott, the host of a long-running television program. The events forming the patchwork of Georges life are pieced together from the tenuous memories of several informants, who often have contradictory impressions. His estranged daughter describes the man as an unforgivable lout, whereas his niece remembers him fondly. His former assistant recalls a trip to the Arctic during which George abandoned him for two months, while George himself remembers that trip as the time he began writing letters to a former love, from whom he never received replies.
Invoking a sense of both memory and its loss, George Sprott is heavy with the charming, melancholic nostalgia that distinguishes Seths work. Characters lamenting societal progression in general share the pages with images of antiquated objectsproof of events and individuals rarely documented and barely remembered. Likewise, Georges own opinions are embedded with regret and a sense of the injustice of aging in this bleak reminder of the inevitable slipping away of lives, along with the fading culture of their days.
About the Author
Seth is the cartoonist of Clyde Fans; Its a Good Life, If You Dont Weaken; Wimbledon Green; Bannock, Beans, and Black Tea; and Vernacular Drawings; the designer of the New York Times bestselling Peanuts collections; and a New Yorker illustrator. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.