Colorado Train, by Inker: Grim. Stephen King’s The Body minus the nostalgia. Drawings and story complemented each other.

Les Insulaires, by Garnier: First novel I’ve ever read in a foreign language. It took awhile, but I could follow it. Clear and direct style. The characters seemed real, if not so interesting. The book as a whole reminded me of one of those French noir thrillers from the 1950s. Everything was kind of low-key and low-budget: the murder was low-budget, the mystery was low-budget, the retribution was low-budget. The funny thing is that in a novel, special effects are free: you can throw in as many explosions as you wan. But he didn’t. I’m not saying the book would’ve been better with more action; it was just funny to read such a low-budget writing style.

Retour à Liverpool, by Bourhis and Solé: Great drawing, great dialogue, seemed real. Thumbs up.

Numéro Deux, by Foenkinos: Excellent hook, convincing characters, rendered in a flat, easy-to-read style. Pleasantly bittersweet.

The Committed, by Nguyen: Just amazing, as was its predecessor.

Chanson Douce, by Slimani: I’d heard about this one . . . She did it well. I was expecting some kind of grand revelation or plot twist, but it didn’t happen that way. Sensitively done, this one was very convincing too.

The Expats, by Pavone: Super clunky, especially at the beginning, also the main characters were not appealing at all, not even in a faded Richard Burton kind of way. Also it was bugging me that the action’s all in Europe and everyone’s getting in a car all the time, not once hopping on a bike or a train. Still, I read all the way through to see what happened next, and then I read the sequel, which also was clunky with two-dimensional characters but I wanted to keep going.

The Plot, by Korelitz: I enjoyed it most of the way but at the end the plot did not live up to the build-up, and I left annoyed at Steven King and the others who’d blurbed it.

Largo Winch, by Van Hamme and Francq: The original “Eastern” (selon wikipedia, “business-thriller”). Lots of fun. I went through them pretty fast until tome 15, when the formula started to get boring. The first 10 or so were great, though.

L’Arabe du Futur, by Sattouf: What can I say? It lives up to the hype. Tome 6 brings us up to the present day. The drawings are simple yet amazingly expressive, and the writing is great too.

Le Jeune Acteur, by Sattouf: This one was good too!

Il Faut Flinguer Ramirez, by Petrimaux: Just amazing. He creates an entire world. This guy is the Spielberg of comics—I’ve never seen anything else like it. Along with the rest of the world, I’m now waiting for tome 3.

Lake Success, by Shteyngart: Remake of Bonfire of the Vanities—clearly an intentional remake too, given that he has a scene in Richmond and does this funny thing where the Wasps are the exotic characters. Very readable and amusing but didn’t entirely convince me, as I’d seen that sentimental rich guy character before.

Dernier Meurtre Avant la Fin du Monde, by Winters: Actually a U.S. book, just happened to find it in translation in the library here. The Paris libraries are just a zillion times better than what we have in New York. I guess 50 years of close-to-zero budgets have taken their toll. Anyway, this one was ok . . . I’m not quite sure what to say. It had a great premise and carried it out well, the characters were generic but not implausible, the scenes and the minor characters were all well done . . . but I thought Underground Airlines was much better.

A Little Book About a Big Memory, by Luria: This is another one I read in French; in this case the original was in Russian. A classic, and fun to read. Lots of cool details.

Bourneville, by Coe: Did not disappoint. Funny, thought-provoking, emotionally moving, the whole deal. I think he’s my favorite living author. The whole thing kinda makes me want to be English. OK, not really. But kinda.

All the Devils are Here, by Seabrook: In the Luc Sante “cult classic” genre. Worth reading. It’s funny how this sort of writing is standard in pop songs nowadays but so rarely appears in nonfiction literature. I’m thinking we should write Crimes Against Data in this sort of allusive, mysterious style.

Stoner, by Williams: I already reviewed this one. It came highly recommended and it lived up to the hype. I didn’t think it was “perfect” (as it was annoyingly blurbed), but a novel doesn’t have to be perfect. I got a lot out of it.

Crédit Illimité, by Rey: Another fun one with a great hook. A middle-aged loser is hired by his wealthy industrialist father to fire a bunch of people at his company. At first I thought it was going to be a nihilistic “romp,” but, no, there was more to it than that. It’s interesting reading these books, in part because I have no idea what they’re going to be like. I’ve never heard of these authors, I can’t tell from the cover, or the summary on the back, or even from reading a few pages. It’s all new to me!

Le Petit Astronaute, by Eid: Sad story, beautiful colors. This is the only BD that I can think of where the coloring was the defining characteristic.

Cherchez Charlie, by Moynot: Lots of fun from the first page onward. Now that it’s over, I remember just about nothing of the story, but I had a great time while I was reading it.

Mojo Hand, by Arnoud Floc’h: Good story, quirky drawing style, interesting theme connected to blues music.

Le Ministre & La Joconde, by Bourhis, Bourgeron, and Tanquerelle: Fun drawings, fun story. In the style of Haramabat’s Operation Copperhead and Le Detection Club. Not as good as those, but I’d still recommend it.

Les Animaux Dénaturés, by Bruller, Vercors, and Falzon: Interesting philosophical story, with drawings that are just wonderful and also fit in well with the content. A unique book.

Asphalt Blues, by Salaüin: Kinda like a Hollywood futuristic action movie. Well done. I don’t have a strong memory of the book now, but it worked while I was reading it.

Michigan, by Frey and Varela: Pleasant story, clear-line-style drawing. A little piece of social history.

La Page Blanche, by Boulet and Bagieu: After seeing the movie, I wanted to read the BD it was based on. I wouldn’t have picked it out otherwise—I don’t really like the drawing style—but the story was compelling. I’m glad I read it.

The BBC, by Hendy: No tricks here, this is a straight-up history of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It has these amazing blurbs and the topic interested me, so I picked it up. The back-cover blurb mentions The Morecombe and Wise Show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, EastEnders, Dr. Who, and Desert Island Discs. And this brings me to my disappointment, which is that, with the exception of EastEnders, the book doesn’t really talk about any of these at all! I went to the index: Morecombe and Wise is not listed at all, Monty Python is not listed at all, Doctor Who gets two listings which turns out to be one paragraph and a brief mention elsewhere, and Desert Island Discs is . . . you guessed it, not listed at all! What the book was filled with was politics. That’s fine—I’m a political scientist, I read politics books for fun sometimes—; still, it was disappointing to see nothing about Monty Python at all, not even from a social history angle. And George Orwell . . . he wasn’t there either! How can you write a whole 600-page book about the BBC and not mention Orwell even once??

Merel, by Lodewick: Small-town Belgium slice of life. Drawings have a bit of a claymation feel.

Contrapaso, by Teresa Valero: Spain 1956. Scary stuff. Beautiful drawing and coloring. Very much like a movie.

Tuskeegee Ghost, by Von Eckartsberg and Dauger: I was at the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée and saw a cool poster they were selling at the gift shop. I asked the storekeepers what album the scene was from, and after some phone calls they figured it out . . . it’s the image on the top part of page 14 of this book. I really like the drawings of this one. The story is fine too, but it’s the art that sold me. It reminds me of something but I can’t remember what.

Les Amants d’Hérouville, by Le Quellec and Ronzeau: True story, sad but kinda sweet too.

Previous BD reviews here. And I guess you can find some previous book reviews in the Literature category of the blog.