Mr. Punch

Mr. Punch denies the conventions of the literary tradition in its very title - 'tragical comedy' instead of 'tragicomedy', as it is usually known. Immediately, I got the feeling that Gaiman is trying to make comics into a literary field of its own without the usual embellishments and fancy extrapolating that comes with literature as we know it today. There is depth and weight to what he has to say in his comics and I don't think the issue is whether he does it well (some parts of Mr. Punch came off as a bit contrived but when seen in the framework of the visual and emotional aesthetics that Gaiman & McKean were trying to achieve, I think it balanced out pretty well), but rather how he does it. Mr. Punch is the best example of this. It is a simple plot and could well be substituted for any other plot, but the execution of story; his use of symbolism, the idea of a theater, an immoral, mad stage puppet - a non-being - at the plot center; shifts in the direction of reminiscing; using space and time (both literally and figuratively: for the reader and the microcosm of experience within the book itself) to tell a story.. all these are ideas laden and rich with meaning and depth, left there to be picked out and understood. Gaiman drops hints only insofar as writing the story itself - apart from that, all the work is left to the reader, which is what I really like about the story and McKean's art direction. It's like a juicy fruit, a fat grape, James' giant peach - so much can be made out of it.

American Gods

I was hesitant about picking up Gaiman's novel, that I am ready to admit. It is a bad habit.. I tend to approach books with a certain idea of what they should be without really knowing anything about it and base my decision to read on that entirely misinformed (or noninformed) preconceived notion. I've recently been in the mood for classics - Peter Pan, Wuthering Heights, Crime and Punishment - so when I bought (or rather, Anil, my wonderfully generous boyfriend, bought) American Gods purely on a whim, I was not sure if I should keep it or return it to the bookshop. I'd never been a fan of the suspense/thriller genre and seeing a short appraisal from Stephen King on the back-cover of the book was ready to throw me off. I am now only 200 pages or so into American Gods and so glad that I didn't allow my stupid pretentious ideas to stop me from reading it. It is an engaging and well-written book and deals - albeit shallowly - with a host of ancient/contemporary "gods" in all senses of the word. It is fun to read, there is always a little bit of interesting information, some chance adventure, that keeps the story moving forward. There are some interesting themes that are brought up - the most obvious ones being the idea of a 'god', good vs evil, etc, but these weren't explored to their full potential. How do I put this? Okay, imagine the story as a huge pool with clean water and lots of fun water games that's about three-feet deep. But Gaiman is cute, very very cute, so I forgive him for constructing a lousy pool. Besides The Sandman makes up for it, I suppose.