Wanderings of Adolescent Girls in New York: Graphic Novel Review by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

Ambient atmosphere from Day 1 in New York New York, a bluish and sensitive graphic novel, which recounts in four hundred and forty-five pages and numerous silences, the wanderings of three adolescent girls in this ambivalent and nervous city which never leaves one indifferent .

A five-day stay is short and long at the same time as we live and distort the moments according to the time allotted. A time which, at twenty years old, can seem infinite and a journey which, in five days, can turn a life upside down and shake a friendship at an age when we are easily influenced.

Sleepy at the airport, Zoé unwillingly participates in her neighbor’s conversation, busy recounting secrets that she considers to be of the utmost importance, superbly ignoring the existence of other travelers as if, glued to her cell phone, she was alone in the world. An experience that will speak to everyone.

Waiting, reading, escalators, departure and arrival boards, airports are already the start of a novel. They inspire Jillian Tamaki, Canadian illustrator, settled in Brooklyn, and her cousin Mariko Tamaki, Canadian writer and editorbased in California, a duo who have already signed the much-noticed This summer. Published in 2014, this graphic novel, which also tells of a reunion, but at the beginning of adolescence, was awarded the prestigious Eisner Prize in 2015 and adapted for the cinema in 2023 by Eric Lartigau.

“That Summer” adapted by Eric Lartigau

The trip will last several evocative pages with the reunion of Zoé and Dani, happy to be, finally, in New York. Dani loves Zoe’s shaved hair and introduces her to her friend Fiona, the embodiment of femininity with her curled eyelashes, full lips and long curly hair. Dani doesn’t hide her admiration for Fiona, a “crazy talented” aspiring artist who smokes, stays in the background and has an opinion on everything.

Intellect of the trio, Zoé, aka Zee, a bio student, a goth always in a second-hand black t-shirt, is immersed in reading The Canterbury Tales, a story, written in Elvish, of pilgrims who go to a holy place…

Three young girls, three diametrically opposed personalities, the difficulties of trios with variations in expectations and alliances: all the ingredients come together for an initiatory and shaking journey for friendships that we thought were well anchored.

Eric Lartigau discusses the role of family in “That Summer”

Inevitable disappointments

With their still round faces, their expressive eyebrows, their devastating pouts, the three heroines perfectly embody these adolescent girls, all excited at the prospect of discovering the mythical city and confronted with inevitable disappointments, inherent in the realization of fantasies or budgetary constraints. Unwelcoming, the youth hostel smells musty… They will not spend much time there and will quickly set off to discover the places and customs of New York, also influenced by series such as Sex and the City.

They will love drinking coffee in the street from a paper cup, eating a giant pizza folded in half, shopping and visiting museums, including the Met, despite the reluctance of Fiona who calls it a temple of Western imperialism … Scenes of cities in the rain then the discovery, in double pages, of the unmissable Blue Whale from the Natural History Museum will further image the trip. Among other standards.

The “Sex and the City” series in mourning

Kiss among butterflies

But the attraction is quickly palpable between Zoé and Fiona who will soon kiss each other full on the lips among the butterflies, then in the heart of one of the many double pages that punctuate the graphic novel. This kiss will take them much further, at the risk of excluding Dani, who was initially at the center of the project.

Sex and drugs will still make their mark between two shopping trips in this New York epic sometimes discovered from a low angle, in close-ups, in joyful excesses or in tiny details which also tell the story of American life.

Ellipses, black or pinkish beige backgrounds, foreshortenings, explosions of words and feelings punctuate this story to which the duotone gives both elegance and modernity. A real success.

⇒ New York New York | Graphic novel | Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, translated from English (United States – by Alice Delarbre, Rue de Sèvres, 445 pp., €25.

2024-04-08 12:17:00
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