Open Magazine – August 07, 2018

10 6 august 2018

openings

G

raphic novels have been at the edge of literary consideration
for a long time. cultural tastemakers hemmed and hawed over them.
Fans championed their artistic and literary merits, even as some of the art
form’s top practitioners were unsure of what a ‘graphic novel’ was. alan
Moore, for one, widely considered a great exponent of it, called it a “market-
ing term” with a “gnawing hunger to be accepted”. neil Gaiman, whenever
he is complimented for writing great graphic novels rather than comic
books, apparently feels like “someone who’d been informed that she wasn’t
actually a hooker” but a “lady of the evening”. The term ‘graphic novel’ is,
after all, a relatively recent coinage (of the 1960s); and the format—defined
by Merriam-Webster as ‘a fictional story that is presented in a comic-strip
format and published as a book’—probably just a little older.
The graphic novel has just had a major breakthrough. it has been
given a seat at one of literature’s highest tables, the Man Booker prize. The
graphic novel Sabrina, by the american writer nick Drnaso, has made it to

the award’s longlist, a first ever. This, while other

heavyweight novelists—from Julian Barnes and

peter carey to alan hollinghurst and pat Barker—

have failed to make the cut.

Sabrina starts with a mystery. The titular

character of the book is missing. sabrina has been

murdered. But as reviewers have pointed out, the

book is less interested in her fate as it is with the

impact her death has on those close to her. it is set

in the modern world, even though it is supposed to

be the near future, and the story draws in con-

temporary issues—a world of internet rumours

and conspiracy theories, one devoid of personal

interaction and intimacy —without resorting to

clichés and sensational twists. The book has been

widely applauded. The New York Times called it ‘an

unnerving mystery told by a rigorous moralist,

a profoundly american nightmare set squarely

in the first year of the Trump presidency’. Zadie

smith calls it ‘the best book—in any medium—i

have read about our current moment... possessing

all the political power of polemic and yet simulta-

neously all the delicacy of truly great art’.

This is the 29-year-old chicago-based writer’s

second book. Drnaso’s first, a graphic novel called

Beverly, was a collection of short fiction. interest-

ingly, comic books entered his life only in adult-

hood, and he finds his books influenced more

by Tv and film than by other cartoonists. “i once

had the thought that in the 60s, there were lots

of people who tried to be film directors, but who

didn’t have the extrovert temperament for it, and

that these people are the great, lost cartoonists.

But graphic novels weren’t even an option then,”

he told The Guardian. “What i love about drawing

them is that i can work in private.”

The Man Booker’s website notes that, ‘Sabrina

makes demands on the reader in precisely the way

all good fiction does.’ Kwame anthony appiah,

chairman of the jury, told The New York Times that

a graphic novel being picked for the first time was

“of course” in the judges’ minds. “But when the

right novel comes along and it’s in your 13 favou-

rites, you put it in the list... The impact of this is the

same you have from any great work of fiction.”

can a book—however accomplished—that

relies largely on visuals compete for a prize

that has only gone to all-text novels so far? Both

formats tell stories, but how does one compare

text alone with a work that combines words and

drawings? This debate seems to be on the verge of

getting settled. n

By Lhendup g Bhutia

hello sabrina

A graphic novel finally finds a place

on the Booker list

PORTRAIT