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A Journey Through American Loneliness
by Kristen Radtke
Book Reviewed by:From the acclaimed author of Imagine Wanting Only This - a timely and moving meditation on isolation and longing, both as individuals and as a society.
There is a silent epidemic in America: loneliness. Shameful to talk about and often misunderstood, loneliness is everywhere, from the most major of metropolises to the smallest of towns.
In Seek You, Kristen Radtke's wide-ranging exploration of our inner lives and public selves, Radtke digs into the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another, and the distance that remains. Through the lenses of gender and violence, technology and art, Radtke ushers us through a history of loneliness and longing, and shares what feels impossible to share.
Ranging from the invention of the laugh-track to the rise of Instagram, the bootstrap-pulling cowboy to the brutal experiments of Harry Harlow, Radtke investigates why we engage with each other, and what we risk when we turn away. With her distinctive, emotionally-charged drawings and deeply empathetic prose, Kristen Radtke masterfully shines a light on some of our most vulnerable and sublime moments, and asks how we might keep the spaces between us from splitting entirely.
The artwork in Seek You suits the subject matter beautifully. Radtke's figures often lack expression and she uses blank space very effectively, giving the book an almost drab, dreary mood, which feels tonally appropriate given the topic. It is an ambitious project, and consequently, it does become unfocused on occasion. On the whole, though, it's a well-crafted, thought-provoking work that successfully seeks to destigmatize an emotion that plagues so many different facets of 21st-century American life...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Rachel Hullett).
Although the term "graphic novel" implies works of fiction, lists of popular graphic novels are often dominated by memoirs and other nonfiction. You can find one such list here, and a short history of the genre here.
Since there is no widely used or non-cumbersome term for these books ("graphic works of nonfiction" probably coming the closest), they're often grouped in with fictional graphic novels. Titles like Maus by Art Spiegelman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel — all memoirs — are some of the most popular "graphic novels" that come to mind when discussing the genre.
But there's also a wealth of graphic nonfiction outside of these noteworthy titles, covering a wide range of subgenres ...
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Harvard is the storehouse of knowledge because the freshmen bring so much in and the graduates take so little out.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Lauren Groff, author of Florida
Seek You stunned me. Kristen Radtke, one of the best of our literary artists, shines her brilliant light into modern America's experiment in loneliness with this supremely elegant and devastating book. It was my companion during a long, dark night of the soul; I emerged grateful to have had such sleekness and wit, such calm intelligence, to guide me back to daylight.
