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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Chunnel has made no difference. The French remain utterly foreign in English eyes, a peculiar and self-absorbed race that can give us cartoon books, call them la bande desinée and pretend they are as high an art form as, say, the novels of Gustave Flaubert. When plain English folk venture even as far as Normandy, they are letting themselves in for culture shock on a grand scale. Gemma is your average girl-about-London. Dumped by her ambitious lover, she rebounds onto a safe bet, gentle furniture restorer Charles Bovery. But Charles comes with an ex-wife and children and Gemma baulks at being the unpaid baby-sitter. When money falls into her lap, Gemma flees London and drags Charles to Normandy, where she spices up her increasingly dull marital life with a bit on the side named Patrick Large. But then she dies, under mysterious circumstances.
The English would see this as poetic comeuppance for adultery and emigration, of course, but to Bailleville baker Raymond Joubert, it's a tragedy of epic proportions, as befits Gemma's namesake (OK, near-namesake), Emma Bovary. So, with brilliant novelistic pomposity, Joubert traces Gemma's life through the diaries she left, reading Gallic depth and meaning into every trite occurrence. Posy Simmonds is of course best known for her Posy cartoons in the Guardian, but if you have never believed you could get through an entire book of cartoons, think again. This is a brilliantly funny and beautifully sustained book, that in its very form skilfully illuminates the gaping void between English and French sensibilities. You don't need to know Flaubert to read Simmonds, but after reading this, then Madame Bovary is bound to be back on your wish list of Books You Always Meant to Read. --Alan Stewart
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Chunnel has made no difference. The French remain utterly foreign in English eyes, a peculiar and self-absorbed race that can give us cartoon books, call them la bande desinée and pretend they're as high an art form as, say, the novels of Gustave Flaubert. When plain English folk venture even as far as Normandy, they're letting themselves in for culture shock on a grand scale. Gemma is your average girl about London. Dumped by her ambitious lover, she rebounds onto a safe bet, gentle furniture restorer Charles Bovery. But Charles comes with an ex-wife and children and Gemma baulks at being the unpaid babysitter. When money falls into her lap, Gemma flees London and drags Charles to Normandy, where she spices up her increasingly dull marital life with a bit on the side named Patrick Large. But then she dies, under mysterious circumstances.
The English would see this as poetic comeuppance for adultery and emigration, of course, but to Bailleville baker Raymond Joubert, it's a tragedy of epic proportions, as befits Gemma's namesake (OK, near-namesake), Emma Bovary. So, with brilliant novelistic pomposity, Joubert traces Gemma's life through the diaries she left, reading Gallic depth and meaning into every trite occurrence. Posy Simmonds is of course best known for her Posy cartoons in the Guardian, but if you've never believed you could get through an entire book of cartoons, think again. This is a brilliantly funny and beautifully sustained book, that in its very form skilfully illuminates the gaping void between English and French sensibilities. You don't need to know Flaubert to read Simmonds, but after reading this, then Madame Bovary is bound to be back on your wishlist of Books You Always Meant to Read. --Alan Stewart --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the first work I have seen by Posy Simmonds, and for sure not the last.I work as a comic artist myself and it it so rare that anything comes out with such a caliber of quality in both art and writing. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.It is a tour-de-force of comic storytelling.I thank an article with this book recommendation from Hilary Spurling. WE WANT MORE.Pleeeease...Teddy H.Kristiansen
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Following hot on the heels of Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs is another graphic novel that the mainstream literature critics will insist is not a comic book even though it so obviously is. Gemma Bovery is yet more proof that comics are an artform capable of the same levels of personal expression as any other medium like prose, film, poetry et al. Of course, this fact will be either ignored or treated with downright contempt and ridicule by most reviewers who will claim that Gemma Bovery is something more than a comic strip, and continue to make snide cracks about the French pretense that comics are an art.
Nevertheless, Gemma Bovery is a fine example of the heights that comics can achieve, and I congratulate Ms. Simmonds on a wonderfully rewarding and compelling book.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Posy Simmonds has taken the graphic novel into new territory. Brilliant narrative, outstanding illustrations. And she has people down to a T. Especially French people. Especially French women. Anyone who's ever lived in France will recognise people they've met and shiver at the memory. The beauty of this book is that in addition to the characters' words, the author is also able to show us how they look, and she does it with an accuracy that can only come from hours of observation. The attention to detail in the drawings is such that it's worth going back to the book time and time again. I wish I could meet Joubert and have him ask me what I like and dislike about France. As long as his wife wasn't hovering.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
So Charming!
Posy Simmonds is seriously underrated. I may be wrong on this but I rarely ever see her graphic novels in those lists of the ones you 'must read', and if they are included they are... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Anna Clare
Witty, delicious and clever ode to Graphic Novels and Literature
I can only say, I regret waiting so long with buying this graphic novel. It is heavy on text, which can be a challenge in my opinion when it comes to comics, but it works very well... Read more
Published 3 months ago by I. Jacobsen
And now for something different..
Posy Simmonds is a name I've begun to see everywhere and from the way her name is casually dropped in comic and illustrator circles I get the impression that she has already been... Read more
Published 9 months ago by J. P. Marsh
Even better than "Madame Bovary"
I couldn't stop reading this graphic novel. It's drawn so well, it's so original , dramatic and funny, very human, very thrilling. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Moka
A life of twists and turns
Posy Simmonds presents another masterful story told in a combination of text and comicstrip. Its almost a black comedy and certainly tragicomic, and makes for an excellent read.
Published 17 months ago by Landboy
Interesting but not as good as Tamara Drewe
Narrated by Raymond Joubert, baker in the little Normandy village of Bailleville, this is the story of Gemma Bovery, her affairs, Joubert's obsession with her and the parallels... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Jo Bennie
Still great!
I first read this book several years ago, just after it was published, and loved it then. Just read it again and it's lost none of its charm or intrigue. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Jim
Gemma Bovery
Having lived in France since 1983, I wasn't familiar with Posy Simmonds and only first became aware of her when I went to see the film "Tamara Drew" when it was released here. Read more
Published 20 months ago by S. Crossley
Actually a lot more fun than Flaubert...
This is a graphic novel, I suppose, although it mixes text and (b/w) pictures freely rather than in a frame-by-frame layout. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Jason Mills
Excellant
I brought this for my partner as holiday reading. He loved it and the whole holiday was full of his laughter as he worked his way through the book. Read more
Published on 9 April 2010 by H. Wilson
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