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Ice Haven [Hardcover]

Daniel Clowes (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.00
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Book Description

Publication Date: 14 July 2005

Welcome to Ice Haven! 'It's not as cold here as it sounds.' So declares Random Wilder, the town's would-be poet laureate. Would be, that is, were it not for the 'florid banalities' of arch-rival poet Ida Wentz, whom the Ice Haven Daily Progress continues to publish 'ad nauseam'. Random is our ersatz guide to the sleepy midwestern hamlet, and just one of many characters we meet in this ingenious novel told in the form of short comic strip instalments - a form that Time magazine regarded as reminiscent of Robert Altman.

In addition to Wilder, we meet a captivating cast of characters. There are the lovelorn lovelies Violet Van der Platz and Vida Wentz, the detective team of Mr and Mrs Ames, those adorable interracial moppets Carmichael and Paula, and the disaffected stationery salesgirl Julie Patheticstein, just to mention a few. Along with the Blue Bunny, the bitterest rabbit in town, fresh-sprung from prison and ready to wreck havoc: 'I paid my dues! It's all about ME this time!!'

And lest we forget: poor little David Goldberg, who's been missing for over a week now...

All of this blends together seemlessly to weave a fascinating, multi-layered tale that is ultimately based on and inspired by - wait for it - Leopold and Loeb.

Frequently Bought Together

Ice Haven + Wilson + David Boring
Price For All Three: £24.82

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  • Wilson by Daniel Clowes Hardcover £8.96
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 88 pages
  • Publisher: Jonathan Cape (14 July 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0224077791
  • ISBN-13: 978-0224077798
  • Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 1.6 x 14.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 270,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Dan Clowes Page
Dan Clowes
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Product Description

Review

"

'Ice Haven creates a miniature world, thoroughly imagined and beautifully drawn, accurate, chilling, funny, complex. With the strange steady undercurrent of cruel tenderness that is the key to greatness in Clowes's art.'

Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

"

Book Description

A ground-breaking story that takes the form where it's never gone before.
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Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars
6 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Great stuff, but too short 28 Jan 2010
By Rusty
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ice Haven was an intriguing read. I'm familiar with the Leopold & Loeb murder case, along with the stage play "Rope" and the Hitchcock movie of the same name. It's rich material to work with and Clowes has taken it to strange and interesting new places.

You'd think that the dark, sobering subject matter and the bright cartoonish visuals would clash - but they really don't. They make a great statement about the happy, shiny veneer of American suburbia and the hollow despair that often lies beneath.

As for the story... I think it's better than "Ghost World", albeit in a totally different way. The short, episodic structure works well, focusing on individual characters who thread in and out of each other's lives. The narrative is subtle, even though it jumps around a lot and most of the dialogue is either deftly realistic or intelligently overblown.

But I do have a few criticisms to finish up with...

1.) The David Goldberg kidnap case fizzles out into obscurity. Yes, we are given vague hints as to what may or may not have happened, but this was the chief undercurrent of the story and I feel it deserved more attention towards the end.

2.) Characters like Julie Patheticstein and Kim Lee entered this tale late and didn't bring much to the table. They took up space just when core characters like Wilder and Mr. Ames needed a little bit more space to breathe.

3.) Rocky the caveman and the Blue Bunny were interesting but extraneous. They felt like extra padding in a slim story that didn't need any.

4.) On the subject of slim: I think this book could and probably should have been twice as long. Fair enough, it came from a single issue of the author's "Eightball" comic - but if a book of this sort gets a chance to be redesigned, remarketed and resold as a hardback, isn't it the perfect excuse to revisit and expand the storyline? Rather than produce a more expensive copy of an already-available piece of work?

5.) Finally, the closing pages at the end where "Harry Naybors Explains Everything" felt a bit conceited to me. Too much intrusion from Daniel Clowes, who had remained beautifully aloof up until this point.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars My Little Corner of The World 10 April 2008
By Salman Beadle
Format:Hardcover
Although not as overtly ambitious as the cinematic "David Boring", or as emotionally intimate as "Ghost World", "Ice Haven" is still as rich and unique as Clowes' two best known works. In form it resembles a less profane and (relatively) more stable version of his "Eightball" comics, as the books shifts focus from character to character in the suburban neighbourhood of "Ice Haven". Like "Eightball" Clowes not only imbues each of his characters not only with their own voices, but on occasion with their own art style, which range from the Clowes' usual blank, distant and beautiful drawings to an overtly cartoonish look. The various storylines and lives do not so much collide as they do pass each other by, and whilst the main storyline concerns the kidnap of young David Goldberg, Clowes is more keen to inhabit the minds of his characters, and even give us some insight into the history of his fictitious town. Clowes is very much of the "show-don't-tell" school of storytelling, and sometimes the biggest plot developments occur in a tiny line of dialogue, or in the white margins between the panels.

It is not a comic that will be to everyone's fancy, and people may have trouble with Clowes' unremmittingly detached storytelling, but for those who are Clowes fans, or are looking for a comic book with a difference, "Ice Haven" is certainly worth a visit.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Alone and unheard 25 April 2012
By Jack Heslop
Format:Hardcover
Ice Haven is a dark story about the residents of a small town. Their lives are framed by the kidnap of shy child David Goldberg. There's also a narrator, Random Wilder, a middle-aged poet who resents the success of his neighbour's poems. Wilder is fascinating. His actions, though terrible, are motivated not by greed or sadism but despair. They're those of a desperate high schooler. Struggling writers, though not capable of doing what he does, might sympathise with him. He's pretentious and desensitised, but also alone. He'd have felt at home in Todd Solondz's film Happiness (which Clowes designed the poster for). His tragedy is that he's never matured as a writer or person, though the last scene is weirdly hopeful: someone has heard him.
Like a lot of Clowes' stories Ice Haven is focused on dialogue rather than action. Important events aren't shown so much as glimpsed through conversation and inner monologue.
Characters are given their own comic strips with title panels, a neat device which emphasises their isolation. The way they behave in their strips differs from how they do in each others'. Two standalone strips follow Rocky the Caveman, who discovers Ice Haven, and Blue Bunny, a psychotic soft toy. Both are bizarre diversions and don't impact the story they interrupt, but Rocky underlines its postmodern themes. Blue Bunny I think of as comic relief, like the night porter in Macbeth. I can't imagine why else he's here.
Some characters seem parodic. For instance, Mr. Ames resembles the angry and distant sleuth so often seen in pulp fiction. Meanwhile Julie Patheticstein, who works at a stationary store, has a name which says it all.
Ice Haven might baffle and disturb those not familiar with Clowes. It's not an uplifting or cathartic comic book. But it is brilliant.
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