Thursday, May 01, 2008

book buying adventure & the call of kari

so i went to landmark to kill some time and the mission of the day became instantly clear as i saw the gothamesque book city rise up in front of me (somehow everytime i walk past the glossy foreign magazines and step into BOOKS, i feel like im plunging head first into the brightly lit but still overwhelming unknown - ( i love to adventurize everything)

so the mission was - find books i had read & loved but lost somehwere inside my head and discover at least one new writer.

today was my lucky day. after a slow leisurely walk down "literary fiction" i found old lovers - bluest eye and brave new world and newest crush "everything is illuminated" by jonathan safram foer with elijah wood showing off the sky in his spectacles on the cover. New York times called it a wild indelible first novel. so of course i put it in my little red riding hood red plastic basket and happily strolled along to the graphic novel section..

this is something i always do. its like a ritual at landmark. the graphic novels have to be seen, touched, fantasized about and then given up on after you see the exorbitant prices. Batman & robin in monochrome for 1000 bucks. some new japanese graphic novel for 900 bucks..

sigh.. but then. i saw kari. sitting between batman & some other much too expensive comic book , somewhere on the side... where nooone would notice her.
i like to think she found me.

there was of course just one copy. very romantic :)

Kari is a graphic novel by artist + writer Amruta Patil. inside the book on the first page left is a synopsis. i cant explain it any better than that so i am just going to reproduce a part of it here..

With Angel, Lazarus and the girls of crystal palace forming the chorus to her song, Kari explores the dark heart of smog city - loneliness, sewers, sleeper success, death and the memory of her absentee Other.

I took to kari instantly. I dont know how to write reviews and i dont intend to. Its a personal thing. or more truthfully a selfish thing. im not sharing the inexplicable connections and discoveries i made with anyone. i love it, is all im going to say.

incidently the book ( probably cause its a graphic novel ) smells ever so slightly of paint. Intoxicating me as much as the writing & the art itself.

read more about amruta patil - the writer here http://amrutapatil.blogspot.com