The House that Groaned - Couverture souple

Fransman, Karrie

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0224086812 ISBN 13 : 9780224086813

Editeur : Square Peg, 2012

Synopsis

It's 141 Rottin Road. 'A cosy, one-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a charming Victorian conversion. Newly decorated and with a separate kitchen and reception room. Located just a bus ride away from a wide range of shops, restaurants and bars'. Welcome to The House that Groaned and the six lonely inhabitants of its separate flats, characters so at odds with themselves and their bodies that they could only have stepped out of the pages of a comic novel. There's Barbara, our make-up artist heroine and man-made blonde bombshell; Matt, the photographic retoucher who can't touch; Janet, the tormented dietician; twenty-something Brian, the diseaseophile whose sexual penchant takes him to the edge of perversion; old Mrs Durbach, who literally blends in to the background; and, the gloriously fleshy and hedonistic Marion, matriarch of the Midnight Feasters. Behind the house's anonymous facade, the building is decaying. As pipes explode and walls collapse, events force the residents out of their doors and into each others lives - with dramatic consequences. Exploring the themes of body image, sexuality and the loneliness and isolation of contemporary urban life, "The House that Groaned" is a modern-day fairy tale full of magic realism and farcical symbolism which will woo both comic fans and attract new readers to the medium.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

"In a world where people know ever less about their neighbours, this graphic novel is both a fantasy...and a cautionary tale. Anyone who has ever lain in bed at night listening to the sound of unknown voices on the other side of the cardboard wall will relish the way she lets her imagination off its leash...funny...beautiful looking...this book might almost be alive" (Rachel Cooke Observer, Graphic Novel of the Month)

"An enjoyable tale, dark but full of energy, fascinated by the private lives and perversity that bulge beneath suburbia's facade" (James Smart Guardian)

"A damn fine book; hugely, spectacularly impressive" (ForbiddenPlanet.co.uk)

"Karrie Fransmen breaks all the rules of storytelling accumulated over the past thousands of years. She creates a confusion at first, then bursts into the obvious and simplest fact; that all the stories of and in our lives are personal and private.... The only way this wonderful book could have been written is by illustration...not by word... rather like the hidden stories drawn on the walls of caves" (Nicolas Roeg, director of Don't Look Now and Walkabout)

"Fransman's dual background as a psychology and sociology student and a creative advertiser helps underpin her skills at both characterisation and communication... By its melodramatic finales, The House That Groaned acknowledges some scars that miss their chance to heal, but also gives us a kind of happy ending for two tenants" (Paul Gravett Independent)

Présentation de l'éditeur

The House That Groaned is a graphic novel that explores bodies and the spaces they inhabit.

It is set in an old Victorian tenement housing six lonely individuals who could only have stepped out of the pages of a comic book. There is the retoucher who cannot touch, a grandmother who literally blends into the background and a twenty-something bloke who's sexually attracted to diseased women.

Yet, as we learn the stories behind these extreme characters, it becomes apparent that we may share simlar issues - as individuals and as a society.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Square Peg
• Date d'édition: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0224086812
• ISBN 13: 9780224086813
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 208