Essex County: Southwestern Ontario needs a Hug. Bad.

It's Canada Reads Time!!!!!!!!

Five New Can-Lit novels found themselves under my tree this Christmas, and as is my habit, I'm reading them in a particular order

It goes like this...
I read the book I figure I'll like the best first
Then I read the remaining for in ascending order of what I think I'll like the best, that is, worst to best.

That's not to say I go into them with my mind already made up, it's just that I judge a book by its cover with the expectation that I'll be surprised.  I never fail to be surprised.

That said, the first book this year was Jeff Lemire's Collection of Graphic Novels called Essex County.  I don't know why comic book is a dirty word, but call them Graphic Novels, so there.

This is a handful of interconnected stories about a small Southwestern farming community and the well-broken families that inhabit it.  Each one of these characters has their hearts broken right in half, thanks in part to their own weaknesses.  They are each and every one as lonely as the flat farm they inhabit.  Which is to say, very.

Lemire's drawing really hits home, the expressions on his characters faces portray that Protestant melancholy as well as anything I've ever read before, and if the art isn't the most sophisticated thing you've ever seen, he uses every panel so thoughtfully that you might start turning your nose at the shortcomings of realism.  Every single panel is a snap shot, nothing is wasted and everything is in sync. If you were shown any one panel from any of the different stories, you'd be able to tell me what the story is about.  It's very involved, but at the same time you can absorb it all right away, there's nothing hidden and there's nothing held back.

Lemire hides humour in the despair he describes so very well, but they're the sort of jokes that have everyone giggling, and then trailing off into quiet with everybody staring at their shoes and putting their hands in their pockets.

You can read the entire 500-or-so pages the first time in an afternoon, but the characters might just hang around in your guts for a long time after that.  It's not pick-me-up reading, but if you're staring at a snowstorm and the natural light has all but disappeared for another day, you might just find this complementing your mood.

For any of you on again off again CBC listeners, Sarah Quin of "Tegan and Sara" fame is defending the book.  Expect Jian to gush and gush and gush.