Carnet De Voyage, Vol. 1

Douglas Wolk

Some snack. Carnet is more than 200 pages of exquisitely observed drawings, flush with the sheer joy of making pictures. Thompson draws crowds, tiles, young women, old men, buildings; he caricatures himself with rubbery limbs and a pointy nose; he diagrams a dinner of raclette in the Alps, the changes in scenery on the way out of Marrakech, and the anatomy of the camel he rides through the Sahara. He provides extensive handwritten captions for everything, analyzing his own changing perceptions of himself as a traveler and giving the book the casual, digressive narrative of a letter home.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

"They say `Wherever you go, there you are....' I thought with Morocco, I'd be setting out on some exotic adventure, but it turns out I'm just a simple, quiet fellow." So writes Thompson in this travel sketchbook chronicling two months of wandering through Africa and Europe, sometimes as tourist, sometimes as a famous cartoonist on tour. Rather than a narrative follow-up to the award-winning Blankets, this diary reveals both Thompson's creative strengths and weaknesses. Although more or less spontaneous, the book still shapes the material into something of a narrative, the continuing themes being Thompson's self-conscious love of beauty, his sense of isolation and the gradual physical deterioration of his hands due to arthritis and over-drawing. Thompson is honest enough to confront his own self-absorption (he makes constant references to his own whininess), but this recognition reveals that Blankets' na vet is more studied than it first appears. Many of the elements that made Blankets so successful are here, not least among them Thompson's incredible, lush line-work and telling detail. Every person he meets is captured with a keen eye and a lively brush, and entries such as one recounting his fascination with Gaud 's architecture in Barcelona, or a day spent with fellow cartoonist Blutch discussing artistic muses, are both thought provoking and touching. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT

Craig Thompson visited Europe (with a side trip to Africa) for two months on a promotional tour of his graphic novel Blankets, and Carnet De Voyage is an illustrated diary of his travels through France, Morocco, Switzerland and Spain. Thompson worked diligently at his carnet (the French word for notebook), and so it is a great deal more entertaining than the travel slides your parents made you watch as a kid. In fact, Carnet De Voyage is a joy to read—we get to tag along with the author as he experiences travel diarrhea, camel aerodynamics and Gaudi architecture. There are sketches of cats, trees, storks, majestic landscapes, squalid alleyways and lots and lots of people. These portraits, often of people Thompson has just met, do a wonderful job of conveying their subjects' personalities. However, my favorite part of this graphic story is the side trip to Africa. The author is homesick, physically ill, overwhelmed by the chaos and bustle of Morocco, and yet it's here that he produces some of his most placid drawings (sleeping cats, nesting storks, a finch sipping from a fountain). Carnet De Voyage is for older, more mature readers (there is some vulgar language). YAs interested in travel will enjoy this story, and for teens interested in the creative process it is a must-read. This is not polished material; some of the drawings are raw, hurried and downright crude (one can tell when Thompson's hand is hurting). But the journey is as important as the destination. KLIATT Codes: SA*—Exceptional book, recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2004, Top Shelf Productions (PO Box 1282, Marietta, GA, 30061-1282), 224p.illus., Ages 15 to adult.
—George Galuschak

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-In 2004, the author, a cartoonist from Oregon, traveled to Europe on a book-signing tour, with a side trip to Morocco. Rather than writing a conventional journal, he kept notes in the form of drawings and cartoons. He shows readers how he was met in France by friends, fans, and publisher representatives, and tells of larking about-finding magic, meaning, and synchronicity-in Paris and the countryside. When he moved on to Morocco, his experience was darker as he struggled to relate to a more alien and less-welcoming culture. There he encountered everything from homesickness to diarrhea to fractured conversations, but in time he saw more of the country and learned how to get around. Back in Europe, he continued his book tour in Geneva and Barcelona, and saw the Alps and the south of France. Along with images of people and places, he shares, with winningly self-deprecating humor, his interior journey of emotional ups and downs. Black-and-white images range in style from realistic sketches to surrealistic riffs to funny cartoons, sometimes working together visually and thematically to create layers of depth and to amplify a point. Combined with telegraphic captions, the art captures to perfection and with a great sense of immediacy what it's like to be young and on one's own on a foreign adventure. By turns lighthearted and profound, Carnet is an illuminating and charming experience that should have broad appeal.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.