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Overview
First book by a powerful new voice in graphic lit.The Age of Anxiety has never been better depicted in comics form than in In My Darkest Hour, a modernist, mainstream graphic novel that explores the inner life of its protagonist, Omar Guerrero, a 28 year-old Latin American transient, who confronts his pervasive feelings of inadequacy, anger, guilt, and escalating alienation. Guerrero's tumultuous sexual liaisons with younger women, an attempt to deny his fading youth, force him to question his own nature and values as he struggles between expurgating his neuroses and the evasive understanding of his existence. His peculiar relationship with Lucinda, a secluded student, gives him a vague sense of hope, a vision of a life of inner stability, and perhaps love. But old demons die hard, and the futility of his fight has him wondering how long before he finally either overcomes his pathos or succumbs to his weaknesses. Memories and nightmares fuel Omar's fear that he might not only be losing his mind, but that perhaps, he already has. In My Darkest Hour is a harrowing meditation on human angst, painful subjectivity, and the quintessential quest of self in a seemingly bleak, uncertain and mutable world.Author Biography: Wilfred Santiago was born in Puerto Rico and now lives in Chicago, IL. This is his first graphic novel.
Synopsis
First book by a powerful new voice in graphic lit.The Age of Anxiety has never been better depicted in comics form than in In My Darkest Hour, a modernist, mainstream graphic novel that explores the inner life of its protagonist, Omar Guerrero, a 28 year-old Latin American transient, who confronts his pervasive feelings of inadequacy, anger, guilt, and escalating alienation. Guerrero's tumultuous sexual liaisons with younger women, an attempt to deny his fading youth, force him to question his own nature and values as he struggles between expurgating his neuroses and the evasive understanding of his existence. His peculiar relationship with Lucinda, a secluded student, gives him a vague sense of hope, a vision of a life of inner stability, and perhaps love. But old demons die hard, and the futility of his fight has him wondering how long before he finally either overcomes his pathos or succumbs to his weaknesses. Memories and nightmares fuel Omar's fear that he might not only be losing his mind, but that perhaps, he already has. In My Darkest Hour is a harrowing meditation on human angst, painful subjectivity, and the quintessential quest of self in a seemingly bleak, uncertain and mutable world.
Author Biography: Wilfred Santiago was born in Puerto Rico and now lives in Chicago, IL. This is his first graphic novel.
Publishers Weekly
This brilliantly drawn and unrelentingly grim graphic novel follows the saga of Omar, a youngish man trapped in a dead-end job and an unfulfilling relationship, living in an unfeeling world. Omar's bipolar disorder makes him see life as a cruel slog, with nothing but death to look forward to. He's depressed, he's grumpy and he drinks too much. He's growing increasingly distant from his girlfriend, Lucinda; he chases other women and flirts shamelessly with co-workers. And all the while, at work at the card store and at home with his alcohol, he wonders what he's going to do with his life. Santiago's vision of humanity is brutal; his characters have great difficulty seeing beyond their immediate circumstances and relate to each other in only the most superficial ways. Society is against Omar: the owner of the card store is that reliable stereotype-the Jewish man who's blatantly prejudiced against people of color-and when Lucinda finally decides to dump the albatross that is Omar, readers will wonder what took her so long. Santiago paints Omar's world in a radiant pastiche of drawing, collage and all manner of PhotoShop effects; he abandons comic conventions-characters in neat frames with word balloons-for handwritten essays and disjointed musings. Despite the dazzling technique, readers may be left thinking Omar's story is as pointless as he thinks it is. (Nov.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.