Both protagonists share a fierce intellect matched only by their arrogance, and both suffer a major loss at the hands of their own hubris. Odyssey, Homer's epic prose-poem: from Polyp's headquarters in Ithaca (New York) and his residence at the water-logged home of an Earth-mother named Ursula Major (a dead ringer for Homer's witchy Circe), to Willy Illium, Polyp's chief antagonist - Ilium being a Latin derivative for "Troy."Īll this winking and nudging is at its best (by which I mean its least distracting) when it comes to the similarities between Polyp and Odysseus. (I read it three times, and each time I made dozens of thrilling little discoveries.) The first thing most readers will twig to is the story's parallels with the
Polyp that it not only holds up to repeated readings, it kind of demands them. But make no mistake, Mazzucchelli has made a beautiful, elaborate construction that coyly juggles style and content in a way few cartoonists are capable of. Persepolis) you may find Asterios Polyp a bit bewildering at first blush. So fair warning to those who are accustomed to a less demanding species of graphic novels (such as, say, This narrative is inter-woven with ruminations on everything from Greek mythology, ontology and the history (and purpose) of design, to meditations on style versus substance, and the possibility - or impossibility - of real love. The balance of the book's 344 pages tracks Polyp as he attempts to forge a new life in a town called Apogee, while a narrator (his still-born twin brother) provides us with flashbacks of the architect's first 50 years on Earth. His wallowing is interrupted by a bolt of lightning which sets his apartment (and existence) aflame, and sends him spiralling onto a journey of self-reflection and realization.
He's a textbook womanizer and major-league egoist with a habit of stubbing his toes on his own firm principles, and we are introduced to him at his nadir - lying in his filthy Manhattan apartment on his 50th birthday, watching surveillance tapes of the moment he fell in love with his ex-wife, Hana. It is also happens to be his masterpiece, the culmination of 25 years of promise.Īsterios Polyp is a "paper" architect who has won countless awards for his countless groundbreaking designs, none of which has ever been built.
Published by Pantheon Books (home to master-class cartoonists such as Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware and Dan Clowes),Īsterios Polyp is Mazzucchelli's first graphic novel. Now, after a decade-and-a-half, he has re-re-emerged withĪsterios Polyp, an epic, emotionally rich, symbol-laden work that promises to redefine the graphic novel.
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