Geneviève Castrée (1981–2016)

I wasn't a fan of the two Geneviève Castrée books I previously read that are included in this collection (see reviews below), but I found her her art so intriguing that I requested my local library to purchase this book so I could see more of it. And indeed this book is beautiful to peruse. Her writing and music hasn't done much for me, but I could stare at these pictures all day. While I had thought this 531-page book would take me days to get through, I couldn't stop once I started and found myself flying through it in a single afternoon.

Susceptible ~2 stars~

A semi- or fully-autobiographical sketch of the author's childhood, I guess? Young Goglu is buffeted by her parents' various changing relationships and infidelities and substance abuse issues, with her mother and father ending up basically on opposite sides of Canada and her falling into the chasm between, repeating their mistakes and coming up with plenty of her own as she flails about in life.

A lot of the developments are unfortunately too common in too many people's life stories to really stand out in the crowd. The string of vignettes has some compelling moments but mostly skims past without much impact beyond simple schadenfreude. Perhaps if all the childhood trauma had been connected to how the character/author turned out as an adult it would have helped, but the book simply ends when she's 18 and moves out on her own (with all her teeth).

Appalling side note: Castrée sadly died from cancer at 35. Her official web site, https://www.genevievecastree.com as listed on her Goodreads and LibraryThing author pages, was apparently allowed to lapse and has been taken over by another entity that rebranded the page as "Genevieve Castree: Gambling the Smart Way," a blog offering tips for improving your betting strategies.

A Bubble ~2 stars~

The author was working on this children's board book about a sick mother's relationship with her daughter when she passed away from pancreatic cancer. I think it will be very valuable to people who find themselves in similar circumstances but may be too much for those who want to live in their own bubble where children need not think of such things.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:
• Introduction / Phil Elverum
• volcano / Julie Doucet
• early work [1997-2003]
• Pamplemoussi [2004]
• We're Wolf [2005]
• Gris [2006]
• Tout Seul Dans La Forêt En Plein Jour; Avez-vous Peur? [2007]
• Masques [2007]
• public service announcement posters [2009]
• Ou [2008-2009]
• Ceux Qui Ne Sont Plus (the Dead) [2010]
• Courses [2010]
• Débarrassée/Décomplexée [2012]
• Susceptible [2012]
• Hivers [2013]
• Quatorze/Quinze Ans [2013]
• Blankets Are Always Sleeping [2014]
• Désengagé / Disengaged [2014]
• Fleuve [2014]
• magic/healing [2015-2016]
• Tectonic Deity Oracle Deck [2016]
• Une Bulle / A Bubble [2016]… (meer)

A semi- or fully-autobiographical sketch of the author's childhood, I guess? Young Goglu is buffeted by her parents' various changing relationships and infidelities and substance abuse issues, with her mother and father ending up basically on opposite sides of Canada and her falling into the chasm between, repeating their mistakes and coming up with plenty of her own as she flails about in life.

A lot of the developments are unfortunately too common in too many people's life stories to really stand out in the crowd. The string of vignettes has some compelling moments but mostly skims past without much impact beyond simple schadenfreude. Perhaps if all the childhood trauma had been connected to how the character/author turned out as an adult it would have helped, but the book simply ends when she's 18 and moves out on her own (with all her teeth).

Appalling side note: Castrée sadly died from cancer at 35. Her official web site, https://www.genevievecastree.com as listed on her Goodreads and LibraryThing author pages, was apparently allowed to lapse and has been taken over by another entity that rebranded the page as "Genevieve Castree: Gambling the Smart Way," a blog offering tips for improving your betting strategies.… (meer)