Customer Reviews

Alice In Sunderland

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There have been and always will be books that intimidate your average everyday book reviewer. As someone who works primarily with children's literature, this doesn't happen to me all that often. After all, as much as I'd like to be overawed by the latest Junie B. Jones series title, it just ain't gonna happen. But encompassing the whole of literature written with children in mind means sometimes having to deal with books that only just barely touch on my sphere of experience. When I first heard of Bryan Talbot's graphic novel, "Alice in Sunderland," I had no idea what it was. Not really. A glance at the cover gives the reader some hints to the contents, but for your average everyday American the word "Sunderland" means nothing. It's a nonsense word. A play on "Wonderland" obviously, but beyond that we're without reference. Standing at an impressive 328 pages, the book is obviously publisher Dark Horse Comics' most ambitious project to date. Dense, intense, and without comparison, Talbot has constructed the ultimate love letter/tour guide to his home. The fact that it may have also inspired Lewis Carroll's best-known work? Almost a sidenote.

Step right up! Step right in! Take off your hats and coats and make yourself at home. A man walks into a theater for a performance unlike any other. Onstage, the rabbit mask-wearing lead performer begins to tell the story. But it's not the story of Alice in Wonderland or even Charles Dodgson, her creator. Rather it's the tale of a place. A little strip of land on the North Eastern side of the island of Britain. A location that has inspired so many heroes, stories, tales, and legends you'd be amazed to hear them all. But Talbot isn't going to concentrate on the biggest folktales of his region. Nothing so straightforward. Instead, the book leaps, glances, references, and side-steps around every possible connection Sunderland might have to the world of Alice. What's more, the very history of Britain itself is tied intricately into Sunderland's tale. At the heart of it all, however, is the story of Lewis Carroll. For every seemingly inconsequential tangent, Talbot continually and continuously ties Alice Liddell, muse to the great author, and Carroll to the land they belonged to. Part historical treatise, part series of Rosicrucian-like connections, Talbot is unafraid to absolutely stuff his book with as much information as humanly possible. The result is a ridiculous and magnificent ode to a too little appreciated region.

It might sound a tedious affair. Constant backing and forthing between the present and the past. History coming alive is meant to be boring, right? So what are we to do when an artist like Talbot bends over backwards, not only to fit everything in, but to violently and continually change his style so as to both retain our attention and show off his prowess? Care to hear Henry V's speech before Harfleur, Act III, Scene I, done in the style of Mad Magazine? A Jabberwocky poem via Tenniel (right down to the unisexual hero?). Bryan Talbot can tell the story of brave Jack Crawford like it was a boys adventure tale then turn around and present some pretty nasty Normans ala Jack Kirby. There's even a bit of D.C. horror, odes to Herge, and a visitation from god-amongst-comic-artists Scott McCloud. Tenniel and Hogarth may get their due praise, but let us too admire what Talbot has seen fit to sneak in here and there artistically.

But I love the little things about this book too. The central plot concerns a single attendee, treated to this magnificent show in the Empire Theater. Of course the performer, the viewer, and even the man giving the walking tour are all various rather handsome versions of Talbot himself. Still, you grow very attached to the man watching. You're touched by his continual love and interest in George Fornby, local boy made good, ukulele phenomenon, and general nice guy. It's history is what it is. Hearing that the current Queen of England is related by blood to Alice Liddell isn't just good fun. Talbot can then turn Her Majesty into the Red Queen and at the same time show the moment Queen Elizabeth unveiled Sunderland's ode to the Great Library of St. Peter's in 1993. No detail is so small that Talbot can't weave it into the text in some fashion.

I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Talbot discuss this book at a conference held by the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. And let me tell you, it takes guts to stand before that kind of assemblage so to present a book on their beloved. From that talk, however, I learned all kinds of secrets about "Sunderland". The amount of Photoshop that has gone into some of these pages looks daunting at the outset. It's even more so when you hear how Talbot meticulously reconstructed some of his photographic scenes. The image of photographers taking pics of Alice at Columbia in her later years? Some of those fellows were lifted out of the original filmed production of "King Kong". That image of the Bayeux Tapestry? It took some wrangling to get to display even the replicated version held in the Reading Museum of Berkshire.

Not that the book is flawless. Sorry folks, but while Talbot may be a genius he is by no means perfect. He tends to bog down on the topics that are of the greatest interest to him and him alone. A walking tour thorough the public art of modern day Sunderland is cool to begin with but can't maintain the book's momentum after a while. Facts about Sunderland's shipbuilding and geography come across as akin to Melville's whaling portions of Moby-Dick. You feel obligated to read through them, but you get no pleasure from doing so. It's also funny to take into account what Talbot didn't include alongside what he did. He fails to speak on whether or not the Cheshire Cat's origins are also Sunderland-based (a notable absence, I feel). He doesn't mention, when discussing the Bayeux Tapestry (England's first graphic novel and compiled by "a single artist") that the creator was widely considered to be a woman. Sometimes watching the unmentioned becomes as fascinating as the mentioned.

Ah well. It's a remarkable affair just the same. For those readers willing to dedicate a couple days of their time to reading it through, "Alice in Sunderland" is one of the most rewarding reads. The convergence of graphic novel enthusiasts, Lewis Carroll advocates, and history majors is sweet indeed. An intimidating work in the best possible sense of the term.

The book took me by surprise. I was expecting another boring graphic novel, but Alice delivers so much more. I've little to compare it to in the field of graphic storytelling, but the only thing that comes to mind is From Hell. Like From Hell it delves with an enormous amount of information on a subject and this occurance is Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, and Sunderland England and how they all tie together.

Talbolt does this by presenting the facts in a lucid style of a theatrical presentation. Using this device, he jumps around the history of Sunderland(from it's begginings to the theatre he's telling the story and to so much more) and how Carroll may have been influenced by the location when writing the Alice stories.
Yet it isn't just a story about a book for kids, it touches upon so many varied things that it had my head swimming with information so I could only read about fifteen pages a day. His artwork adapts to the element of story that needs it. There are about a hundred smaller stories under this title and he jumps and creates some interesting designs to make this work. Talbot has gone beyond the usual standards of comics and presented a amazing new book.

The only complaint I have is how he overuses a photoshop filter over photographs. If he did this once in a while it would be alright, but it's a technique that is driven into the ground by the end.

This will be brief--part biography of Lewis Carrol, part overview of British history, part political statement, and part love letter to the author's adopted home, Talbot's "entertainment" (officially a graphic novel, but unlike anything else I've seen) uses a variety of art styles, referencing everything from Mad Magazine to Prince Valiant and everything in between, to take us on a circuitous journey through the British city of Sunderland and its environs, as well as separating fact from fiction in the life of Lewis Carrol and the history of his most famous works.

It's occasionally wordy, often surreal, and always mesmerizing. I bought it without knowing anything about it, having just finished The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, and after needing a few minutes to adjust, was just blown away.

The only reason for dropping a star is that it may appeal mostly to Anglophiles or those obsessed by literary history. It's certainly not for everyone, but it's definitely one of the most intelligent, gripping "entertainments" that I've read in recent memory.

Well done, indeed.

I have always loved "Alice in Wonderland" story and knew that Lewis Carrol had connections with Sunderland, the place of my birth.
From this book I learned so much more about the story, the author, and Sunderland, although I thought I already knew most things about the area.
As a small child I loved to go into the Sunderland Museum, to see the stuffed walrus, who greeted everyone at the door.
Lewis Carrol got inspiration from this walrus for his poem.
From this book one can learn so much fascinating, true History of the North of England, in the easiest most enjoyable way, without realising it.
I thoroughly recommend this book called "Alice in Sunderland"
It is amazing!

I'm a fan of Lewis Carol and Alice in Wonderland from the original books to take off like The Looking Glass Wars. When I first picked this thick graphic novel up from my local library, I thought it was a another charming retelling of the story I love so.

Okay, so that was my fault for assuming so. Alice in Sunderland is not just about Lewis Carol. Its about the links between the works and life of Lewis Carol and his connection to the Sunderland area in England, connecting to other writers and artists such as George Orwell for example. Alright, so it reads like a very pretty history book sometimes but the story telling is wonderful albeit long and often it moves around freely from Lewis Caroll to the Sunderland theatre to the mythic origin of the Jabberwocky story.

The point here with this book is NOT TO LOSE YOUR FOCUS or you will forget all that you have learned. If anything, the book is wonderful to look at and if you're a Lewis Caroll or fan of Britain or Sunderland or you like history and stunning visuals, well this is the book for you.

Plot: What plot? Seriously though, its a history lesson.
Art: A The art shows the range of the creator.
In general: A- Buy it or get it from the library, but its a good read. And you can pretend its not educational if it bothers you so.

This oversized graphic novel has gotten quite a few awed reviews, so I had hopes of an unusual reading experience. What it is, basically, is a rather detailed history of every bleeding thing that has ever happened in and around the Northumbrian port town of Sunderland. It was the eastern anchor of Hadrian's Wall, so you have the Roman troops. It's also just down the beach from Lindisfarne, so you have the monastery and the early tradition of learning. And Holy Isle was the first spot in England to be stomped by the Viking raiders, so you have the Danelaw. And in more modern times, Sunderland was one of the great ship-building sites in Europe, so you have industry and urban growth and heavy raids during two world wars. It was also the hub of the coal industry, so you have grinding poverty. And you learn the difference between a Mackem and a Geordie, the two great rivals (and not just in football). And especially, you learn all (and I mean *all*) about a number of people who either came from Sunderland or were closely associated with it, from Jack Crawford, the sailor hero of the Battle of Camperdown, to Sid James, the irritating star of the "Carry On" films, who died on stage at the Empire Theater (which is also sort of the setting for this entire book). But especially, there's Lewis Carroll, who is usually associated with Oxford but who had deep familial roots in the Sunderland area and who did much of his writing there. The whole Alice mythos, in fact, seems to pop out in all sorts of odd places and in all kinds o personal associations -- and Talbot will tell you about every single one of them. And that's the biggest problem. Unless you hail from Wearmouth, this book is going to become dreadfully tedious in its stultifying level of detail and in its relentlessly lecturing style. I found myself skimming through much of the second half of the volume, slowing down only to enjoy the author's riffs on Alice and her adventures. This book is a noble effort, but I was ultimately disappointed.

Alice in Sunderland is reminiscent of James Michener's Centennial, in that it is a series of stories of everything that happens in one place from time immemorial to the present, in this case the region of England known as Sunderland, which may have prompted the name Wonderland, and in which author Bryan Talbot lives. It is not a "story" at all in the traditional sense, in that there is no conflict, climax, or resolution, but the local tourism office could not have produced a better volume regarding the trivia and minutiae of Sunderland. Mister Talbot is a walking, talking, and drawing library of knowledge of his home region, and Alice in Sunderland is filled with information that simply does not interest me.

The series of stories about the history of the Sunderland region of England is told by a narrator character to an audience character, by which the reader learns a great deal about the Sunderland region and less about its famous residents Charles "Lewis Carroll" Dodgson and Alice Liddell. The debunking of various Carroll/Liddell myths is the most useful part of the book. The vast majority of Alice in Sunderland has nothing to do with Carroll or Liddell, however.

I was disappointed to find the book did not contain an actual story to warrant its publication. As it was, my interest in Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell did not extend to the history of the region in which they associated. To the extent Mister Talbot discussed Carroll and Liddell, I was interested. To the extent that he discussed matters only tangentially related to these two persons, which means the majority of the book, I was not. For me the highlight of the 319-page book were the three pages devoted to the poem "Jabberwocky" and his illustrations of it. The text was purely Carroll's, the illustrations very well done. As an English teacher, I will photocopy those three pages for educational purposes.

Mister Talbot's talent and skill are beyond dispute. The book is a visual wonder from cover to cover, and I am sure his other books are better in terms of story. But in this case at least, his abilities as a story teller were bogged down under the weight of far too much trivia. If this book were an uncle giving a slide show on the history of a locale, I would excuse myself to the restroom and not come back. I had a very hard time forcing myself to read the entire thing, though, having done so, I feel qualified to comment on it.

I recommend this book to anyone who is so obsessed with Carroll and/or Alice that he or she is not only interested in reading about matters that are only tangentially related to them but willing to wade through mostly material that is not. In other words, if you are interested in the region more than in Carroll and/or Alice, you will enjoy this book a great deal. If you are not, you will not, as I did not. I considered it as boring as could be.

Brian Talbot's Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment, released in hardcover by Dark Horse in 2007, brought with it a redefinition of what graphic novels can be.

The comics narrative is usually thought of as fairly linear and direct in the way it tells stories, as it is predicated on the idea of sequential storytelling. Talbot's Alice, however, absolutely reinvents what can be done in comics, breaking down both the fourth wall as well as boundaries that have previously confined creators within formal paradigms.

As both writer and illustrator, Talbot uses this enormous, 300+-page tome to take readers on a trip to Sunderland, England, which serves as a geographical focal point for his history of England, art, literature, and imagination itself, all while using the figure of Alice in Wonderland writer Lewis Carroll as a historical touchstone to help guide the direction of the book's course. In order to achieve this goal, Talbot draws various versions of himself into the text, often speaking directly to the reader as he follows one narrative thread to another, weaving a tapestry of information and ideas that will leave those who give the book a try dizzy with the experience. If that sounds overwhelming, that's because it is--but only in the best way.

Alice defies usual storytelling techniques in that there is no actual story or plot, per se. Rather, the book combines elements of theatrical performance with academic lecture, utilizing the stage in Sunderland's real-life Empire theatre as the starting and ending points for the book's meta-narrative. But the elements and traditional notions of story and plot do surface and resurface throughout in the forms of the Storyteller and the Traveler (two versions of Talbot himself), who tell Carroll's story and keep the book moving along briskly.

The sequential storytelling technique of the book is perhaps one of the more interesting (and potentially frustrating) elements of the whole experience. While the book begins using sequential narrative grids, the borders between panels break down, and the panels themselves become little more than amorphous pictures that bleed and blend in with one another, with the dialogue boxes serving as your eyes' guide for how to progress, though more traditional grids appear again and again. Instead of confusing readers, the looser narrative style simply feels free, offering a graphical representation of Talbot's thesis: that people are all connected to one another by history, art, and our shared cultures, even when those connections may not seem clear at first glance.

Alice in Sunderland is nothing short of groundbreaking. Reading it is challenging, as the densely delivered information can leave readers feeling exhausted from simply trying to absorb and retain it all. The lack of a traditional story structure, too, may prove troublesome for those looking for a simple or relaxing reading experience. But the revelatory way in which Talbot weaves his "entertainment," and the effect of artistic and cultural enlightenment it can provide to those up to the task, makes it a necessary addition to anyone's library.
-- Brian P. Rubin

In a style termed by the author as "dream documentary", Bryan Talbot takes us through the religious, political, cultural, and literary history of his home town of Sunderland (as well as bits and pieces of knowledge from all kinds of other places and fields). Far from a paper-dry chronological listing of names and dates, however, we jump from place to place, subject to subject, and event to event often without preamble or warning, always colorfully illustrated by drawings, photos, collages, or paintings. It truly is like falling down the rabbit-hole.

To Talbot's credit, the conceit works surprisingly well. I was completely unfamiliar with most of the subjects presented in this work, but I never felt lost while reading; and while I occasionally consulted Wikipedia for more information on a subject mentioned, I never felt like doing so was necessary in order to follow the story.

What makes the whole concept work, despite its incredibly ambitious scope, is the theme of connections. Talbot constantly shows us the influences of one event on another: the values of one family being passed to its succeeding generations, the re-invention of folk stories and myths as shows or popular fiction, the art style of an invading culture commingling with that of the previous settlers, the de-evolution of a centuries-old blood feud into an equally vicious (if supposedly more civilized) football rivalry. Nothing "just happens"; everything is preceded by numerous related events, and everything has its own effects on what follows, which are often surprisingly far-reaching.

While his approach may at first seem more scatterbrained than structured, attentive readers will soon notice how meticulously Talbot has composed his story so that everything fits together. Half the joy of reading the later pages comes from discovering the import of clues hidden in the earlier parts; equally surprising is how infectious the author's passion for the subject becomes. In interviews, Talbot claims that the only goal for his four-years-in-the-making masterpiece is to entertain. By that standard, he has succeeded wildly - as well as, perhaps, educating thousands of readers on subjects that they might otherwise never have known existed.

I didn't really know what to expect from _Alice in Sunderland_; the reviews on Amazon piqued my interest, so I dove in. I had assumed it was a re-telling of Carroll's _Alice in Wonderland_, but I was willing to take a chance. I don't regret the gamble, although the book itself is about Carroll's classic only in the story *behind* the story.

The graphic novel is really about Sunderland itself - the history of the city and the relationship between the place and the people who live there with Carroll (nee Charles Dodgson), and quite a bit about Carroll himself - and how all these people and places relate to the writing, characters and events in _Alice in Wonderland_. The connections and interrelationships are fascinating (from the ancestral home of George Washington, to the inventor of the lightbulb and police box of Doctor Who fame, to well-known artists and performers.) Those who are interested a strict retelling of the story, therefore, will be disappointed.

However, the journey, non-sequitors and history of Carroll and the story are fascinating, as Talbot clears the record of many misconceptions about Carroll (that he was shy and withdrawn except when around children, for example), and the writing of the story itself (that it was created while Carroll was an Oxford Don and influenced by his time there.) These examples are just two of many. On this criterion alone I would give the book 5 stars. The artwork is impressive, Talbot clearly enjoying setting the record straight and taking the reader along on a wholly whimsical and visually stunning journey as he weaves the tale. This, too warrants five stars.

I don't read a lot of graphic novels - but I have no remorse about buying this one. It is a fascinating, true-life tale masterfully illustrated. Recommended.