Asterios Polyp (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. For decades, Mazzucchelli has been a master without a masterpiece. Now he has one. His long-awaited graphic novel is a huge, knotty marvel, the comics equivalent of a Pynchon or Gaddis novel, and radically different from anything he's done before. Asterios Polyp, its arrogant, prickly protagonist, is an award-winning architect who's never built an actual building, and a pedant in the midst of a spiritual crisis. After the structure of his own life falls apart, he runs away to try to rebuild it into something new. There are fascinating digressions on aesthetic philosophy, as well as some very broad satire, but the core of the book is Mazzucchelli's odyssey of style—every major character in the book is associated with a specific drawing style and visual motifs, and the design, color scheme and formal techniques of every page change to reinforce whatever's happening in the story. Although Mazzucchelli stacks the deck—few characters besides Polyp and his inamorata, the impossibly good-hearted sculptor Hana, are more than caricatures—the book's bravado and mastery make it riveting even when it's frustrating, and provide a powerful example of how comics use visual information to illustrate complex, interconnected topics. Easily one of the best books of 2009 already. (June)
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Review

"It's as if John Updike had discovered a bag of art supplies and LSD. Elegant, deceptively simple line work and nearly subliminal color symbolism make everything go down like candy. The narrative comes back to earth for a profoundly satisfying climax, but you'll want to keep turning pages–all the way back to the beginning, for another read."
- Entertainment Weekly

"This is a comic for artists, and it plays with space and color in ways that maybe only artists will understand, but it is a story for everyone, and Asterios Polyp is easily among the best graphic novels ever made. Go read it, and read it twice." –Providence City Paper

"We can all stop reading comics now, because David Mazzucchelli's crafted the ultimate comic book statement. Just take everything on your reading pile right now and chuck it out. Asterios Polyp is the new standard bearer. Mazzucchelli has somehow managed to jam just about everything great about comics into 340 pages of humanity, soul-searching, graphic design, philosophy and humor." -Newsarama

"The more you study Polyp, the more there is to discover. This is a book that stands with works by Updike, Roth, and other giants of American literature. It is undoubtedly one of the best novels of the year." —The Stranger

"Asterios Polyp is a perfect marriage of words and pictures. Every drawing, color choice and panel layout is pregnant with meaning." —Columbus Dispatch

"What Mazzucchelli accomplishes, though, with remarkable clarity and a jazzy pop-culture eye, and which the written word has a tougher time with, is portraying silence, moments between something said and something to come -- even thought itself. That sticks; those last pages are as tender and heartbreaking a portrait of lost time as I can recall, and no less powerful for being nearly wordless" —Chicago Tribune

"Critics have decried the modern graphic novel's focus on form at the expense of content. With "Asterios Polyp," Mazzucchelli has put paid to that charge: It's funny, it's warm and it's beautiful. Go read it." —Newsday.com

"Each panel is a moment in the story that when connected to other panels becomes part of a scene or sequence that is rich in storytelling and fertile with ideas, inquiry, and themes." —ComicBookBin, A+ review

"Visually, Asterios Polyp is the lushest comic of the year--maybe of the last the 10 years, a decade not exactly thin on astounding cartooning. Mazzucchelli's work has all but abandoned the realistic musculature and architecture that made him stand out from his superhero peers. Asterios Polyp feels like three or four cartoonists working in concert, often on the same page, all of them firmly working on the "stylized" end of comics' spectrum." —Baltimore City Paper

"This fan of the novel is an ever bigger fan of the magic that happens in comics, and only in comics, when text and art work together to create something wholly, wonderfully new. In books like Jimmy Corrigan -- and the just released ASTERIOS POLYP by David Mazzucchelli, it happens on every. Single. Page."–NPR.ORG

"This absorbing, idiosyncratic tale of love, ambition and opportunity marks the return of one of the modern masters of graphic storytelling."–Miami Herald

"You'll be in awe of how perfect it is and certainly envious of it if you are a writer. What a beautiful, staggeringly brilliant piece of literature."–Contra Costa Times

'The book is a satirical comedy of remarriage, a treatise on aesthetics and design and ontology, a late-life Künstlerroman, a Novel of Ideas with two capital letters, and just about the most schematic work of fiction this side of that other big book that constantly alludes to the ­"Odyssey." …. "Asterios Polyp" is a dazzling, expertly constructed entertainment, even as it' s maddening and even suffocating at times. It demands that its audience wrestle with it, argue with it, reread and re-examine it. Isn't that the ultimate purpose of style?' –Douglas Wolk, New York TImes Book Review

"Heady with philosophical and mythological references, Asterios Polyp vaults Mazzucchelli into the top rank of graphic artists. It's a sweeping, provocative book that blends the richness of the traditional novel with the best modern art. Mazzucchelli's style - effortless and so versatile that you can't imagine Asterios in any other medium - is sweeping in every sense."–Boston Globe

"It's a remarkable, bravura achievement - funny, harrowing and thought-provoking." –San Francisco Chronicle

"Asterios Polyp reads like an intricately designed and heartfelt work of metafiction, juggling design theory, philosophy and sly nods to other cartoonists to create a dryly funny masterpiece."–Time Out New York

"It's as if John Updike had discovered a bag of art supplies and LSD. Elegant, deceptively simple line work and nearly subliminal color symbolism make everything go down like candy. The narrative comes back to earth for a profoundly satisfying climax, but you'll want to keep turning pages - all the way back to the beginning, for another read." –Entertainment Weekly

"Haunting and beautiful."–Los Angeles Times

"I was completely blown away by Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli's latest comic book, a pull-out-all-the-stops package that's funny, poignant and deep, with panels of thoughtfully shaded images that form a visual novel, a paper movie, and finally, an existential meditation on things that matter to us: religion, art, science, love and memory."–Pop Culture Nerd

"One of the smartest and most rewarding graphic novels of the year to date." - Pop Matters

"It's a remarkable, bravura achievement - funny, harrowing and thought-provoking." - San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the greatest comics of all time." - Comic Book Resources

"Mazzucchelli's masterwork is by no means an easy read...but it is a transcendent one." - Austin Chronicle

"A sprawling work about the life and loves of a middle-aged, philandering architect who loses everything in a fire. The coming release has been compared to the idiosyncratic work of Thomas Pynchon." - Wall Street Journal

"A dazzling expertly constructed entertainment...that is a satirical comedy of remarriage, a treatise on aesthetics and design and ontology, late life Künstlerroman, a Novel of Ideas with two capital letters..." - New York Times Book Review

"Finally, after a decade of silence, Mazzucchelli has returned with his own graphic novel, Asterios Polyp: sprawling, trippy, moving, and a hell of a lot of fun.Almost without realizing it, we slowly begin rooting for Asterios, and hard. A serial overthinker, he lives much of his life in his own head. So Mazzucchelli takes us there, repeatedly, with perfect clarity - it's as if John Updike had discovered a bag of art supplies and LSD. Elegant, deceptively simple line work and nearly subliminal color symbolism make everything go down like candy. The narrative comes back to earth for a profoundly satisfying climax, but you'll want to keep turning pages - all the way back to the beginning, for another read." ~Entertainment Weekly

"Even by the standards of the graphic novel, this cosmic epic pushes the creative envelope.With previous credits including superheroes for Marvel Comics and the transformation of Paul Auster's City of Glass into a graphic novel (2004), Mazzucchelli returns with a title that suggests a mid-period Pink Floyd song and an illustrated narrative that is every bit as mind-blowing. In this graphic novel of fate, chance and shooting stars, Polyp insists that "I am the hero of my own story," yet the art provides plenty of evidence to the contrary. A visual and even philosophical stunner."~ Kirkus

"The simplicity of that facile summary, along with the deceptively cartoony drawing style Mazzucchelli has adopted for the work, makes it easy to miss its genuine accomplishment. The sparseness of his illustration gives necessary clarity to his complex storytelling, which employs intricate and imaginative panel arrangements and a constantly shifting chronology.meticulously constructed.It's a testimony to Mazzucchelli's skills that by the end of Polyp's odyssey, the arrogant academic has been rendered a tragic and sympathetic figure deserving of the tale's (possibly) happy ending." - Gordon Flagg, Booklist

"For decades, Mazzucchelli has been a master without a masterpiece. Now he has one. His long-awaited graphic novel is a huge, knotty marvel, the comics equivalent of a Pynchon or Gaddis novel, and radically different from anything he's done before. There are fascinating digressions on aesthetic philosophy, as well as some very broad satire, but the core of the book is Mazzucchelli's odyssey of style-every major character in the book is associated with a specific drawing style and visual motifs, and the design, color scheme and formal techniques of every page change to reinforce whatever's happening in the story. Although Mazzucchelli stacks the deck-few characters besides Polyp and his inamorata, the impossibly good-hearted sculptor Hana, are more than caricatures-the book's bravado and mastery make it riveting even when it's frustrating, and provide a powerful example of how comics use visual information to illustrate complex, interconnected topics. Easily one of the best books of 2009 already." - Publishers Weekly
"Mazzucchelli experiments with numerous art styles and pushes the envelope with challenging digressions into philosophy, religion and mortality throughout Polyp's tale. The engrossing effort culminates with a bombshell that will leave readers reeling." –Toronto Star


"In Asterios Polyp -- the best of the summer's new releases -- Mazzucchelli employs spotlights, c...

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307377326
• ISBN-13: 978-0307377326
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,541 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars =We knew he was good...but wow!=, July 11, 2009

By	Shane White (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you've followed the work of David Mazzucchelli then you already know the man possesses far greater gifts than just being an artist. His work on Daredevil defined his hand and his self-published Rubber Blanket defined his passion.

In Asterios Polyp he defines his genuis.

When I'd heard he was going to "redefine the graphic novel" I immediately thought it was press release pretension. But you know, everyone deserves credit for trying. What Mazzucchelli does is makes it look like he's not trying. It flows seamlessly from color to line, to form and shape and before you know it you're really reading words and pictures in a very unique way; yet still familiar.

Anyone who loved Rubber Blanket and Paul Auster's City of Glass will want this book. Anyone who likes smart literature who wants a new challenge for themselves to mix words and pictures will learn to appreciate what comics can be.

This is just another step in the right direction for the medium as well as the man. I hope David Mazzucchelli continues to practice in the medium he makes us appreciate so much.

=s=

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Time, July 30, 2009

By	Seth T. Hahne (SoCal) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Reading Asterios Polyp is a daunting experience. Or maybe not so much the reading, which can be accomplished easily enough, but the being able to speak sensibly about it afterward. I feel kind of like how I did after finishing Bolaño's 2666: A Novel, only not quite so out of my depth. Like Bolaño, Mazzucchelli's work here displays a breadth and depth that overtly requires multiple readings in order find ground solid enough to speak with any authority about the book.

But since I've only read the book once, you'll have to be satisfied with my initial thoughts. Asterios Polyp is, in the simplest terms, a coming-of-age story--one in which the fifty-year-old lead, celebrated architect Asterios Polyp, begins a quest to put away the childish things of his past and embarks on journey of both self-discovery and exploration of the world as it is rather than how he has intended to see it for so long. In this aspect, Asterios reminded me of Mr. Ryder from Ishiguro's The Unconsoled, a man at the top of his rarefied field who still must learn to grow up. And like Ryder, Asterios suffers from an inability to see the world as it is and is (really, like us all) victim to his own perceptions.

Reality, perception, and memory play a huge role in Mazzucchelli's work here even as they do in everything I've yet read by Ishiguro.

On top of this is layered the framework of Greek tragedy and specific allusion to the myth of Orpheus (this is pointed out through fistfuls of overt clues, not the least of which is a dream in which Asterios takes the role of Orpheus and his ex-wife Hana embodies Eurydice). We get narrative explanations from a meta-source in the Greek choral tradition. Comparisons to Dionysus and Apollo lead to an evaluation of dualistic systems (and perhaps systems generally) as Asterios gradually must free himself from systemic shackles in order to finally grow up. Of course we suspect if Asterios abandons one aspect he will be destroyed even as Orpheus was for abandoning Dionysius. As well, there are plenty of references to The Odyssey and this cross-pollination of mythologies only serves to enrich our experience of Asterios' journey.

The subject matter, by its summary, sounds simple enough but Mazzucchelli throws so much into this piece and exercises such deft control over the page that one can easily drown in the details. The art is very particular. Much is made of Mazzucchelli's use of colour through the book and, well, with good reason. The colouring itself offers storytelling that is available through no other means. In fact, so occasionally powerful is his use of colour that I worry for colourblind readers, that they might miss out on some of the book's more sublime moments.

On top of Mazzucchelli's tight reign over his colour spectrum, there is ample evidence that he maintains the same level of control over his linework and design. Asterios Polyp is a thoroughly designed experience, with every element from script to story to illustration to panel design to colouration to control of whitespace adding voice to the chorus of this performance. The battle between geometric and organic shapes gives the reader (who may not be familiar with all the names and ideas Asterios or his ghostly narrator reference) a hook on which to hang the interpreter's hat. One's experience of Asterios Polyp will no doubt be more enriched by a working knowledge of architectural history, familiarity with Greek mythology and Homeric tradition, and a smackerel of understanding of postmodern sculpture--but Mazzucchelli's conveyance of story through his visual sense means that even those with Asterios-sized gaps in their education can still get in there and have some deeper sense of what's going on.

As of this writing, I have only read Asterios Polyp once. Of course I still have questions. Of course I do. I think I understand the ending, but I'd like to reread and think on it again. I think I understand why he physically takes on the identity of his true last name in the book's final act (Polyp is only half his original surname, as the immigration official chopped in half the family name when his father immigrated to America). I sometimes understand what Mazzuchelli intends with his character names and sometimes not. I have the barest kernel of an idea why Mazzuchelli, in a mature work that depicts nudity and violence, insists on representing verbal obscenity with cartoony symbolic representation (e.g. "We made up a $#@*load of these"). I don't yet fully grasp Asterios' Ignazio dreams. I am certain, however, that many of these things will become more clear on subsequent readings.

As I said, I have only read Asterios Polyp once. And I can't wait to change that fact.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words fail, July 12, 2009

By	James Wu (Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I waited for this book in the same fashion that I waited for Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day, and Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, and as with both of those books, not only was I *not* disappointed, I was amazed that these men not only raised the bar, but cleared it, with room to spare.

In the case of Asterios Polyp, I am glad to say that the wait is over, and Mazzucchelli has delivered not just the masterpiece we all knew he had in him, but probably the graphic novel we will still be talking about ten years from now, in the same way we talk about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen. Groundbreaking, emotional, inventive, sly, thought-provoking: Mazzucchelli has opened a door and shown us a room we never knew was in this house before. Bravo. I will have to buy a second copy soon as I have already loaned out the one I bought to my best friend.