Bottomless Belly Button [Paperback]

Dash Shaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2008

A major new graphic novel from a major new talent.

Bottomless Belly Button is a comedy-drama that follows the dysfunctional adventures of the Loony Family.

After 40-some years of marriage, Maggie and David Loony shock their children with their announcement of a planned divorce. But the reason for splitting isn't itself shocking: they’re "just not in love any more." The announcement sparks a week long Loony family reunion at Maggie and David's creepy (and possibly haunted) beach house.

The eldest child, Dennis, struggles with his parents' decision while facing difficulties of his own in his recent marriage. Believing that his parents are hiding the true reasons behind their estrangement, Dennis embarks on a quest to discover the truth and searches through clues, trap doors, and secret tunnels in attempt to find an answer. Claire, the middle child, is a single mother whose 16-year-old daughter, Jill, is apathetic to the divorce but confounded by Claire and troubled by her own "mannish" appearance. The youngest child, Peter, is a hack filmmaker suffering from paralyzing insecurities who establishes an unorthodox romance with a mysterious day care counselor at the beach.

In a six-day period rich with atmospheric sequences, these characters stumble blindly around one another, often ignoring their surroundings and consumed by their own daily conflicts. Visually, Shaw employs a leisurely storytelling pace that allows room for exploring the interconnecting relationships among the characters and plays to his strength as a cartoonist — small gestural details and nuanced expressions that bring the characters to vivid and intimate life. If the controversial R.D. Laing wrote an episode of The Simpsons, it might read something like Bottomless Belly Button.

Official Selection, 2009 Festival International de la Bande Dessinée de Angoulême; named one of Publishers Weekly's 2008 "Best Books of the Year: Comics;" named one of Booklist's "Top 10 Graphic Novels" of the Year."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Shaw's stunningly conceived and executed comic opus captures one moment of change in a family. Maggie and David Loony have called their three adult children to their childhood home to announce that, after 40 years of marriage, they're getting a divorce. Dennis, the eldest, desperately searches for an answer to why. He believes that if he just finds the right old letters, he'll understand what's happening to his parents, only to find that his answers say a lot more about his own marriage and infant son. Claire, the middle child, has been through her own divorce and is now struggling to raise a teen daughter by herself. The youngest, Peter, who has always felt like a changeling in his family and is drawn with a frog's head, is going through a delayed coming-of-age. Shaw's style deftly combines cartoon drawings with slavish attention to detail. The result feels reminiscent of a photo album, one person's quest to remember everything from the floor plans of the vacation home to the texture of the sand on the lake beach. Masterfully using the comics medium to juggle all the different characters, weaving their stories together seamlessly, Shaw allows the Loonys' emotions to play out naturally without forced resolutions, leaving a wistful hopefulness that feels just as conflicted and confusing as every family is. (June)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Shaw’s huge new work is, like The Mother’s Mouth (2006), about ordinary love. Its scope is, however, as much broader as its six-times-larger size suggests, while its technique is a lot simpler. It’s the story of what may be the last gathering of the Loony family at their oceanside home—last because, after 40 years, Mom and Dad are divorcing. Despite his wife Aki’s attempted calming, elder son Dennis is freaked and, when not out running or minding baby Alex, pokes into every nook and cranny to find incriminating evidence of either parent’s infidelity. Early wed, long-divorced daughter Claire and her daughter, 16-year-old Jill, are accepting and separately get away from the house for some unsatisfactory “social” life. The younger son, aspiring filmmaker Peter, hovers in the background and, mirabile dictu, meets a girl at the beach who actually likes him, as the single panel representing her perspective, in which Shaw draws Peter with a young man’s instead of a frog’s face, confirms. Employing the same cartoony-ness, bold line, and two-tone high contrast as in The Mother’s Mouth but dispensing with that book’s stylistic variety and fantasy effects, Shaw renders in comics situations and characters identical with those of mainstream realistic novels and movies and handles them with the sensitivity and humor of the best humanist novelists and filmmakers. --Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (June 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560979151
• ISBN-13: 978-1560979159
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #451,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic Life, July 5, 2008

By 

Robert T Canipe (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bottomless Belly Button (Paperback)

Shaw's marvelous graphic novel extols the emotional distance between family members and the individuals from themselves. Members of the aptly- and humanity inclusively-named Looney family gather to receive word that their parents are divorcing after 40+ years of marriage. What unfolds is a tripartite discovery process of themselves, their relationships both inside and out of the family, and their place in life's plan. Had Shaw's novel been completely text, it's place in the literature section of the bookstore alongside John Banville, Lionel Shriver, and Jennifer McMahon would be assured. However, since it is a graphic novel and comprised of predominately illustrations over text, it's in no bookstore that I've been able to discover. However, Shaw's work is assuredly adult and literary and resonates with themes illustrative of the human condition. Pick it up.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book which must be met on its own terms, October 13, 2009

By 

Max Martin (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bottomless Belly Button (Paperback)

As much as I loved this book, it's unsurprising to me that it has produced highly divisive reviews. The book covers a subject that's been exhausted to death (middle class white family drama), and there is absolutely no sense of resolution to any of the various plot threads running through the book. I have to say, though, if you're looking for 'resolution' and 'coherence' when reading this book, then you are Doing It Wrong. A work must be met on its own terms, and in Bottomless Belly Button Dash Shaw has created a brilliant encapsulation the swirl of impossible-to-pin-down emotions that encompass modern family life. However, what really puts this book over the top for me is not its narrative content, but the formal ambition of Shaw's cartooning. He manages to fully express the character of each of the members of the Loony family without any of the cheap comic techniques usually relied upon by cartoonists (captions, text-heavy expository dialogue, thought bubbles, etc.), but rather by taking the time and care to show the emotional nuances of their interactions with the everyday world around them. What's most admirable about Shaw's work, though, is the precision with which he controls panel layout, a factor that many cartoonists completely ignore. Years can pass between two panels on some pages, whereas in other parts of the book three or more pages are devoted to less than 10 seconds of action. This may seem obnoxious or self-indulgent to those who are used to standard, run-of-the-mill comics, but what it shows is that Shaw is acutely aware of what makes each seemingly inane moment of life so crucial while you are living it. Here, Shaw has bravely captured those qualities in a work that shows that he is a cartoonist to watch.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accomplished; Buy it!, July 3, 2009

By 

Buzz Advert "Buzz Advert" (Milwaukee) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bottomless Belly Button (Paperback)

Shaw's book is truly top notch. The family drama was not initially engrossing for me, but it eventually drew me in with its well-drawn characters and interesting relationship dynamics. The characters' lack of communication, understanding, articulateness, and contentedness are painful yet often amusing. A reviewer complained that the characters lack depth, and perhaps there's some truth to this. However, one might make such a complaint about a Robert Altman film; for example, "Short Cuts." Nevertheless, such a film and such a book rely more for their effects on a composite approach. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The narrative is deftly handled. Especially notable are the sections where various subplots are crosscut, quickly cycling through each seemingly unrelated narrative strand a number of times.

It is true that the book doesn't conclude with a resolution that neatly unties the knot. Instead, it does something much better, which is to finish mysteriously, emotionally, realistically, and poignantly. All this should suggest that if you like stock stories, then caveat emptor. If you like more literary fare, then you'll be right at home.

Shaw makes a somewhat amusing plea to the reader to rest between the three parts of the book. I suppose if I'd foisted a 700 page book on potential readers I'd be a little worried too. But let's be realistic for a moment: It's a graphic novel! It still a very quick read.

Two minor criticisms: I was fine with the basic illustrations--the graphic part of the book doesn't reach nor attempt to reach the heights of some others in the genre. But I didn't like how Shaw adds words to describe non-dialogue physical features; for example, such as writing for sound effects, "shrug" on a shoulder or "grip" on a hand gripping something or writing "Purples" and "Pinks" so we know what color the sky is. An even more awkward example is when Dennis is cooling down after a hot run, and he places his head in front of a fan. On his forehead it says, "Cool air against the sweat on your forehead." Very clumsy. The other criticism: He names the family the Loonies. Really cute. Mercifully, this is mentioned only two or three times.

Recommended if you like: Adrian Tomine; David B.; Jason; Chris Ware; Charles Burns; Daniel Clowes; Rutu Modan; Allison Bechdel; Craig Thompson; or Yoshihiro Tatsumi.