Customer Reviews

Bottomless Belly Button

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is one of the best comic books I've ever read. I picked it up at my local comics shop and read about half of it just standing next to the shelves. Buy the time I bought it my arm had cramped up from holding it. (At 720 pages it is no lightweight.) It's engaging and interesting and a fantastic story.
The author does a wonderful job of mixing the written text with the visual panels and the flow of the book is excellent. There are even a few coded messages that, if you're into that sort of thing, are great fun to figure out.
The last few pages are some of the best I've ever seen in how they tell the story through the medium of comics. I don't want to give anything away but I think that it could never have worked as well in any other form. Buy this book even if you aren't a big comics geek.

"Bottomless Belly Button", as stated on the spine of this massive 700-some-odd page book is a Family Comedy/Drama/Horror/Mystery/Romance graphic novel that will find a place in your heart--it did mine. Following the Loony Family during a week's stay at the divorcing grandparent's beach house, you intimately get to know each character as they come to terms with the divorce announcement, and even themselves.
Dash Shaw's witty style of writing and illustrating help make the characters feel uniquely genuine, and each page is filled with parts of real life the reader can relate to no matter their walk of life. Even if you're not that into graphic novels (I know I wasn't) this book is still a great read. You can tell in the two years Shaw spent drawing this novel, he poured part of himself into it.
Sometimes, the story seems so real that, although the reader is in a trance while 'living' in this beach house, the plot seems to get a bit dull--many pages are devoted to everyday tasks that seem inferred to happen anyway. However, I could never imagine a reader putting down this book as a result of that; simply because you never want to leave the family. Another thing to consider is that the point of this book isn't to be gimmicky and dramatize emotional events, it's just to showcase the Loony's story. What I think I liked best about it is that I didn't feel like I was reading a comic book like a lot of other graphic novels are. It felt like a fiction book made out of pictures to me.
When this book ends it is nearly impossible to keep from tearing up in the last few pages. I started to feel what the characters felt, which never really leaves you--this is a book you will want to read more than once.
"Bottomless Belly Button" should get far more praise and acknowledgement and is incredibly looked over. Picking up this book because it caught my eye in the Graphic Novels section of the library has to be one of the best decisions I've made in a while.

Dash Shaw, Bottomless Belly Button (Fantagraphics, 2008)

I feel torn about Bottomless Belly Button, Dash Shaw's monstrous (720 pp.) magnum opus. On the one hand, it's one of those graphic novels that isn't actually "about" anything. The characters, in general, don't change, just kind of butt up against one another like buoys tied to a pier in rough water, and the situation flows around them. Think of it as a mumblecore graphic novel, you know? And those tend to drive me bats. (God save me from ever having to read anything else Craig Thompson writes. Ever.) But on the other hand... Dash Shaw is amazing. Pure-D gold. I'm not sure anyone else could have taken this scenario and these characters, put this style of writing to them, and made it work anywhere close to as well as Shaw does here. So I'm torn on how to review this, but I'm leaning more towards the "brilliant" side of things.

Plot: the Loony family have gathered at the beach house after a stunning announcement: mom and dad (Maggie and David) are getting divorced after forty years. The news understandably shakes their three kids, and the extended families of each. The oldest of the three, Dennis, is a classic type A personality, with a loving, if stressed wife, Aki, and a newborn son. Dennis treats the split as a mystery; he wants to know why it's happening, and Maggie and David are either not being forthcoming, or simply don't know the answer themselves, so Dennis digs deeper and deeper into the accumulated detritus of forty years of crap in the basement to try and find an answer. The middle child, Claire, is divorced and raising a teenaged daughter (Jill) by herself. She acknowledges the split, but having a great deal more firsthand experience with divorce, takes it in stride and spends more time with Aki reminiscing about her own childhood days, using the vacation as a halfhearted attempt to find herself and an even more halfhearted (quarterhearted?) attempt to bond with Jill. Peter is the youngest son, the polar opposite of Dennis in every way. Shy, unassuming, socially unskilled. (Shaw draws him, in fact, as a frog; he is the only anthropomorphic character in the book.)

While that's the basics, the book starts out attempting to give everyone equal time, but quickly starts focusing on Jill and Peter. Peter, after getting dating advice from Jill (despite Jill being half Peter's age, this doesn't feel at all out of the ordinary; Peter is that socially inept), meets a camp counselor who lives a couple of houses down the beach, and hesitantly embarks on his first love affair, while Jill, at first unable to let go of her relationships with school friends in the city, soon finds herself forced to do so through circumstances and needing to find a way to connect with a family that, seemingly, has no connections.

It all sounds very Kramer vs. Kramer with a bigger family when I describe it like that, but as I was reading it, my mind kept bringing me back to Tracy Letts' August: Osage County instead. Not necessarily because of the family-secrets angle, though there are a few uncovered here, but because of the characters' reactions to the existence of those family secrets, and how they all play out. Every once in a while, Shaw throws in something that's simple, and yet somehow jaw-dropping. The biggest surprise in the book lasts all of a single frame (while at least one review has revealed it, I won't), and it's exactly the kind of thing that separates the kind of books that try this I normally despise and Bottomless Belly Button. Portions of it are still frustrating, especially the denouement, but it's still an incredible book, and one that deserves your time and attention. ****

Bottomless Belly Bottom offers a good insight into the dynamics of family living as the elderly parents organize a reunion to announce their divorce.

Sure enough, the work may have been over-hyped elsewhere, and sometimes the characters could feel a bit flatter than what they actually are, or aim to be... But overall, the touches about a reaction to a family break up, life perspectives, the range of situations covered, and an general sense of existential uncertainty make for a good graphic read.

The volume might look imposing given its length but it reads quickly. The narrative tries to stir away from more traditional comic-book patterns, but it is not particularly complex, and the graphic work is more than adequate to explore the story at hand.

I'd had several false starts with this book, taking it off and putting back on the shelf, feeling like I should want to read it, but finding myself put off by the drawing style. Its that sort of "careless" style affected by quite a number of cartoonists lately, scratchy and unfinished-looking, at best calligraphic and unique as a signature--at worst, leaving you with the suspicion that the artist simply cant draw.

Anyway, my b/f pulled the book off the shelf at the local library & told me he thought I'd like it. I didnt want to hurt his feelings with my misgivings so I took it out and kept my misgivings to myself.

Long story short: I finished "Bottomless Belly Button" in about three days. It was totally engrossing. The artwork is a lot more sophisticated than it appears at first glance--even at second glance. Dash (rhymes with "rash") Shaw has a wonderful way of portraying sequences, especially of everyday activities, like jogging, for instance, or making a bed. He makes these wordless passages interesting to look at. As for the plot--well, its about this family reunion at a beach house. The adult children of this couple come for a visit and are informed that their parents, who've been married for over 40 years, are getting divorced. One of the characters, Dennis, is particularly disturbed by this news and sets out to uncover the "mystery" of his parents's otherwise seemingly inexplicable marital rupture. Shaw (rhymes with "paw") manages to inculcate just enough nameless formless dread into the proceedings to keep you interested in this otherwise quotidian situation. At least he kept me reasonably interested in it. All the way through you get the sense that something really catastrophic is going to happen and I wont ruin the suspense by telling you that it doesnt, but anyone who's ever lived in a particularly dysfunctional family knows the feeling.

For a lot of reasons, including the author's preposterous name, I didn't want to like this book, but it won me over anyway. It even brought tears to my eyes in the final half-dozen pages. It's true, however, that I cry at practically the drop of a hat. And sometimes even at the picking up of a hat. Still, tears are tears.

I think, ultimately, as a graphic artist, particularly as a comic artist, one could learn a lot from "Bottomless Belly Button"--or a little, depending on how much you already know. Honestly, I could go on and on in this ridiculous, circuitous manner and, having not a lot better to do at the moment, I'm even inclined to do so, but I'll spare us all and sign off.

A very true-to-life story about a big family. The unique art style that kept me thoroughly engaged.The Complete Essex County

I struggled a bit with the art in this book, seeing it as not quite as accomplished as I'm used to finding in a graphic novel ... but the *story* sure is engaging. Several plot lines move the reader along through what are, ultimately, simple tales about everyday life. A nice, touching book about family that will captivate your attention.