Customer Reviews

Essex County Volume 2: Ghost Stories (Essex County)

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Jeff Lemire's Ghost Stories is technically a sequel to Tales From The Farm, the first volume in his Essex County (Canada, not Jersey) trilogy, but you don't need to have read it to enjoy the engaging tale of Lou Lebeuf, an almost-was hockey star in the early 50s, and his younger brother Vince, a genuine phenom who chooses family life on the farm over superstardom, a decision that has far-reaching repercussions.

Lou -- a lonely old man, deaf and seemingly suffering from Alzheimer's -- tells their story via flashbacks that often drift into and out of hallucinations, and Lemire's precise black-and-white artwork, deftly shifting between the realistic and metaphorical, beautifully communicates every emotion, both those on the surface and those bubbling underneath. The underlying premise of city mouse/country mouse plays out across seven decades, shifting back-and-forth in time as the titular Ghost Stories are the haunting memories of Lou's past that hinge on two key moments: his brother's decision to give up hockey, and his own one-night affair with his sister-in-law. He's a compelling figure whose ultimate fate is self-directed and hard-earned, yet he never comes off as unlikeable and Lemire never judges him one way or the other.

Another winner from Top Shelf and highly recommended.

Both books in this series of what is to be a trilogy have been so well written and drawn, that my head has fallen off each time I read them, and I keep going back.

Ghost Stories: Essex County Vol. 2 by Jeff Lemire is the second volume in the trilogy of graphic novels about a fictionalized version of Essex County, Ontario where Lemire grew up. I read the first volume, Tales from the Farm, quite some time ago but you don't need to have read that one in order to appreciate this beautiful story. Lou LeBeuf is living out his last days in a nursing home and drifting in and out of memories from his past, reliving moments before he dies. The book is almost elegiac and wonderfully lyrical. Lemire's art takes a bit of adjustment, but once the reader is caught in the story, you can see that it suits the tale completely. He captures faces with just a few perfectly rendered lines. Lou's regret colors every page, but as he remembers a night of passion, he realizes that despite the damage it did to his life and family relationships, he wouldn't change a thing just to have that one moment of beauty and love in his life. I love Lemire's almost surrealistic drawings like Lou lying across the entire city of Toronto as he comments that he has become a part of the city and is slowly losing himself. Lemire's story is full of depth and haunting loneliness.

Ghost Stories is truly one of the best graphic novels that I have ever read. The story is told from a first person perspective, and that protagonist is deaf and suffering from dementia. This allows for many very interesting ways to tell the story. It's hard to explain until you see it, but Ghost Stories really takes advantage of the format. The art is simple but Lemire manages to fit so many things into each panel. This is a book you will revisit again and again. You may want to buy more than one at a time because you'll want to give them as gifts this Christmas. It's that good. Jeff Lemire is a great story teller!

The story is about two brothers, Lou and Vince LeBeuf, who aspire to play pro hockey. Vince is the talented one but leaves the sport in his prime to marry his girlfriend Beth, start a family, and work on a farm. Lou tries to make it in hockey, breaks his knee, and becomes a tram driver. The two brothers, once inseparable, are torn apart by their shared love of Beth and don't speak for 25 years. The story is told from the perspective of Lou, now deaf and aged in his eighties, looking back on his life story like a ghost, hovering in the background.

I'll be honest, this book is devastating. Few comic books leave me feel like I've been punched in the gut but this one destroyed me. The brothers' life story and how the years treat them is so moving and well told, it's like seeing poetry. Lemire's artwork is amazing throughout, I can't fault it at all, it's perfectly done with panels seguing effortlessly into other panels, a blink of an eye and decades melt away, it's astonishing to see. Images like a snowy night when Lou and Beth are standing atop a rooftop looking over a nighttime Toronto with Lou in his old age looking down as the moon are hauntingly beautiful. The finale when the brothers are together for the last time choked me up and I cried, the picture (double paged) is perfect in tone and appearance.

I've read all of Jeff Lemire's work and it's sad to see "Ghost Stories" out of print but a collected book of the series "The Complete Essex County" has brought the book back into print. I highly recommend seeking out that book, it's comic books as highest art, and Lemire's finest achievement (so far). "Ghost Stories" is Lemire's deepest, most profound book, I can't recommend it more.