Customer Reviews

Gemma Bovery

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

 

 

This graphic novel begins in Bailleville, Normandy with the death of 31-year-old Gemma Bovery. Narrated alternately by the French baker Raymond Joubert and through excerpts from Gemma's diary, Gemma's story slowly unfolds. The beautiful British decorator marries Charlie Bovery, becomes caught up in a dead-end career, and is reluctantly involved in Charlie's domestic conflicts with his ex-wife and children. She decides to flee her dreary London life, and she talks Charlie into buying a home in the rural French countryside. Small town life seems no better for her, however, as her charming country cottage develops water leaks and is infested with pests. She tries to escape her boredom through adulterous love affairs and a spending spree that causes financial problems. Joubert, her next-door neighbor, becomes obsessed with Gemma, spies on her, and becomes jealous of her lovers.

If you have any familiarity with French literature, the title "Gemma Bovery" should immediately remind you of the Flaubert novel "Madame Bovary." And if that's not enough, the parallels in the two story lines should make it obvious that this is not mere coincidence. But this story is more than a retelling of the classic novel, and there are as many differences from as there are similarities to the original. It is a witty modernization of a timeless tale that satirizes the aspirations and foibles of the yuppie middle class as well as the cultural differences between the French and British. In no way are the similarities between Emma Bovary and Gemma Bovery subtly presented. Author Posy Simmonds revels in them through the observations and machinations of Joubert, who warns others of parallels between the two and tries to prevent Gemma from coming to the same tragic end as Emma did.

For a graphic novel, there is a lot of text. But the cartoon panels are interspersed with the text, diary entries, and snippets of partially translated French dialog in a wonderfully layered fashion and are rich in detail. There are twists in the story as the details about Gemma's death are revealed. Whether you have read the original French classic or not, and whether you are a graphic novel fan or not, this is a creative and entertaining story you will enjoy.

Eileen Rieback

I gave this book as a gift to two sets of friends who moved to France following le dream des Anglais. Its pisstake of middle class pretensions they thought so close to the mark as to be uncomfortable. The script and drawings border on genius at times.
The book is "tray, tray joyeux" as the characters here might say.
Having just read Emma Bovery I loved this take which is confident enough to reconfigure the original tale but savvy enough to closely echo its classical predecessor.
Neither Emma or Gemma are likeable but they both drag you willingly into their unhappiness. Emma Bovery left me sad. Gemma Bovery had me laughing for weeks. Flaubert would be proud!

I was so surprised that anyone gave this brilliant book a negative review that I figured I had to weigh in a little. It is true that the title character may not be sympathetic (she has affairs, seems manipulative & flighty), and one either likes that or not. But the real strength of the story is in how the story is told. There is a lot of distance from Gemma since a lot of the narrative is from Joubert the baker point of view.

This engages the reader a lot since you don't really know where he's coming from until the end and then you realize how really sad the whole thing was especially since the final part (no spoilers) and his culpability was minor and unintentional.

Also I thought the art work was just grand. It reminded me a lot of Shel Silverstein's early ink cartoon work. There's just a lot of wonderful detail and expression. Overall I would recommend this to anyone both for the story and the art.

In the past couple of years I've read two modern adaptations of Madame Bovary - The Saturday Wife and this one. Whereas the former book was a dreary parody of Orthodox Jewish norms, Gemma Bovery goes for the novelty of interacting with the classic. The story is told from the perspective of a bread maker obsessed with his neighbor who shares a name with the infamous Flaubert character to the point where he cannot help but tell her story and pore over her diaries for clues of what led to her demise (assuming all the while that it was a frustrated suicide like the doomed heroine).

However, as the book progresses, the bread maker turns out to be the Madame Bovary of the title - always dreaming of a romantic excitement to break up his dreary life and whisk him away from the routine of existence. He lives vicariously through Gemma, a woman whose life bears a passing resemblence to the original in the form of being bored with her husband and unhappy with her middle class existence.

Throughout the book, the tensions between the original and the attempts of the narrator to make real life into the original provides most of the comedy. However, much of the humor is understated and it is a rather slow read. Still, it's a deliberate slowness that wraps the reader up in a brilliance of prose even as she depicts middle class angst.

This is a favourite of mine, as it is not easy to find a graphic novel for adults about realistic characters. Well, I know that Gemma Bovery is based on Emma Bovary (Flaubert), but her character is real in terms of the middle class woman suffering from meaninglessness and existential angst. I must admit to being able to identify with some of her sufferings which makes the book appeal to me more (I'm not alone!). She may not be a likeable character, but I for one am not interested in reading about "perfect" heroes and heroines. I like Posy Simmonds' drawing: the story is well-written, with spot-on insight into psychology. There is a lot of humour in it, as well, which saves the book from being too intense. Highly recommended.

Posy Simmonds is the middle class graphic novelist. Her topics are middle class people in the countryside, middle class people in the city, middle class people being literary, and her work (collected in Literary Life) appears in The Guardian - how middle class can you get? That said, I've really enjoyed her books "Literary Life" and "Tamara Drewe". The pacing of Tamara Drewe was right, the story captivating, the tension built effectively - it was a great book.

My gripe with "Gemma Bovery" is the oh so middle class story. Gemma falls for a recently divorced wealthy father whom she cheats on with a flashy writer only to be dumped by the flashy writer. She convinces the wealthy divorcee to buy a house in France and the two move over there. She decorates and mixes with the locals and, sigh, has another affair with a local wealthy Frenchie. She has another affair when the flashy writer shows up and then dumps her again. She doesn't like France (boo hoo she misses London's shopping) and wants to move back. Then inexplicably she dies.

I didn't care for the pathetic so called worries of Gemma's life (the expensive decorations, the weakness of her character, her infidelities, and the dinner parties), I didn't care for Gemma who didn't deserve a book but rather to be ignored as the flaky dummy she so clearly is, and I didn't understand what the others saw in her. And then she died. Who cares?

What a rubbish book. I really had to push myself to finish this. The drawings and layout are great but the story was so weak as to be like a used up sub plot from Emmerdale. And is it me or does Gemma Bovery look exactly like Tamara Drewe? Posy should really branch out a bit with her character designs.

Overall, a complete miss. For a better Posy Simmonds book try "Tamara Drewe".

Posy Simmonds does a great job expanding the world of comic books or graphic novels or illustrated novellas or how ever you want to call this good stuff.

I think it's weak liberal (in the british sense of the word) pap of the worst sort, decided to make people feel good in a hallmark holiday sort of fashion between looking at the pictures of £400 cups and ethical holidays in the lifestyle magazine. Every time I see it I want to smack the whole cast in the face with a wet fish.