Customer Reviews

Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(16)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lovers love, and whatever distance or mystery is tossed between them, they still will love. In "Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence" by Nick Bantock, we begin an intimate journey between two lovers destined to be enraptured in all that is dreamt of. They catapult the divide of geography and join mid-mail in a postal embrace, captured by Bantock in a sweet and phenomenal book.

Griffin is a postcard artist in England and Sabine is a stamp designer for a small Pacific island. Each is perceived as sublimely exotic to the other as they reveal the secrets of their lives through correspondence.

What is the romance of "Griffin & Sabine?" Besides being an 'extraordinary correspondence,' it is about two lovers who connect through the artistic passions they share. Like the romances that now happen through the internet, or the Victorian era correspondences, there is an innocence and delicacy to their exchanges of mail.

This is the romance which never happened in "84 Charing Cross Road." This is what the romance should've been in "You've Got Mail." This is what "Cyrano De Bergerac" could've been if not a tragedy.

Bantock dangles a sensuous, sumptuous step into the hearts of a fantasy based in a reality that the reader will smile, wondering if the writer knew someone like Sabine, if she has been created like Pygmalion sculpted Galatea.

Begin with "Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence" and follow their story through subsequent tales in other book.

--Brockeim

I was given this as a gift from my "extraordinary correspondent" 3000 miles away and it made me appreciate the joys of becoming entranced in the possiblity of love and the tingle of fear that comes when that love is real. Nick Bantock takes us on a journey, through love letters. Letters that the reader can actually remove from their envelope, open and read! For those of you who thought you were too old for "pop-up like books" you're in for a treat! The beautiful artwork only adds to the story. I can't wait to read book #2!

From the moment I opened the first book of this trilogy, I was in love. A beautiful, mysterious story drawn out in real letters and postcards. The story is only heightened by the breathtaking artwork on each page. I highly recommend these books, and that you read them in order. Each has a sudden and mysterious ending that leaves you yearning for more.

GRIFFIN & SABINE is the ultimate gift for the naturally curious. This peek into the correspondence between two people - with letters to open, postcards to read, handwriting to decipher - gives the reader the sensation of having stumbled upon a romantic mystery to which only the individual reader is privvy. The story is nothing much, but the discovery of it is exquisite. The art used to development the concept is engaging and not at all cutesy. Because of its interactive nature, this book feels intimately known, privately owned, a secret kept closed between the covers.

This is a great gift book. If you are looking for substantial reading, skip this, but if you want a diversion, something to explore and take in visually, this book is for you.

I got this book as a gift from my girlfriend. I have to say it was the most intereting book I read all year. I love stories that can be told in a slightly different way than just flipping pages. The book makes you feel. There is so much mystery and romance as you read through the postcards and letters that make up the "pages" of the book.

Since reading through the whole trilogy, I have been using this book as a great gift click since everyone should be exposed to this fantasy. I think it is virually impossible for anyone to not like this book, unless they are against imagination, love, and mystery.

I'm a student, and my art teacher had this book on display for us. I read the first couple of pages and asked if I could take it home-where I quickly devoured it's beautiful art and awesome story. I can't wait to read the second and third book. It made me want to write letters with a fountain pen like Sabine does. I loved the story because I feel a little the same way about a person I email all the time, but have never met. If you're thinking about reading this book, I urge you!!

To pick up and open this book is to immerse yourself in a private world of communications between two people who have never met each other. Communications? Yes. There is the written communication and visual communication which we can read and see, and also a level of apparent telepathic communication which seems to increase during the course of the book.

The book itself must have been a challenge for the printer. It involves a mixture of postcards and letters. The letters are enveloped so that the experience of taking the letter from the envelope, reading it and replacing it makes the reader very much a participant in the experience.

There isn't much written story, but there doesn't need to be. Postcards and short letters are essentially point in time observations or one way communications. What makes this little book so enjoyable is its presentation and its involvement of the adult reader in an essentially tactile experience.

This review is dedicated to my friend Linda, who by drawing this book to my attention, reminded me that books are not just about the written word.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This book is a wholly original piece of imagination that engages you on a variety of different planes. Each page is a postcard or letter between a woman on a tiny south Pacific island who designs stamps (not much mail where she is but the stamps are popular with collectors) and a man in London who designs postcards whom she has never met but whose paintings she can "watch" from 13,000 miles away as they take shape. But it is not words you read, it's pictures of words because each page is a brilliant piece of art representing a postcard, front and back. And sometimes an envelope into which your fingers, tingling with anticipation, reach to pull out a letter or a typed and folded page, thereby engaging you in the story and the art. And because each of the two characters is a gifted artist, the postcard images are splendid, ranging from whimsical to brooding. What is the story, which ends in a mystery, all about? I don't know, but then, you don't have to explain art, which may be the point the author/painter is making. The story is short (you will read it in half an hour or less), and hardly a literary heavyweight. But if you're like me, you'll want to take this book off the shelf and enjoy its pages and letters over and over. In the end it just might give you years of pleasure.

With GRIFFIN AND SABINE illustrator Nick Bantock has presented us with quite an original work. It's the tale of a correspondence between a postcard designer in London and a woman on a South Seas island who can telepathically see his work. The format of the book is exceptional: the postcards are here to read, front and back, and the letters come in their own little envelopes glued to the pages of the book. The book continues in two volumes, SABINE'S NOTEBOOK and THE GOLDEN MEAN

It's worth saying right off that GRIFFIN AND SABINE is most appreciated due to its stunning paintings. I give the work four stars, but this is on its own scale. GRIFFIN AND SABINE is no masterpiece of world fiction, it's a novelty, but it's a very interesting a beautiful novelty. The story is rather clumsily plotted, and Griffin's breakdown towards the end is something of a deus ex machina obviously pulled out of nowhere. Nonetheless, there are a lot of cute little puzzles in the book, and uncovering the series' link to Yeat's poem "The Second Coming" is an enjoyable way to pass the time.

I'm quite convinced Bantock has real talent as an artist. His influences are eclectic, but in this age of often obtuse modern art, it's refreshing to see someone draw on Renaissance rules of perspective while at the same time using modern themes to make the painting revelant.

I think GRIFFIN AND SABINE is worth reading. It's just the type of original book that one needs on the shelves alongside real literature. As long as one's expectations aren't too high as far as the story's concerned, people should find it entertaining.

Sometimes it seems true that "there is no new thing under the sun," but once in a while something truly original comes our way. Griffin & Sabine. An Extraordinary Correspondence is one of those books that restores your faith in creativity.

Their souls are joined by a mysterious connection -- Sabine, a stamp designer raised on a South Pacific island and carrying on her father's exploration of the natural world; Griffin, a lonely London post card artist struggling to find relief for his ailing soul. How does Sabine find him, how does she SEE his work as if with her very own eyes? What can come of their love story? Is their correspondence enough?

Author-illustrator Nick Bantock reveals the story in letters and postcards. Griffin's drawings are angular "realism with a twist" while Sabine takes elements of nature and embellishes them. The envelopes are fixed to the page with typed or lettered pages tucked inside, giving the reader a sense of participation in unfolding the letters to read them. The art and design concept are the real story here, though the small amount of text carries complex, well-expressed feelings.

If you have shelf space for wonderful artwork and an evocative little love story, then this book is for you; I'll be getting my hands on the sequels to read more of the story. Five stars for beauty and originality.

Linda Bulger, 2008