Paul Moves Out (Hardcover)

~ Michel Rabagliati (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This charming sequel to Paul Has a Summer Job continues Rabagliati's heavily autobiographical look at his days as a young adult in Montreal. Here, we see Paul at design school, falling under the spell of a charismatic teacher, and meeting and eventually moving in with Lucie, a fellow student who impresses him with her knowledge of Tintin. Rabagliati covers everything in a nostalgic glow, so even an episode when the teacher makes a pass at him comes off as a simple misunderstanding rather than a sordid event. The story is episodic, following such tiny everyday scenes as a scary handyman who destroys Paul and Lucie's bathroom while trying to kill a rat, the death of a favorite aunt and a weekend spent babysitting some kids. If it sounds pretty low-key, it is. Rabagliati is clearly in love with his own reminiscences and doesn't really shape the material into any kind of dramatic tale. However, the beautifully designed art goes a long way toward adding depth to the story. The simple moments of Paul and Lucie's life are so universal, and the characters so likable, it's easy to go along for the ride on this graphic novel equivalent of a lazy Saturday picnic in the park. (May)
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From Booklist

Rabagliati follows his coming-of-age story Paul Has a Summer Job (2003) with a further work of semiautobiography, in which 19-year-old Paul enters art school in Montreal and moves out of his parents' suburban home. Developments unfold leisurely. Paul meets simpatico classmate Lucie ("A girl who reads comics!!" he marvels), with whom he gradually falls in love. He comes under the influence of a charismatic professor and copes with his realization that his mentor is gay. He shares a run-down apartment and committed relationship with Lucie, and he deals with a beloved relative's death. There is little that distinguishes Paul's experiences from those of many other middle-class, North American, white males, but Rabagliati's skillful, sympathetic treatment makes life's small moments seem big, well conveying the excitement of discovering the wider world and apprehension over impending adulthood. Unlike most autobiographical comics, Rabagliati's are refreshingly angst-free. His deceptively loose style bespeaks his background as a graphic designer, and his breezily cartoonish style more closely resembles European than it does American comics. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly (May 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896597874
• ISBN-13: 978-1896597874
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,037,315 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific example of reminiscence-as-art, August 21, 2005

By	Michael K. Smith (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is the third in a graphic-novel series about Paul (last name unknown, I think), a young freelance graphics designer, who shares an apartment in Montreal in 1983 with Lucie, whom he met in art school but who now studies languages. This is a slice-of-life style of thing -- not a lot of "action" in the dramatic sense, no real beginning or end (just a pregnant pause). Much of the book is about how they met five or six years earlier, how they learned about each other (Wow! She reads comics!) and met each other's parents, and so on. It's also about the gay art instructor (and how Paul deals with that fact) who turned their worlds upside down by taking them away from the precise rendition of vacuum cleaners in pencil and teaching them instead the principles of design, and who also takes them on a field trip to New York -- which Paul thinks of as "the big city," as if Montreal were just a village! And it's about Aunt Janette and her travels, and about Lucie's two small nieces, whom she and Paul babysit one weekend. And that's pretty much the plot. These are all very likable people, and it's an absolutely delightful experience. The artwork is rectangular panels, four to nine to the page, all in straight black-and-white line drawings, but the rendition of the surroundings is representational; I have no doubt a Montreal native would know exactly where each scene was set. The people are simply drawn, too, but the expressions and postures are just evocative enough to pull you completely into Paul's and Lucie's world. In fact, the photo at the very end may catch you off-guard -- as I admit it did me. Very nice stuff.