Customer Reviews

Speak of the Devil

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Gilbert Hernandez's Speak of the Devil is the kind of book that challenges its readers to understand it; it may even challenge its readers to actually enjoy it. I've never read anything by Hernandez (or his brother Jaime, with whom he produces Love and Rockets), so part of me wonders if my own lack of enjoyment may somehow relate to my lack of previous exposure to the creator. In the end, I found much to appreciate and interpret from this disturbing graphic novel, though it's difficult to recommend based on reading pleasure alone.

A brief summary without giving much away: There's a devil-masked peeping tom in town, who first appears by terrorizing gymnast-protagonist Val Castillo's busty stepmother. The twist (offered on the back cover): Val herself is the peeper. The ensuing story delves deeply and unabashedly into dark places of the human psyche; characters give in to lusts of eroticism and of violence, and more than a little blood spills in the process. By story's end, readers are left feeling vulnerable and a little unsatisfied. Personally, I tried finding a plot-motivated rationale for the story itself, but this may be missing the point. The book doesn't look to answer questions; rather, it revels in the simple raising of questions, forcing readers to examine their own feelings regarding social and societal taboos.

A literary theorist might see expressions of Mikhail Bakhtin's Carnivalesque concept at work; essentially, during carnival time in medieval Europe, repressed and oppressed peasants wore masks and costumes and were able to subvert the usual hierarchy of their society, and images of the grotesque (signifiers of the human body and its protrusions and biological quirks) were emphasized and glorified. In Speak of the Devil, characters unlock otherwise repressed urges of sex and violence only after donning masks, shedding mundane identities that they're forced to assume within the confines of suburbia. Masks liberate them and allow them to revel in their subversion of societal norms and expectations. Whether or not this is a good thing is not made clear, and the moral ambiguity that the book maintains makes it both intriguing and disturbing.

The book's art is black and white and is drawn in a somewhat "cartoony" style. This reduces the impact the more shocking scenes might have on a reader, may they depict violence or sex. Perhaps this reduced reliance on realism is itself a statement on our culture's desensitization toward such graphic or intense scenes. In some scenes, I felt the style worked against the subject matter; two instances where characters "lose it" are almost silly in their depictions, and as such, it seemed as though their effect was deadened and dulled. Then again, perhaps the book on the whole is a commentary on culture's fascination with sex and violence and how absurd it all is.

Whatever the motivation, Speak of the Devil is not for the faint of heart. If you are a Hernandez fan, take a look. If not, tread carefully...

-- Brian P. Rubin

This book begins with Val, a high school gymnast, putting on a devil mask and looking into her own window at her stepmother as she undresses. This begins a series of events as Val and her stepmother both get off on the voyeur/exhibitionist relationship. The stepmother has sex with the father with the curtains open in hopes that the Peeping Tom will come back. Val wanders throughout the neighborhood looking in on neighbors and learning their secrets. In the first half of the book, the main plot point seems to revolve around when Val will get caught as she even needs to fake an ankle injury on the balance beams in order to cover up her real injury from looking in windows.

Then her friend Tom catches her and it turns him on to the point that he decides to take on her mask and do his own peeping. This quickly leads to a creepy triangle between TOm, Val and the stepmother (who works as a cocktail waitress) that brings out the knives. Then the book takes a very grisly turn as these three go from breaking privacy taboos to breaking even more rules and living outside the norms of society in every way possible.

These characters aren't fully fleshed out and that appears to be part of the narrative. After all, many murderers when caught can never explain themselves. The history of violence is full of exchanges like "why did you kill the family? THey were home." Truman Capote stresses how the killers in In Cold Blood had a very clear and logical set of reasons for killing the entire family if you ignore the basic immorality of murdering an entire family. These characters begin as creepy people who are devoting themselves to a hobby that many have indulged in (if not purposefully - but who hasn't passed an open window and taken a look in hopes of seeing people having sex inside?) to outright murderers. It has to remain a mystery.

A young girl gymnast takes to putting on a smiling devil mask during the night and spying on her father and step mother. Word spreads in the neighbourhood that there's a peeping tom prowling the streets after dark and soon the girl finds herself being chased one night, leading to an ankle injury and her ejection from a gymnastic championship. The boy she's seeing becomes enamoured with her stepmother and during an explosive encounter, the girl finds her boyfriend and stepmother together and then the story goes off into a darker direction.

It's an interesting story about contemporary society and the layers of otherness we clothe ourselves with, hiding our true selves. The drawing style is satirical too: Gilbert Hernandez's women are all shapely, big breasted, big hipped women, pin-ups of male fantasy while the excessive violence of the third act feels exploitative as well. Hernandez seems to be riffing on our fascination with the two things.

Well written and leaves you thinking about it long after you've put the book down, this is another successful book from Hernandez who has recently been on a creative run with other excellent books "Sloth" and "Chance in Hell". "Speak of the Devil" is at turns funny, disturbing, and ultimately thoughtful. A good read from one of the masters of the comic book genre.

Gilbert Hernandez's "Speak of the Devil" is a gory, slightly gruesome, and a wee bit perverse tale chronicling the dramatics that occur when a peeping tom wrecks havoc on an anonymous suburban locale. While not everyone may appreciate such subject matter fans of Hernandez's stylistic, monochromatic artwork will find comfort in this familiar visual style and for those willing to keep an open mind - the David Lynchian characters and plot certainly makes for a jarring and though provoking read.