Print

Posted in:

Body Music

Love in all its many aspects has been gathered together in this intriguing collection and revealed under the guise of Body Music, pen and ink, comic book graphic art style to confront, reflect and enjoy.

Following on from her bestselling work, Blue is the Warmest Colour, Maroh has once again taken what has become worldwide the topic of sex, lesbian, gay, hetro, transgender or whatever style you prefer and  asks the question, what really is Love?

Love is as always,different for everyone: in this series of essays, she has managed to capture that very significant difference. In What Do We Do With Last Nights Passion? Maroh has captured the moment to perfection when the lovers discover they are not what is at first perceived, but regardless, go on to enjoy a night of passion. Come the morning, what do we do next is, as always, the question considered as the new day arrives and the mystique, the passion of the night, crashes into reality.

On The Importance of Laughter’ is a beautifully poignant piece where a mother and her son talk about her husband and his father after his death. She talks about the many aspects of their love together, and the small things that kept them going over the years. The way they would laugh and laugh at the many strange things life put their way and the real and true meaning of mourning.

Set in Montreal, the work looks at young love, new love, old love and discovering your own sexuality. Raw and almost disturbing, and to a point surreal, she has taken all the elements, treating them with a nativity, which in many of the essays is perhaps the most powerful aspect of the storyline.

Maroh’s ability to be able to capture the various faces of each of the characters portrayed in different mood swings certainly helps this style of work, as it gives a more personal aspect to the characters, a realism, rather than the standard ‘graphic novel images’ that are almost stereotyped.

As you move through the various topics covered, there is a very real chance that you will, over and over again, recognise yourself, therefore immediately the book changes nuance, becoming personal, far more intimate and perhaps confrontational.

Quirky, unusual and interesting, somewhere along the way you will discover what it really is to fall in love, whether it is for one night or a lifetime together, and what it is to truly be alive, to enjoy both life and love to the absolute fullest.

Body Music is not perfect, not brilliant, but real, poignant, simple, deep, intricate and destructive, and definitely, very definitely, just like love.

Author Julie Maroh, translated by David Homel
Publisher Arsenal Pulp Press
ISBN 9781551526928
Website https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au
Distributor New South Books
Released December 2017