Flat out one of the best manga that I've ever read, and made me a complete convert to Natsume Ono (okay okay, I'm late to the party I know - definitely reasons to convert before now, lol). This was just so visually stunning, with a compelling story that realistically addressed issues of loss, hope, despair, abuse, trauma, recovery, and that vague background feeling that perhaps there is no recovery for people who are pushed too far down the rabbit hole of life.

There was something very tender and beautiful about this manga, despite the fact that it was dealing with some very difficult themes. The atmosphere evoked in this book is immediate, and sustained throughout, and you get pulled into stories within stories. Though I'm a characteristic 'weeper' lol, I was moved to tears multiple times during this novel.

Would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a powerful, heartrending story, but you might want to tee up something a bit comforting or light-hearted afterwards, because this a narrative punch to the gut. ( )

This is one of those stories that while powerful, will resonate with you depending on who you are and the mood you are in. Its a very bleak world of ignored children, abuse, and absolute disfunctionality.

We have Ian, a product of incest, unloved, mostly hated, by his Mom, ignored and discarded by his Dad. His sister is the only one who wants him, but she ended up in prison trying to get the money to start new lives. And that is only the beginning. His sister rescues him from London from their abusive mother after getting of prison, and than sends him back to Australia, where his Dad lives. As he grows older, he searches for his sister, following her to America, always homeless, until a reporter acquaintance allows him to crash at his New York apartment.

This is bleak. Everyone has their own interests, using Ian for their own purposes, even the reporter, who while up front about his interest, is weirdly fascinated by Ian and his hard life story.

The illustration style matches the tone of the story, bleak, muted, very angular line work. I am not going to say I liked this story, but I am glad that I read it. ( )

Oof. This was a twisted maze of pain and life. Distinct art style that fits the disjointed feeling of the story. I really liked it! ( )

I’m not sure how to summarize this story, since so much of it counts as spoilers. I suppose I’ll start at the beginning. A young woman named Irene wants to run away with her boyfriend but is afraid that her dad will find them and literally kill her boyfriend. She then comes up with an idea that immediately qualifies her as a horrible person: pick up a random homeless guy, convince her dad’s goons that he’s her boyfriend, and run off with her boyfriend while the goons beat the homeless guy half to death. It seems like a great (horrible) plan, until she learns that her random homeless guy, Ian, is actually same same guy who convinced a family member of hers not to run off three years ago.

Unfortunately, a misunderstanding results in Ian lying on the ground, dying from a gut wound. Ian’s friend, Jim, tells Irene that he plans to turn Ian’s life into a book that will be coming out in about a year. The rest of the manga is Ian’s life up to this point: growing up with an alcoholic mother and cold and dismissive father, trying to keep his promise to his sister so that he can see her again, and then walking across the US searching for his sister after she disappears.

I read Ono’s Ristorante Paradiso several years ago. I wasn’t a huge fan of it the first time around, but it grew on me after a reread. I’ve always wanted to try another one of her works, and this one-shot seemed like a good place to start. I vaguely remembered it getting some buzz when it first came out.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be almost unrelentingly depressing. Ian was written as being very innocent and pure, no matter what sorts of horrible things happened to him. All he wanted was to be with the one person he loved and who loved him back, his sister. When this turned out to be impossible, he sought out other people who’d been good and kind to him...and the universe stomped on him yet again until finally even he couldn’t take it anymore. The horribleness of it all bled into his friend Jim, if the rumors about his fate after the publication of his book were true.

There’s a massive amount of child abuse in this story: neglect, emotional abuse, child prostitution, and incest. It sometimes came up in such an offhand manner that I found myself wondering if the things I had thought just happened really had. Ian kept taking absolutely horrific things in stride.

I can’t even say this ended on a bittersweet note. Yes, it stopped at a slightly happier time in Ian’s life, but readers had already been told that that was all going to fall apart in the next 3-5 years. I wanted a do-over, with Jim telling Ian “that stuff that happened to you wasn’t okay, and I know it can’t be undone, but we can try to make some good memories from here on out.” Instead, I feel like the mom and her “you should never have been born” speech won out. And wow, her words still make me angry. She spent years heaping punishment on people she should have been trying to help and protect.

In the end, this manga just pissed me off and left a bad taste in my mouth. Not Simple bent over backwards to hurt its characters - the bit with Ian's sister's boyfriend was both cruel and difficult to believe. I also wasn't a fan of this on an artistic level. Although I know some people love Ono's unusual style, it doesn't work for me. I’m at least glad that I got this via the library and didn’t pay for it.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

I was unprepared for the sheer tragedy of this book. It's about the life of a young man which through no fault of his own is wrought with tragic circumstances. I found it difficult to read in place - which I never know if that improves my rating for a book or not - and I found it lacking any real resolution. The most tragic part of the whole thing, I believe, is that he doesn't grasp the tragedy of his own life. He is not as horrified as others about the things that have happened to him. It takes a long time for the circumstances of his life to break him. This is amazing and admirable but also a bit unsettling and heartbreaking. His life does manage to touch some of the people he comes in contact with, his spirit changing them and influencing him, but what he gets in return seems lacking. But I don't think he recognizes this. He just doesn't feel sorry for himself.

The characters were really interesting and the story was good but I feel like the book lacked some depth that might be gleaned from a more traditional mode of storytelling. The art was well done and his expressive face went a long way toward making me sense his personality but I still found myself wanting to know more about the characters and their history and their motivations. At times it felt like a bit of a synopsis and I found myself longing for more.

Despite that definitely worth a read and definitely a character worth knowing. ( )