Snaps

by Rebecca Kraatz

Snaps takes place just before, during, and after the Second World War in a tiny town on Vancouver Island. The complex narrative is a period piece told from various points of view, in the Modernist literary tradition, and sometimes the characters and their stories overlap in intriguing ways. The style is magic realism combined with pulp dialogue. There are soldiers, tough working women, and children, who present their slice of life stories in a brief two or three pages, almost in a photographic way, hence the title. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes surreal, this graphic novel will further establish Kraatz's reputation as a writer-centric artist and a talent to watch.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Canada, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Jessica-Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

SNAPS is a collection of occasionally intertwined short stories, set during the Second World War and told through drawings and narration.

What first drew me towards this odd find of a book was the connection with photography. The author claims to have found all her inspiration from photographs of complete strangers found in a 1940's photo album bought at a flea market in Victoria, BC. Imagining the life stories behind old photographs is something I love to do, so I can see how these stories came to be. Seeing this on the shelf I was too curious to pass it up.

Unfortunately, I ended up a little disappointed. The author's slice of life stories didn't grab me and overall it felt like it was lacking. I wish that we could have seen the photographs she was drawing from. It always seemed like I was missing something and that made it difficult to connect with the stories. On the art side of things, the art was detailed, but the style was something that I found less and less interesting as I kept reading.

This had a great concept but the product just didn't work for me.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the setting in both place and time, but I wished it had come across more in the illustrations. The art style made it difficult to differentiate characters. When their stories intertwined, often I'd miss it, forgetting I'd seen a character before. There were some really beautiful stories in here, but a lot were ordinary. I need to reread it sometime to see if my opinion will improve.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of potential here, but the choppy format, in my opinion, does not lend well to her talents. I can see that she knows how to develop a narrative arc, but there are more disjointed stories than there are connected. I guess I just need more character development then she offers in this format. I also feel that she relied too much on narration to tell the stories... This is a graphic novel - use your artwork to explain what is happening!

[✩☽ · Rating 2 out of 5]

just didn't grab me - too many characters competing for my attention and they were simply not memorable enough for me to keep track of.

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many characters, too little character. There is more to a soul than marital status.

Plot relies too much on thoughts and feelings of male war era archetypes---army, navy, city slickers and grandpas---and too little on the counterpart interior psyche of female characters.

Cringeworthy puns:
"Hydrated. Not overdose him with choral hydrate...[then to really 'overkill' the pun] You've killed him."

"My pipedream [has failed]..." [then to really overkill it] **picture of pipe smoking with 'was it a dream?' written under it.**

Corney male-female interactions (Ruth). *solo approach random man in cafe, sit down, offer to buy coffee, persist*

Why didn't she include the photos? Or at least highlight the frame of each story based directly on a photo? Seems sketchy, no? Maybe these are just very short character sketches she linked together for which she needed a cool alibi to publish? Not trying to be mean here, but seems possible, as not knowing 'her method' would make this less enjoyable. I doubt it'd have made it into my university library otherwise...

Best character (Violet)

[Clara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Onírico y enternecedor, pero rápidamente se descubre inconexo y sin interés inherente. No he sido capaz de terminarlo.

[Marie Claude · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked to idea of going through snapshots of people I don't know and seeing scenes of their lives, but it was a little too short for me to really relate to and care about the characters. Some snaps were especially emotionally charged and well done.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

That didn't take long to finish hehe! Not too bad a book, an interesting take on the graphic novel.