Zondag

Sunday #1-4

by Olivier Schrauwen

Zondag is een gedetailleerde neerslag van een dag uit het leven van Thibault Schrauwen, neef van de auteur.

Die herfstdag in 2017 was geen willekeurig gekozen dag: het was een dag gevuld met doelloosheid, verveling, ledigheid, Voor Thibault was het weer een ‘verspilde dag’. Toen hij zijn neef Olivier erover vertelde, had die meteen door dat dit een ideaal onderwerp was voor een nieuwe grafische roman.

Op aangeven van Thibault inventariseerde Olivier minutieus de gebeurtenissen van die bewuste zondag. Vervolgens ging hij praten met mensen die die dag met Thibault te maken hadden en noteerde hij ook hun verhalen. Uit al deze elementen construeerde hij de magistrale striproman Zondag.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix, Comic Book

476 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2023

About the author

Olivier Schrauwen is a Belgian cartoonist and musician, currently based in Berlin.
Schrauwen was born in 1977 in Bruges, a city in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. He studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, then obtained a master degree in comics at the 'École superieure des Art Saint-Luc' in Brussels.
His works include the surreal Arsène Schrauwen (2014), the six sci-fi stories collected in Parallel Lives (2018), the pirate story Portrait of a Drunk (2019) in collaboration with French cartoonists Ruppert and Mulot, and his slice-of-life magnum opus Sunday (2024).

Reviews

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schrauwens magnum opus (tot nu toe)! De Nederlandstalige versie kwam uit in deze luxueuze topeditie van het Borgerhoutse Bries. Schrauwen vertaalde zelf de originele Engelse versie naar het Nederlands en zorgde voor een heerlijke 'Vlaamse' draai in het tussentaalgebruik van zijn onvergetelijke personages (Gert Meesters stelde enkele wijzigingen voor, Ria Schulpen van Bries leverde de eindredactie). Voor mij een van de hoogtepunten van het leesjaar. Ik vond deze nog beter dan de Engelstalige versie. Nu even bekomen en nagenieten.

[Rod Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG! 500 pages of a repellent European dude spending one entire Sunday dithering, dawdling, doing drugs, earworm singing on loop, fantasizing, free associating, frittering, getting drunk, masturbating, napping, procrastinating, smoking, watching The Da Vinci Code on Netflix, and whining, whining, whining.

Books that review themselves:
This very thought I'm articulating
this very, very thought I'm having . . .
right now
Right
now
It doesn't need to be verbalized,
it doesn't matter

Irritatingly pointless.

To fluff it out, the panels sometimes shift to show what other people in the protagonist's life or neighborhood are doing but always under his tedious narration and sometimes featuring . . . (Ha! Ha!) . . . synchronicity and/or . . . (Oh my!) . . . serendipity (I'm crushed by literary heft! Make it stop!). A good chunk of pages are dedicated to a chthonic mouse and a couple of cats wandering about putting on a terribly dull Tom and Jerry sideshow . . . or being symbolic or something ('Cuz literature!). And let's not get started on the irony of the protagonist being a font designer with dysgraphia, an impairment of written expression (Mercy, sir. I beg for mercy!).

Pigshit.


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Foreword -- Reading Instructions -- Part 1. from 8:15 am to 10:15 am -- Part 2. from 10:20 am to 11:30 am -- Part 3. from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm -- Part 4. from 2:15 pm to 3:30 pm -- Part 5. from 3:45 pm to 5:00 pm -- Part 6. from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm -- Part 7. from 8:30 pm to 10:45 pm -- X

(Best of 2024 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto one or more of these lists:
• Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2024
• Publishers Weekly 2024 Graphic Novel Critics Poll
• NPR's Books We Love 2024: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels

This book made the Post list.)

[Bob Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

🫵 Vote Olivier Schrauwen ! 💪

https://youtu.be/UhloxNHYsOM





Eerst in het Engels verzameld, nu eindelijk ook in de moedertaal.

Prachtig meesterwerk! Zonder twijfel beste boek van 2023! En andere superlatieven naar keuze!

Klik hier voor een snelle doorbladering:
https://youtu.be/CVjXuBEcUQY
Nu ook verdiend vanboven in mijn TOP 40 van "De Nieuwe Vlaamse Strip":
https://youtu.be/Ol7s0k5wIgk

Overview of Olivier Schrauwen's beautiful oeuvre:
https://youtu.be/Ec8B76Hfc8w

[Jochen · Rating 5 out of 5]

5* - En ik maar denken dat de nieuwste Brecht Evens mijn graphic novel van het jaar zou worden...

MAGISTRAAL! Die beeldtaal! Dat verhaal over de saaiste weekdag ooit! Die personages! Die manier van vertellen! Om te herlezen, te herbekijken en nog eens te lezen. Liefst op een zondag, als het even kan.

[David Karlsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Årets bästa serieroman visade sig vara den här tegelstenen på närmare 500 sidor som handlar om en sketen söndag 2017. Huvudpersonen är Schrauwens kusin Thibault och enligt förordet har de tillsammans återskapat en mer eller mindre bortkastad dag. Hur pass mycket som är verklighet kontra fiktion är svårt att veta men spelar heller ingen större roll, poängen är här snarare hur boken bryter ny mark inom seriemediet.

Ämnet är alltså en rätt vanlig dag. Thibault vaknar, hänger runt i huset, väntar på sin flickvän som ska komma tillbaka från en längre utlandsvistelse (han har dock glömt vilken tid), tänker på en utekväll med en annan kusin, prokrastinerar ett jobb han redan borde ha gjort (att skapa ett teckensitt till en tidsskrift), dricker upp en presentkorg med öl som egentligen skulle vara till hans pappa, försöker läsa en filosofibok, fantiserar om en tidigare flamma, blir hög, tittar på DaVinci-koden och somnar till slut i soffan. Som sagt en rätt bortkastad dag ...

Över varje bild ligget Thibaults tankar som ett stream of consciousness (där han inte sällan återkommer till en James Brown-låt han fått på huvudet) men "kameran" flyter över tid och rum: ena stunden följer den Thibault, nästa hans minnesbilder, därefter hans flickvän, kusin, granne, en katt som jagar en mus osv. Den inre monologen och bilden hänger ibland ihop, ibland inte, och ofta finns det en diskrepans mellan dem som blir väldigt underhållande.

Thibault är inte en karaktär man fattar särskilt mycket tycke för, han är på det hela taget en loser. Men just det är också vad som gör att man vill följa honom genom dagen, lite som hur man väl uppskattar de delar av "Min kamp" mest där Knausgård visar sina sämre sidor?

Grafiskt varierar sig Schrauwen nästan in absurdum, i princip varje sida bjuder på något nytt. Så har det även varit i hans tidigare böcker (där den ena också handlar om en släkting, även där oklart hur sanningsenligt) av vilka två getts ut på svenska av Lysteing förlag och det är bara att hålla tummarna för att de ger ut även denna.

Ett mästerverk? Ja, mycket möjligt. Otroligt underhållande och välgjort är det oavsett och en stark rekommendation!

[Méli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunday brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like it's a damn good comic

(i'm boy)

[Paul Dembina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on Schrauwen's cousin Thibault's life, this is ostensibly just an average day. However there's a lot else packed in here and I especially liked the way that 2 (and sometimes 3) narratives could be layered on top of each other simultaneously.

I won't give away the ending, but I did find it rather good. Excellent stuff!

[Marieke Holtrup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik heb dus niet deze zondag gelezen maar die van die vriend van raoul via eva en ik vond het lit! Heb nog wat redactionele opmerkingen als die welkom zijn

[Peter Hollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tour de force of comics artistry... 470 pages depicting one man's whole day, in all its banality.
There are some spoilers below of sorts, although I feel this kind of book can't really be spoiled.

The main narrative follows Thibault (ostensibly Schrauwen's cousin, although I'm not entirely convinced it's not fiction), with his thoughts across the top of the panels. But as the introductory note states, the "camera" often wanders off to show other things: a mouse running around the houses and streets of the neighbourhood, chased by various cats; his girlfriend Migali on her last day in Africa, rushing to the airport but stopping for a particular errand; an old flame, Nora, remembered from his student film, who turns out to be in town; his cousin Rik who he accompanied in some youthful waywardness, who meets up with Nora; his neighbour trying to deliver him some food cooked by the neighbour's wife, and then going to the pub where Rik and Nora end up close to the end...

Through all this Thibault listens to some James Brown, whose "Get Up" then filters its way through the whole book as a brain-worm in Thibault's thoughts; he pines for Nora in a kind of pathetic but idle fashion, rejecting Migali in his idle fantasies while proving he can't really get by at all on his own; he fails to do a job that's overdue; and he gets drunk and then stoned.

The artistry is in building tension from the pathos, as Thibault messes up his day and Migali almost misses her plane, and in the amusing juxtapositions of Thibault's thoughts with the other characters' progress through the day.
It turns out to be a big birthday for Thibault the following day, and his friends are converging to celebrate it, collecting whimsical presents along the way - their thoughtfulness another juxtaposition beside Thibault's aimless unproductivity and fantasising. Of course the cringe is the point, and speaking for myself I've definitely had days (weeks, years) like this.

That's the narrative itself, but the comics artistry is phenomenal. Schrauwen varies his style throughout, representing memories and the other characters' timelines in distinct ways, beautifully depicting movement, and in myriad ways reflecting Thibault's frame of mind. In the last chapter, T smokes a joint while watching The Da Vinci Code on his couch, and (inevitably, mixing alcohol and marijuana with next to no food) finds his thoughts floating askew and untethered before drifting into sleep. Following these surreal pages, his friends gather and sneak into the living room to wake T as the day flips over into his birthday, and the style is fuzzy but highly realistic, taking up pages with full bleed as Thibault no longer has thoughts to narrate. It's a surprisingly beautiful ending, considering it's nothing unexpected and closes out a story that's meant to just be one guy's boring day.

Of course, this particular boring day is significant in that Thibault's girlfriend is returning from many weeks overseas, and Thibault is turning... 30?... If it really is drawn from the experiences of a real cousin of Schrauwen, it's a day whose events conspire to provide the author with a rich wellspring of narrative devices. But it doesn't really matter whether it's entirely fictional or just embellished. It's a wonderful, illuminating piece of art regardless. Highest of recommendations!

[Ruben Hervas · Rating 5 out of 5]

No sé si he llegado a entender algo, pero solo por las increíbles ilustraciones, la maravillosa paleta de colores y el divertido movimiento de cámara mientras se superponen los pensamientos ácidos del protagonista, ya es un 5 rotundo.

Para todo lo demás, un domingo muy domingo en el que no pasa nada pero pasa el domingo y con el, un poco la vida.

[André Habet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love everything Schrauwen puts out, and this book really solidifies the idea that there are no bad ideas, just poor execution. Boring is hilarious in the hands of Shrauwen. Looking forward to buying a copy and rereading this in a single sitting while downing a few.

[Byram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in a Sunday in a bar over a couple of beers and it was a perfect way to read it in. The cool color palette is unusual and fascinating and ethereal and there’s a coziness and poignancy to the mundanity of the story. Hard to describe but an unusual and worthwhile read

[John Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A day (Sunday) in the life of the procrastinating, drinking, lusting, avoiding, self-doubting, regretful life of Thibault. He narrates the entire book, but his narrations don’t always match what is happening in the panels, which follow a load of sub plots, so it can be quite a mind bender, following two (or more plots) at once. Thibault is not likeable, but he’s interesting. I loved the palette of the book, lovely water colour washes. I wish there were a few more moments to make me laugh, but I definitely got taken into his mind, including the trippy high he ends up in. Good read.

[Julen B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personaje más desquiciante no encontraréis. Ahora, la tremenda pirueta que se marca Schrauwen a nivel formal es de 10. Todo, como siempre, al límite, pero un límite chulo de explorar.

[Benny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. The first fifty pages or so had me worried but there's a real cumulative power in the sheer monotonous detail Schrauwen goes into - to be able to offer a real sense of identity to this cast of characters in relatively few words (in the grand scheme - Rik, Mona and Marjane don't get a quarter of Thibault's dialogue and still through their connection to him I feel I got to know them well) is really something. Beautiful in its radical honesty. Will be thinking about this for a while. The sequence where Thibault gets high and watches The Davinci Code was both unbelievably funny and fantastically panelled, and gives me a reason to start a list of Comics That Artistically Depict Intoxication, which otherwise would only have Dash Shaw titles in it. 4.5, maybe verging on a 5. Fire

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Sunday was a very interesting graphic novel. In this graphic novel we're taken through Sunday in the life of the author's cousin. This Sunday is especially important because it's the day his girlfriend is returning from a trip. This graphic novel is the perfect look at the mundaneness of every day life. It's a great look at the ordinary lives of ordinary people.

If you're into slice of life graphic novels I definitely recommend checking this out.

Thank you to Netgalley and Fantagraphics for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A single day in the life of Everyman told by a supremely talented graphic artist. Comparison to ULYSSES is inevitable, but the aims are different here. Instead of Joyce's obsessions with history and literature, the concerns here are the bounds of social interaction in a an mis-connected age, among other sources of contemporary angst. I couldn't put it down.

[Connor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this. I read 200 pages which I felt was generous. I would say this book is very mundane. The blurb says it follows someone's thoughts throughout one day, and that's pretty much exactly what it is. I don't see the appeal. Not for me.

[Rita · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book clearly went over my head or something, it was just a huge ? in my mind

[Maria Alfaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!!!!!

[Luz Amadei · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best graphic novels I've read. The book focuses on a very non-charismatic man with too much self esteem. The brilliance of this novel is the way reality, memories and thoughts are incorporated into a graphic novel.

[James Smart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beauty in mundanity. In a similar constellation to the best of Chris Ware, my first read from Schrauwen was an incredible experience that I read in two sittings, feeling breathless by the end.

Sunday does what comic books and graphic novels do better than any other medium — allowing the reader to inhabit the experience of living so fully and completely it can sometimes feel like too much, somehow coming too fast and too slow at the same time.

Sunday plays with simultaneous narratives, the complexity of the human experience even in the most ordinary moments, all with a strikingly simple visual style, lots of humour and finding pathos even in the smallest moments of Thibault’s “wasted day”. One of the best and most daring graphic novels I’ve read in a while.

[Antonio Navarro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Menudo pelmazo de novela gráfica. He disfrutado algunas de sus obras pero esta me ha parecido imposible, un ejercicio vacuo absoluto. Y entiendo que esa es la gracia… pero con la que está cayendo, me ha parecido hasta molesto.

[Lou Braibant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect om op een zondag te lezen!

"In Sunday vertelt Olivier Schrauwen het verloop van een schijnbaar saaie zondag uit het perspectief van zijn jarige neef Thibault. Opdringere gedachten nemen de bovenhand, onverwachte verhaallijnen spiegelen elkaar, en er lijkt op komische wijze maar geen einde te komen aan deze grauwe zondag. Schrauwen portretteert op experimentele wijze zijn neef, zonder gêne en zonder excuses, rauw, vaak op het randje van wrange humor en zelf-pessimisme. De perfecte serie om op een grijze zondag even in weg te duiken, om nog eens goed te schaterlachen en om een kijkje te nemen in iemand anders mondaine leven." -LB op www.9dekunst.nl

[Cail Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s almost unfair how good this is.

You should know what you’re signing up for here, it’s the deepest dive into a lazy Sunday you could ever imagine. Yet, it’s so much more than that—the codes, the callbacks, the inner machinations of Thibault’s brain, and how that plays out over the day as it unfolds for his cousin, his girlfriend and his unrequited crush. It is a work of genius.

I’m so goddamn impressed. Read on loan from the Vancouver Public Library, with thanks.

[Olivier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oke, wauw, dus zo geweldig kan een graphic novel over een luie zondag zijn. Heel knap hoe de tekeningen en dialogen enerzijds en de doorlopende gedachtengang van het hoofdpersonage anderzijds met elkaar in interactie gaan.

[Chris Merola]

Sunday is an awe-inspiring epic about a guy who kinda just does nothing on Sunday. It's an exacting, explosively imaginative representation of what goes through our head when we waste away a day. It's a quavering sigh of existential dread and isolation wherein a dude makes alphabet soup and watches The Da Vinci Code while high. The intensification of these seemingly banal occurrences - through Schrauwen's psychedelic use of color, his uncanny figure drawing, his swiss-watch-precise cross cutting between our hero and those around him - it's overwhelming, it's clever, it's ow my brain

Each day is an odyssey - of thought, of memory, of actions undertaken and imagined, of desire for others, of self-flagellation, all the things you believe you should be. Even a dreamy little Sunday off is a sprawling world - the individual is as infinite and unconquerable as the universe itself.

[Bat Man · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved!!! Schrauwen’s cartooning is deft, insightful, and wrought with humanity. I found this completely absorbing and it’s psychologically kind of devastating to sit in the peculiarities of one person’s neuroses for this long. Both an indictment of and something of a surprising/compassionate love letter to its unpleasant protagonist.

[Nick Kinsella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this. I love thinking about how mundane most time in people's lives is, but this just goes to show that being in the mind every minute of someone's day, even when they got nothing done, is fascinating. Pretty profound book that actually made me appreciate all the weird people in my life more, I really loved his cousin Rik in this.

[Fany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un día en la vida de cualquiera donde no pasa nada y en todas partes tampoco. Un triunfo absoluto de la forma.