What do you think?
Rate this book
Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes
A graphic biography of Djuna Barnes: writer, artist, and queer radical of the Lost Generation in the Roaring 20s.
Nominated for two Eisner awards. Best reality based work. Best Writer/Artist.
Djuna Barnes lived in a dazzling world filled with literary salons, innovative writing, and daring new art styles. But it didn’t come easily. She managed to work her way out of an abusive childhood growing up in a polygamous rural utopian community on Long Island. She was determined to live an extraordinary life, and found herself socializing with the likes of James Joyce, Natalie Barney, Peggy Guggenheim, and T.S. Eliot in 1920s literary Paris. Called the most famous unknown of the century, Djuna Barnes stood out for her brilliant writing, her biting wit, and her unique style. Her novel Nightwood is considered by some to be one of the greatest lesbian love stories ever written. But as the stock market crashed and the Lost Generation left Paris, her life began to unwind.
A fascinating window into the life of a woman whose enormous literary talent and provocative attitude were both celebrated and disdained by the world.
Nominated for two Eisner awards. Best reality based work. Best Writer/Artist.
Djuna Barnes lived in a dazzling world filled with literary salons, innovative writing, and daring new art styles. But it didn’t come easily. She managed to work her way out of an abusive childhood growing up in a polygamous rural utopian community on Long Island. She was determined to live an extraordinary life, and found herself socializing with the likes of James Joyce, Natalie Barney, Peggy Guggenheim, and T.S. Eliot in 1920s literary Paris. Called the most famous unknown of the century, Djuna Barnes stood out for her brilliant writing, her biting wit, and her unique style. Her novel Nightwood is considered by some to be one of the greatest lesbian love stories ever written. But as the stock market crashed and the Lost Generation left Paris, her life began to unwind.
A fascinating window into the life of a woman whose enormous literary talent and provocative attitude were both celebrated and disdained by the world.
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 2024
3 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Jon Macy
36 books44 followersJon is the author of Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes.(Nominated for two Eisner awards. Best reality based work. Best writer/artist.) His graphic novels include Teleny and Camille, an adaptation of the anonymous novel Teleny, (Lambda 2010) and Fearful Hunter, a Queer fantasy romance that explores sacred sexuality. He is a notorious recluse.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 28, 2024
A graphic biography of queer writer and author Djuna Barnes best known for her 1930s novel Nightwood since hailed as a modernist classic – praised by authors like Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, and William Burroughs. Jon Macy sketches out the key aspects of Barnes’s tumultuous, singular life. Barnes grew up in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century, in a commune founded by her grandmother who espoused free love and radical alternatives to the traditional, nuclear family. But, despite her grandmother’s lofty ideals, the reality for Barnes bordered on abusive. She traded one form of abuse for another when she left for New York with her brothers and ultra-conventional mother who increasingly relied on Barnes for their upkeep. Her mother seems to have been remarkably skilled at finding ways to make Barnes feel inferior and faulty.
Macy painstakingly chronicles Barnes’s career beginning with her stint as a journalist who often lived her stories, fearlessly performing stunts, immersing herself in her material. She developed ties to Greenwich Village bohemians, spent time with James Joyce and Eugene O’Neill and hung out with Dadaist artists. But Barnes’s burning ambition was to become an artist and writer in her own right. A chance encounter with heiress, and art collector, Peggy Guggenheim provided a way forward, leading her to Paris where Guggenheim’s patronage enabled Barnes’s creative projects. In 1920s Paris Barnes became known as lesbian ‘it’ girl, celebrated for her unique sense of style and acid wit. She moved in and out of overlapping literary circles. She was close with renowned New Yorker writer Janet Flanner and novelist Ernest Hemingway; was welcomed into Natalie Barney’s and artist Romaine Brooks’s sapphic circle; attended Gertrude Stein’s cultural gatherings; and hung out with dancer Isadora Duncan. All the while caught up in a tempestuous love affair with artist Thelma Wood.
Macy follows Barnes’s rise and fall, from her French glory days to her final years as a New York recluse, surviving on handouts from old friends. Barnes’s retreat from the world was briefly interrupted towards the end of her life when academics, and members of New York’s queer communities rediscovered Nightwood and embraced her as a groundbreaking writer and icon. Macy’s biography is clearly a labour of love, based on years of research. An award-winning writer and activist who centres queer topics and themes, his artwork’s lucid and often arresting. Here he works in black-and-white with dashes of muted colour, often referencing Barnes’s own art which was strongly influenced by Aubrey Beardsley’s style. As an overview of Barnes’s life and work, I thought this was largely successful, often evocative. I did have some minor quibbles and queries which probably relate to editing for instance publisher Faber & Faber is referred to as ‘Farber & Farber.’ And I was a bit confused about the death of Barnes’s partner Mary Pyne, here attributed to Spanish Flu, elsewhere to TB. I also found the abrupt shifts between Barnes’s past and present confusing at times.
Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher Street Noise Books for an ARC
Macy painstakingly chronicles Barnes’s career beginning with her stint as a journalist who often lived her stories, fearlessly performing stunts, immersing herself in her material. She developed ties to Greenwich Village bohemians, spent time with James Joyce and Eugene O’Neill and hung out with Dadaist artists. But Barnes’s burning ambition was to become an artist and writer in her own right. A chance encounter with heiress, and art collector, Peggy Guggenheim provided a way forward, leading her to Paris where Guggenheim’s patronage enabled Barnes’s creative projects. In 1920s Paris Barnes became known as lesbian ‘it’ girl, celebrated for her unique sense of style and acid wit. She moved in and out of overlapping literary circles. She was close with renowned New Yorker writer Janet Flanner and novelist Ernest Hemingway; was welcomed into Natalie Barney’s and artist Romaine Brooks’s sapphic circle; attended Gertrude Stein’s cultural gatherings; and hung out with dancer Isadora Duncan. All the while caught up in a tempestuous love affair with artist Thelma Wood.
Macy follows Barnes’s rise and fall, from her French glory days to her final years as a New York recluse, surviving on handouts from old friends. Barnes’s retreat from the world was briefly interrupted towards the end of her life when academics, and members of New York’s queer communities rediscovered Nightwood and embraced her as a groundbreaking writer and icon. Macy’s biography is clearly a labour of love, based on years of research. An award-winning writer and activist who centres queer topics and themes, his artwork’s lucid and often arresting. Here he works in black-and-white with dashes of muted colour, often referencing Barnes’s own art which was strongly influenced by Aubrey Beardsley’s style. As an overview of Barnes’s life and work, I thought this was largely successful, often evocative. I did have some minor quibbles and queries which probably relate to editing for instance publisher Faber & Faber is referred to as ‘Farber & Farber.’ And I was a bit confused about the death of Barnes’s partner Mary Pyne, here attributed to Spanish Flu, elsewhere to TB. I also found the abrupt shifts between Barnes’s past and present confusing at times.
Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher Street Noise Books for an ARC
Read
March 21, 2026A noite de Djuna #1: vida e vanguarda
YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE MODERNS. AREN'T YOU?
WORSE, I'M THOROUGHLY ORIGINAL.
[Djuna Barnes, por Berenice Abbott American, 1925 (https://www.metmuseum.org)]
A biografia Djuna é uma obra de amor.
Fruto de um extensivo trabalho gráfico — onde fica evidente o cuidado com o detalhe e o estudo de modelos fotográficos (interpretações deliciosas de encontrar em quase todas as páginas) —, poderia ser só mais uma biografia gráfica de uma mulher quase olvidada. Não fosse pelo recurso à concatenação entre vida e obra, criando uma tensão estilística que não teria desagradado à própria Djuna Barnes.
Entre saltos temporais não sequenciais que obedecem ao estilo episódico da sua escrita, e aberturas de cortina sobre as cenas mais dramáticas da sua vida — a lembrar o recurso ao pathos grego —, o livro vai desvelando a história crua que está na origem de uma das figuras mais marginais do modernismo europeu. Emocionalmente contido (embora seja assumida a proximidade de afeto entre biógrafo e biografada), Macy aposta forte na intensidade do traço, no contraste de cor e na relação texto-imagem, e assim consegue recriar a teatralidade e a intensidade de um percurso de vida atribulado e atípico — com as limitações de simplificação e riscos de estetização que estas escolhas acarretam e que, em certos momentos, sacrificam a objetividade em favor da emoção.
A ideia central, todavia, é o elogio: criada numa comunidade poligâmica, abusada sexual e emocionalmente, casada aos 16 anos contra sua vontade, Djuna tinha todos os motivos para se deixar vencer; ao invés (que é onde Macy pretende chegar), recriou-se como uma artista de vanguarda e uma mulher destemida que viveu a sua sexualidade e as suas paixões de forma desinibida — a extensão da narrativa de violência e trauma na vida de Djuna é, no entanto, discutível.
Percorrendo as décadas mais conturbadas da sua vida, entre a decadência de Berlim, Nova Iorque e Paris, Jon Macy faz brilhar esses loucos anos vinte, apanágio da criação conjunta de centenas de artistas. Fazendo de Djuna o astro em torno do qual gravitam inúmeras estrelas, o autor esmera-se a trazer à luz do dia a atmosfera dos clubes, dos salões literários e dos cabarés onde se podiam encontrar as figuras de socialites, artistas, intelectuais, dançarinos e escritores como a Baronesa Dada Elsa Hildegard, Gertrude Stein, Thelma Wood, Anita Berber, Isadora Duncan, John Steinbeck, Peggy Guggenheim, Picasso, Mina Loy, Josephine Baker, Radclyffe Hall, Natalie Clifford Barney, ou T. S. Eliot.
Para aqueles menos familiarizados com estes nomes, basta acrescentar que pertencem, na sua maioria, a mulheres que desafiaram a narrativa tradicional e ousaram viver e trabalhar segundo os modelos que iam inventando, criando uma cisão cultural e social efetiva entre os tempos clássicos e os modernos.
Numa narrativa multifacetada, Djuna, a mulher e a artista, conquistam igual espaço: sem cair no mau gosto de tentar replicar o modelo de Art Nouveau que percorre a obra (gráfica e literária) da autora — mas prestando-lhe a devida homenagem nas três cortinas que abrem cada um dos atos desta peça a que Macy chamou apenas Djuna —, o autor apropria-se de múltiplas citações dos seus poemas e romances para com eles reforçar uma indagação perpétua por felicidade e completude. Este recurso, que já tinha elogiado na biografia gráfica Anaïs Nin: no mar das mentiras, pretende legitimar a narrativa, mas questiono até que ponto, em Djuna secunda a biografia ou apenas a obra gráfica.
Numa homenagem cavalheiresca e elegante, que se coaduna com o requinte artístico de uma vida toda feita de símbolos e ânsias, Macy consegue ainda ter o condão de, ao invés de a tentar eclipsar (não sei se o conseguiria ainda que tentasse), despertar a atenção do leitor para a obra de Djuna. Não arrisco dizer que ela ficaria sensibilizada com esta comemoração — talvez fosse mais prudente esperar o seu riso sardónico —, mas eu, certamente, fiquei.
YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE MODERNS. AREN'T YOU?
WORSE, I'M THOROUGHLY ORIGINAL.
[Djuna Barnes, por Berenice Abbott American, 1925 (https://www.metmuseum.org)]
A biografia Djuna é uma obra de amor.
Fruto de um extensivo trabalho gráfico — onde fica evidente o cuidado com o detalhe e o estudo de modelos fotográficos (interpretações deliciosas de encontrar em quase todas as páginas) —, poderia ser só mais uma biografia gráfica de uma mulher quase olvidada. Não fosse pelo recurso à concatenação entre vida e obra, criando uma tensão estilística que não teria desagradado à própria Djuna Barnes.
Entre saltos temporais não sequenciais que obedecem ao estilo episódico da sua escrita, e aberturas de cortina sobre as cenas mais dramáticas da sua vida — a lembrar o recurso ao pathos grego —, o livro vai desvelando a história crua que está na origem de uma das figuras mais marginais do modernismo europeu. Emocionalmente contido (embora seja assumida a proximidade de afeto entre biógrafo e biografada), Macy aposta forte na intensidade do traço, no contraste de cor e na relação texto-imagem, e assim consegue recriar a teatralidade e a intensidade de um percurso de vida atribulado e atípico — com as limitações de simplificação e riscos de estetização que estas escolhas acarretam e que, em certos momentos, sacrificam a objetividade em favor da emoção.
A ideia central, todavia, é o elogio: criada numa comunidade poligâmica, abusada sexual e emocionalmente, casada aos 16 anos contra sua vontade, Djuna tinha todos os motivos para se deixar vencer; ao invés (que é onde Macy pretende chegar), recriou-se como uma artista de vanguarda e uma mulher destemida que viveu a sua sexualidade e as suas paixões de forma desinibida — a extensão da narrativa de violência e trauma na vida de Djuna é, no entanto, discutível.
Percorrendo as décadas mais conturbadas da sua vida, entre a decadência de Berlim, Nova Iorque e Paris, Jon Macy faz brilhar esses loucos anos vinte, apanágio da criação conjunta de centenas de artistas. Fazendo de Djuna o astro em torno do qual gravitam inúmeras estrelas, o autor esmera-se a trazer à luz do dia a atmosfera dos clubes, dos salões literários e dos cabarés onde se podiam encontrar as figuras de socialites, artistas, intelectuais, dançarinos e escritores como a Baronesa Dada Elsa Hildegard, Gertrude Stein, Thelma Wood, Anita Berber, Isadora Duncan, John Steinbeck, Peggy Guggenheim, Picasso, Mina Loy, Josephine Baker, Radclyffe Hall, Natalie Clifford Barney, ou T. S. Eliot.
Para aqueles menos familiarizados com estes nomes, basta acrescentar que pertencem, na sua maioria, a mulheres que desafiaram a narrativa tradicional e ousaram viver e trabalhar segundo os modelos que iam inventando, criando uma cisão cultural e social efetiva entre os tempos clássicos e os modernos.
Numa narrativa multifacetada, Djuna, a mulher e a artista, conquistam igual espaço: sem cair no mau gosto de tentar replicar o modelo de Art Nouveau que percorre a obra (gráfica e literária) da autora — mas prestando-lhe a devida homenagem nas três cortinas que abrem cada um dos atos desta peça a que Macy chamou apenas Djuna —, o autor apropria-se de múltiplas citações dos seus poemas e romances para com eles reforçar uma indagação perpétua por felicidade e completude. Este recurso, que já tinha elogiado na biografia gráfica Anaïs Nin: no mar das mentiras, pretende legitimar a narrativa, mas questiono até que ponto, em Djuna secunda a biografia ou apenas a obra gráfica.
Numa homenagem cavalheiresca e elegante, que se coaduna com o requinte artístico de uma vida toda feita de símbolos e ânsias, Macy consegue ainda ter o condão de, ao invés de a tentar eclipsar (não sei se o conseguiria ainda que tentasse), despertar a atenção do leitor para a obra de Djuna. Não arrisco dizer que ela ficaria sensibilizada com esta comemoração — talvez fosse mais prudente esperar o seu riso sardónico —, mas eu, certamente, fiquei.
May 7, 2026
I'm a little torn by my rating because I do feel that Djuna Barnes is someone worth learning about, but the execution of the book just had a few too many stumbles for her charisma to overcome.
Barnes is an LGBTQIA+ icon who knew most everyone in the Modernist movement and the "Lost Generation" social scene of the 1920s and 1930s. She broke into writing as a journalist, became known for her illustrations, short stories, and novels, but ultimately evolved into a prickly and reclusive cult celebrity.
The first third of the book has some energy as Barnes uses her talents to climb out of anonymity and a messed up family situation, but the parade of celebrity cameos, the sidelining of her career by a toxic relationship, her growing bitterness and some mental health issues, make the back end of the book -- and her very long life -- a bit of a trudge.
Unfortunately, the chronology of the book gets a little squishy at times with flashbacks and the vague passage of decades, and this dramatization is a little careless with historical figures and facts.
The narration gives the impression of a nonfiction work, but the author breaks out of the objective tone a few times to interject some personal asides, including the fact that he is completely making up one celebrity encounter just because he wanted it to happen. In another scene, John Steinbeck shows up in Paris in the 1920s yelling how he is the author of The Grapes of Wrath -- which wasn't published until 1939 -- even though my brief research indicates he was attending Stanford and living in either California or New York at the time, not going to Paris until the 1940s.
Creator Jon Macy is a bit too obsessed with all of Barnes' famous acquaintances, shoehorning in around fifty of them. Usually, they are fully named, but a few are left to be worked out by only their first name or nickname, including Rudolph "Silas" Glossop, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, Isadora Duncan, Harry Macelhone, and Dan Mahoney (inspiration for Dr. Matthew O'Connor in Barnes' Nightwood). And for some reason John Ferrar Holms is called John Holmes.
Macy seems like a genuine fan of Barnes, and his enthusiasm is almost contagious, but the book is just a bit too long and too willing to "print the legend."
Barnes is an LGBTQIA+ icon who knew most everyone in the Modernist movement and the "Lost Generation" social scene of the 1920s and 1930s. She broke into writing as a journalist, became known for her illustrations, short stories, and novels, but ultimately evolved into a prickly and reclusive cult celebrity.
The first third of the book has some energy as Barnes uses her talents to climb out of anonymity and a messed up family situation, but the parade of celebrity cameos, the sidelining of her career by a toxic relationship, her growing bitterness and some mental health issues, make the back end of the book -- and her very long life -- a bit of a trudge.
Unfortunately, the chronology of the book gets a little squishy at times with flashbacks and the vague passage of decades, and this dramatization is a little careless with historical figures and facts.
The narration gives the impression of a nonfiction work, but the author breaks out of the objective tone a few times to interject some personal asides, including the fact that he is completely making up one celebrity encounter just because he wanted it to happen. In another scene, John Steinbeck shows up in Paris in the 1920s yelling how he is the author of The Grapes of Wrath -- which wasn't published until 1939 -- even though my brief research indicates he was attending Stanford and living in either California or New York at the time, not going to Paris until the 1940s.
Creator Jon Macy is a bit too obsessed with all of Barnes' famous acquaintances, shoehorning in around fifty of them. Usually, they are fully named, but a few are left to be worked out by only their first name or nickname, including Rudolph "Silas" Glossop, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, Isadora Duncan, Harry Macelhone, and Dan Mahoney (inspiration for Dr. Matthew O'Connor in Barnes' Nightwood). And for some reason John Ferrar Holms is called John Holmes.
Macy seems like a genuine fan of Barnes, and his enthusiasm is almost contagious, but the book is just a bit too long and too willing to "print the legend."
October 12, 2024
The breadth and depth of this book is astonishing. Well-researched but more than that--the writing, the artwork, and the integration of it all. I'm in awe. You could spend an hour in every panel though I was too compelled by the sharp storytelling to slow down . . . I plan to reread it immediately.
November 10, 2025
Djuna Barnes lived an interesting life. As with the curse "May you live in interesting times", it wasn't always pleasant. Her grandmother ran a free-love commune, encouraging her father to marry and have children with two wives, and an untold number of other women. Djuna's first lover died in the 1918 flu epidemic, and her second lover was a handful. Though part of the group of Americans in Paris in the 1920s, she is eclipsed in memory by others from that group. I've read very little of her writings, and don't feel much need to change that, but I enjoyed learning about her life.
December 2, 2024
Unbelievably good!
May 9, 2025
I've never heard of Djuna Barnes before reading this. She us absolutely fascinating!
September 1, 2025
I love Djuna Barnes so much
August 22, 2025
really enjoyed this!! a good, thorough biography of a fascinating person i had never heard of. there were some confusing time jumps... the book is overall pretty chronological, but there would be random flashbacks that i didn't feel needed to be flashbacks--they could have just taken place at the beginning. but overall, it's a pretty smooth read.
March 12, 2026
What an extraordinary woman! And what witty dialog!
Amazing look into an icon of that era.
Amazing look into an icon of that era.
February 20, 2026
Great graphic bio
July 24, 2025
Very enjoyable graphic memoir of Djuna Barnes’ life! I’m a big Djuna fan, but I think this would be a good primer for people who wouldn’t necessarily vibe with Djuna’s hyper Modernist baroque style…
October 22, 2025
Un peu didactique par moment mais j’ai aimé découvrir la vie de Djuna Barnes et surtout le milieu d’avant-garde littéraire et artistique dans lequel elle évoluait à Paris et sa relation avec Thelma Wood (je préviens : c’est triste et ça finit mal, pauvre Djuna)
January 27, 2026
For readers who have not encountered Djuna Barnes’s masterpiece Nightwood, this is a fascinating introduction to a brilliant, complex, and suffering writer. Jon Macy has told Djuna’s story with an appreciation of her genius and her self-destructive inclinations that brought her the life-long friendships of writers such as T. S. Eliot and a spectacular series of romantic disasters. Macy makes dynamic use of the unique capacities of a graphic narrative to illustrate the never-ending dramas of Djuna’s life. His eye for the telling detail in so many panels gives the reader a vivid sense of the gaiety of 1920s Paris and the sorrows of Djuna’s lonely end. She is not an easy writer and she was a difficult person, but if the reader of Macy’s biography discovers Barnes’s work and is willing to risk letting go of perfect sense in order to soar into realms of unknown beauty, he will have done a great service to an artist worthy of more renown.
January 26, 2026
She deserved so much more of a better life than she was dealt. The abuse from her family alone is unhinged.
October 12, 2024
This book is full of thoughtful details and delightful flourishes. The author’s dedication and enthusiasm comes through every panel. I don’t keep many books, nor do I buy them by the yard ;) I had intended to pass my copy along to my daughters, but I can’t bear to part with it, so they’ll each get their own. I’m sure I will notice more wonderful details each time I read it. Thank you, Jon Macy.
April 28, 2025
read this for my extended essay
July 21, 2025
A wild ride through the life of Djuna Barnes. She had a very rough childhood, a number of romances, did quite a bit of traveling, and met a whole lot of people. There were enough people that I would have benefitted from a glossary of characters. The book made it seem like she only wrote a few novels, but the bibliography listed a large number of her works. I appreciated the two-color artwork and how the red was used almost exclusively for her hair.
July 19, 2024
The book is a romantic trip of the highlights of Djuna Barnes life. If her father was a manchild, she was a womanchild. Her hedonistic needs trumped all other things. Her love was writing and her physical lovers would come and go. Male and female would bed her, her first love leaving America due to anti-German sentiments, being Bohemian ruled, another dying of the Spanish flu. One of her best friends would be called by one patron at a party, “The Baroness of Obstreperous.” The book is not an easy read. While the content is not gratuitous, it is also over-the-top, dramatic, salacious. And the artwork! Let me say that they are just as odd as the rest of things. Mostly black and white with the color red being used to show you Djuna (her flaming red hair) and a few other things. Things do not look fleshed out, but more sketches of what is to come (though this could partly be because it is a reader's copy, however, I've read enough from this publisher to know they do go more artistic). They are just as important as the story, but mostly there to allow you to focus on our subject and those around her and the things around her which are there to support her. Due in early October 2024, Street Noise Books has smacked you upside the head with another powerful read by Jon Macy (or JL Macy, I’ve seen both) and .
December 26, 2025
I learned about so many fascinating people from this! I wrote them down and look forward to learning more!
Characters - 5 stars
Plot - 4 stars
Setting - 4.5 stars
Writing style - 4.5 stars
Ending - 3.75 stars
Characters - 5 stars
Plot - 4 stars
Setting - 4.5 stars
Writing style - 4.5 stars
Ending - 3.75 stars
July 20, 2024
Beautiful artwork, well-researched, and a captivating story. Jon Macy did a wonderful job here illuminating Djuna Barnes as a prominent, if oft forgotten, modernist author. This shot Nightwood up on my TBR, just in time for a trip to Paris.
Thank you to Edelweiss for the review copy!
Thank you to Edelweiss for the review copy!
December 1, 2024
Certainly well executed but hard to follow if you’re not already familiar with Djuna Barnes’s life story
December 12, 2025
3.5 stars
September 15, 2024
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
As a sort of biography, this works fine: we get an idea of the people and events that shaped her life and created the unique person that she was in the first half of the 20th century. At the same time, I never really felt that I got to know the person and instead felt like I was looking at her from the outside and through the eyes of everyone around her. Even the title of the book creates an impression of an object rather than a human being.The story is fairly chronological though does skip around a bit. The running theme is the fame that constantly eluded her yet seemed to be whimsically bestrewed on the less talented around her. Whether in journalism, art, or literature, she would always come up just a bit short. Yet at its heart, the book is a tribute to a remarkably distinct and unyielding personality who created her own path despite (or in spite) of a very unusual childhood.
To draw upon this biography, a lot of what we know about Djuna comes from her books: each were thinly veiled stories of her childhood and the abuses suffered by growing up in a cult-like commune society. Her grandmother was a strong personality, her father raised to be a gift to humanity but instead buckling under the pressure/responsibility, and her mother bitter over being shackled to a directionless, out-of-work, polygamist. Leaving that family never meant separation: they would seek to siphon off her successes while celebrating her failures throughout her life.
The artwork is serviceable but perhaps a part of the disenfranchisement issue: Djuna wafts through the book rather than anchors it. She is a two color nebulous presence wearing the same clothes (from a famous photograph) throughout the years. Perhaps it was meant to create a bit of mystery about an enigmatic figure but instead makes her seem like a ghost in her own life.
In all, it was fascinating to read about this forgotten figure in history but I wish the story wasn't so removed and sensationalist, told almost as if through gossips rather than facts. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
January 2, 2025
Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes is a masterpiece of storytelling and visual artistry! Jon Macy has created a biography that feels alive, unpredictable, and deeply personal, weaving in some autobiographical elements that give the narrative a fresh and intimate touch. I found myself truly looking forward to the times when I could crack open the book and visit Djuna's world.
Djuna Barnes is an exciting subject—a figure I loved, hated, and envied all at once. Mr. Macy captures her brilliance, complexity, and passions with masterful precision, bringing her to life in a way that made me feel as if I were walking through her cobblestoned world wearing her pumps.
As usual with Mr. Macy's work, the artwork in this book is dynamic and alive. The bold yet restrained use of red accenting the black line work adds a vibrant, dramatic energy that perfectly complements Djuna's fire and darkness. The visual storytelling is so rich and layered that I found myself lingering on each page, taking in the details.
This is more an immersive experience than just a biography. Mr. Macy’s masterful blend of art and narrative elevates Djuna's already fascinating story, making it a must-read for fans of queer history, literary icons, and anyone who loves a "difficult" woman. Highly recommended!
Djuna Barnes is an exciting subject—a figure I loved, hated, and envied all at once. Mr. Macy captures her brilliance, complexity, and passions with masterful precision, bringing her to life in a way that made me feel as if I were walking through her cobblestoned world wearing her pumps.
As usual with Mr. Macy's work, the artwork in this book is dynamic and alive. The bold yet restrained use of red accenting the black line work adds a vibrant, dramatic energy that perfectly complements Djuna's fire and darkness. The visual storytelling is so rich and layered that I found myself lingering on each page, taking in the details.
This is more an immersive experience than just a biography. Mr. Macy’s masterful blend of art and narrative elevates Djuna's already fascinating story, making it a must-read for fans of queer history, literary icons, and anyone who loves a "difficult" woman. Highly recommended!
February 12, 2026
Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes is a visually striking and emotionally layered graphic biography that captures the intensity, brilliance, and contradictions of one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating literary figures. Jon Macy masterfully blends art and narrative to illuminate Barnes’s journey from a turbulent and unconventional childhood to the dazzling literary circles of 1920s Paris. The graphic format adds depth and immediacy, allowing readers to feel the atmosphere of the salons, the boldness of the artistic experimentation, and the vulnerability beneath Barnes’s sharp wit.
What makes this biography especially powerful is its balance between celebration and honesty. Macy does not merely mythologize Barnes as a queer radical icon of the Lost Generation; instead, he explores the personal struggles, emotional complexities, and societal pressures that shaped her life and work. The storytelling is thoughtful and immersive, and the artwork complements the narrative with expressive detail. This is a compelling and important contribution to both graphic nonfiction and literary history, offering readers an accessible yet profound window into Barnes’s extraordinary world.
What makes this biography especially powerful is its balance between celebration and honesty. Macy does not merely mythologize Barnes as a queer radical icon of the Lost Generation; instead, he explores the personal struggles, emotional complexities, and societal pressures that shaped her life and work. The storytelling is thoughtful and immersive, and the artwork complements the narrative with expressive detail. This is a compelling and important contribution to both graphic nonfiction and literary history, offering readers an accessible yet profound window into Barnes’s extraordinary world.
April 16, 2025
“Djuna” is a biography of a nearly forgotten writer from a century ago, whose life feels freer and more forward looking than those of many writers today, thanks to this wonderfully realized portrait. Using stark black & white artwork with limited colors, Jon Macy creates a world that is suffocating and inescapable, yet also full of possibilities and opportunities, if only Djuna could make the right choices with the right people. I loved this book, and I've sent copies to friends and family members. I would have liked to have learned more about the motivations of some of the side characters (a couple of Djuna's exes in particular), but maybe I'll find those answers if I were to finally read some of Djuna Barnes's work. I definitely recommend curious readers check out this book. They'll find it to be a fascinating and highly rewarding read.
June 1, 2025
I don't read many graphic novels and was intrigued by this one about Djuna Barnes as I'd never heard of her. However, I feel Macy did her a disservice by trying to cover her entire life in one graphic novel. The book left me with more questions about her than answers. It works as a nice over view with some details about the childhood abuse and lesbian lifestyle she lived. I loved meeting other authors and artists of the time through this graphic novel, but I felt it tried to cover too much time. I also found the art a little odd as sometimes I wasn't sure who was speaking, and other times the characters looked interchangeable.
December 30, 2024
A graphic novel biography about a queer writer from the first half of the 20th century who has largely been forgotten even though she traveled in the same circles as Hemmingway. T.S. Elliot and Peggy Guggenheim. She lived a very unconventional life made more so by her attitude later in life. It's an interesting story. It's just one that I often felt disconnected to because of the writing style.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews