Come la gente normale

Pope Hats

by Hartley Lin

Frances Scarland è la giovane paralegale che ha appena varcato la porta di un rinomato studio legale di Toronto. La ragazza ci mette poco ad accorgersi che l'ambiente lavorativo non è dei più rilassanti, anzi, dalla sua scrivania dovrà svolgere dei compiti in tempi ristretti e con il massimo rigore.

Viene subito assegnata come assistente a Marcel Castonguay: l'eccentrico senior partner che dirige i suoi collaboratori a suon di richieste assurde quanto incomprensibili.
Vickie Griffin è la coinquilina, nonché miglior amica di Frances. Le due ragazze sono agli antipodi: Frances è la stagista gentile che si sente un po' come Peggy Olson in Mad Men; mentre Vickie è la tipica persona sicura di sé che alle feste non ci mette nulla a fare conversazione; la stessa che il giorno dopo si ritrova con i postumi della sbornia. Le due amiche si confidano sempre e volentieri le proprie giornate, ma soprattutto le proprie incertezze. Per Frances, Vickie è l'unica e vera valvola di sfogo. L'esperienza di praticantato si rivelerà per Frances sempre più un inferno.

La sua vita privata è compromessa proprio dagli stressanti orari che la costringono a lavorare in ufficio fino a sera tardi. Con la speranza di ottenere un'ambita promozione, i nervi di Frances saranno messi a dura prova dal boss Castonguay e dal menefreghismo dei suoi colleghi. Ma anche il futuro professionale le appare via via più incerto. Frances è di fronte a un bivio: dovrà decidere se salvare la propria giovinezza, oppure sacrificarla per fare carriera. In un mondo estremamente competitivo, Frances incarna perfettamente le ansie dei millennial sul posto di lavoro.

Come la gente normale è una brillante commedia umana che racconta la società ipertrofica in cui viviamo. Una storia corale che guarda con ammirazione alla scrittura di Paul Hornschemeier e al tratto di Adrian Tomine. Hartley Lin, dopo Seth e Chester Brown, è la nuova grande voce del fumetto canadese che si è imposta a livello internazionale con un linguaggio unico.

Come la gente normale, titolo originale Young Frances, è vincitore del Doug Wright Award 2019 per il miglior libro, tra le cinque migliori graphic novel del 2018 secondo Publishers Weekly e candidato agli Eisner Award 2019.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Adult, Canada, Bande Dessinée

144 pages, Hardcover

First published May 29, 2018

About the author

Hartley Lin (formerly known by the pseudonym Ethan Rilly) is a cartoonist based in Montreal, Canada. Young Frances, the first collection from his ongoing comic book Pope Hats, won the 2019 Doug Wright Award for Best Book. He has drawn for The New Yorker, The Hollywood Reporter, Slate, Taddle Creek and HarperCollins.

Reviews

[Ariel]

Ay, it wasn't for me. I kept hoping Frances would pull herself up by her bootstraps but it kept meandering and all of the stuff about her law office (many pages just reading about mergers and acquisitions and law speak I was't into!) made this drag out. But on the bright side I did really enjoy the illustrations and there were some great moments so I'd for sure try another book from Hartley Lin!

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Young Frances collects issues 1-5 of Lin’s much-awarded series Pope Hats, which I hadn’t read, and it is a revelation, a world I found rather unique: The story of Frances, a law clerk in a big city law firm, and one of the very few genuinely nice people there. Maybe the only one not obsessed with billable hours and terrified of the axe falling or mergers and Huge Overhyped multi-million dollar Legal Events. It occurred to me as I read it that I know very little about this world, which—based on my inexperience—feels in Lin’s hands authentic, with (what feels to me to be) spot-on dialogue, informed by what I know is careful research.

I was careful to look for ways in which the people working in the firm are disrespected. This is an expected trap in a lawyer project, it seems to me (at least ones written by non-lawyers). You expect the narrative equivalent of lawyer jokes, with an undercurrent of lawyer loathing. But I think Lin passes my test and creates human beings. Even the boss, Marcel Castonguay who, though he is depicted as a Daddy Warbucks pupil-less (by which I mean his eyes are just circles, vs. all the other characters’s eyes!) automaton, he likes Frances, appreciates her. In every scene he seems to grow larger, twice as large as anyone else, so this seems like it could be a satirical dismissal, but he still seems human to me.

The Comics Alternative calls slice-of-life comics verite dessinée, or drawn truth, which I love, and this fits, most of the way, but there’re also some bizarre or surreal touches in Young Frances to keep you off guard, such as Castonguay accidentally dropping trou in an important meeting. Otherwise things are played pretty straight-up and humane, as Frances keeps connected to her rising actress friend Vicki, who lands a role in a tv series playing an attorney (Are attornies in any Corporate firm also just "playing attorney," filling a tole?). Frances also has a patient male friend who supports her and “likes” her though if you know law clerks, she rarely sees him.

Surprises happen in this tale, but the greatest surprise for me in this comics work is Lin’s accomplishment in making this strange, forbidding world come alive. I know an unhappy law clerk English undergraduate student who I am trying to persuade to teach English. I told her about this book. It’s a pretty amazing accomplishment, reminiscent of Seth’s humane work depicting similar people working alienating jobs, but also Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, which takes a hard look at the corporate world from another angle. The heart of this work is Frances’s goal to “find herself, “ to find a place for her heart in this brutal legal environment. She even goes to Vicki’s spiritual advisor, without finding much help, but she is trying to find her way, to attain a kind of space for nature, running, friendship, and love, in spite of an overwhelming job.

4.5, I’ll say, though if it stays with me as I expect it will, I might bump it up to 5 stars. I highly recommend it.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Do you know why everyone likes you? Why Everyone on the 25th floor likes you? You work and work and never complain. You don’t muddy things with feelings or team politics --- you don’t choose sides. It’s a wise game plan…Are you aware you’re docketing nearly the same hours as our first year associates? I can’t tell you how hard it is to find a good law clerk…”

Yet Frances, at a low point, groans, “I’m ALWAYS going to feel like this. Like I’m sitting in the cheap seats of everyone else’s life.”

Today’s life for the post-Gen Xers. A riff on what place “work” holds in our lives and what we believe it says about us. There is a lot of drama mixed in with the satire in this comic book turned graphic novel. Lin gets so much just right in what it is like to work in a big city law firm. As for Frances, she is treated poorly by even “friends” and certainly by her “more liberated” roommate who never seems to do her share of the chores and requires help frequently to clean up herself after over-indulgences.

Part of the attraction, aside from the spot-on comedy of law firm life is, unfortunately, to see how long Frances will keep being everybody’s doormat. For the first part of the book, her willingness (see the quote above) gets her recognition at the firm and some compliments that may help her keep her job while the partners fire other law clerks and administrative assistants right and left.

Frances can’t keep her balancing act going forever…that’s Lin’s hook. Modern life in all its agony. Are you into it?

For some further analysis, check out my friend David’s review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would never want to work in a law firm in ANY capacity but if hell ever freezes over and I find myself doing just that I'd want to be just like Frances, the immensely capable if somewhat lost law clerk and a multibillion dollar law firm where your coworkers see more of you than your family does and today's bonus can turn into tomorrow's severance package in a heartbeat.

Frances is a workaholic who happens to be very good at what she does but she just doesn't know if what she does so well is what she should be doing. When not trying to grab a couple of hours of sleep between merger meetings and strategy sessions and hand delivering fruit salad to her bosses apartment she takes care of her best friend and roommate Vickie, an actress who's devil may care attitude and chronic partying are ironically the most stable part of Frances' life.

When Vickie gets an amazing opportunity across the country Frances finds herself all alone and aimless even while her bosses plan out her career track for the rest of her life. Is she trapped in a life that can never give her the happiness or is this what happiness is?

It sounds insulting to say this is deep for a graphic novel but I don't mean to be insulting. This is one of those perfect blends of art and story where you have to have both to really feel like you're a part of whats happening. If its possibly to draw a person who is both frantic and somehow simultaneously letting life pass them by Hartley Lin manages it. Frances is like the living embodiment of "hurry up and slow down!" Though Lin's drawings are very simple with emotions expressed through the tiniest laugh lines and forehead wrinkles and his settings are almost entirely the colorless landscape of a NYC cube farm he still manages to convey so much passion and life in this world.

This is a book about a woman trying to figure herself out so it might not be the most exciting story in the world but its an incredibly relatable one. We've all been here, wondering if the thing we're good at is the thing we're meant to do or if there's greener grass somewhere else. Thinking our friends have it all figured out and we're the only one who doesn't know what the hell is going on. Realizing that the person we thought we were taking care of was taking care of us too.

I really, really hope I see more of Frances.

[Skye Kilaen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A graphic novel about a young woman working in a law firm, and far more engrossing than I had expected based on that premise. It takes real mastery to do "slice of life" storytelling like this. For more details, see Sara's review, as it really captures what I liked about the book.

[Derek Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work collects issues #2, #3, and #5 of Pope Hats, a series that I've been reading for some time. I hadn't yet read issue #5, which came out last fall, so I'm glad that this text came out so close on the heels of that last issue. The story of Frances and Vicki reads even better together in one volume, giving the book a novelistic feel. You could call this a realistic or slice-of-life comic, but a better way of describing it -- as we have been doing on The Comics Alternative -- is as verite dessinée, or drawn truth. (And thanks to my buddy Gene Kannenberg, Jr for coining that term.) In this sense, Lin's comics remind me of what Jaime Hernandez does with his Maggie and Hopey stories, or of the kind of comics storytelling you'll find with Adrian Tomine, Alex Robinson, and Pat Palermo. But by listing these creators as stylistic examples I don't want to suggest that Lin's Frances and Vicki stories are derivative in any way. It's unique storytelling at its best, and another one of my favorites so far for 2018.

[Jesús · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frances, a young law clerk in Toronto, blends Peggy from Mad Men with Abbi from Broad City. Cartoonist Hartley Lin has an impressive talent for character, line work, and... office politics. And his visual style is somewhere between the fastidiousness of Chris Ware or Adrian Tomine and the clean, expressive lines of Jaime Hernández or Stan Sakai. I have never worked in a large corporate law firm, but I know folks who do (and I work in a different but similarly cutthroat industry filled with ambitious overachievers). So much of this feels true and honest—about both professional culture and its people.

As much as I enjoy reading about Frances and her quarter-life crisis, I hope we get a companion story about her friend Vickie in LA. And depending on how these characters continue to develop (and they are so fully realized that I can’t imagine that their story will end here), this volume may grow in estimation over time. Lin is a cartoonist to keep a close eye on.

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frances is nice. Which is not usually an attribute that will get you far in a large cut-throat New York law firm, but, hey, this is a fairy tale of sorts so anything goes. Though she struggles with insomnia, anxiety and loneliness every evening, Frances is a plugger, facing each new day with energy, intelligence and optimism. Just as her mentor vaguely resembles Daddy Warbucks, Frances is an Annie whose pluck makes you want to root for her.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young woman attempts to balance her stressful job with friendship and romance. Not the most exciting read ever, but engaging enough. The artwork is a delight.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was better than I was expecting. I was expecting humor, I guess, Archie-style hijinks or something along those lines. But this is more straight up slice-of-life fiction.

Frances works as a law clerk and shares a tiny apartment with her best friend Vickie, an actress. And life happens. Frances isn't sure if she likes her job or not, but is good enough at it to start getting noticed by senior management. Vickie gets a part in a TV series that requires her to move to LA. We get to know both women over the course of the book, and come to appreciate how much their friendship means to them. It's a tale of that mysterious alchemy through which a young adult becomes just an adult.

This is honestly one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in a long time. Highly recommended!

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Frances is a story about growing up and figuring out that adulthood isn't really quite the array of adventure and amazement one might expect, even when we achieve our dreams. But despite that opening line, this isn't a depressing work. It's about a law clerk and an actress who are best friends, but having to change a lot of things in their lives as they grow older. It's a simple, subtle, and sometimes strange tale that really spoke to me, also in my 30s and trying to figure out adulthood from an adult perspective.

[Jessica Mae Stover]

Another good example of why the excuse, "men can't write women" (and therefore shouldn't be expected to do the basic work required of any author) is sexist apologia. Two other positive examples are Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and The Ice Palace by Tarjai Vesaas. These are three very different books with very different voices, and yet what they have in common is evidence of the potential for a better literary tomorrow.

[Emmkay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet, understated graphic novel. It’s set in Toronto! At a Bay St law firm! Focuses on a young law clerk who’s very good at her job but unsure what she really wants to be doing. Some of the details were spot-on and some a wee bit off, but this was a lovely slice of life.

[Donatella Principi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una storia sul rapporto fra la mia generazione e il mondo del lavoro. Ho apprezzato molto di più il "messaggio" della storia in sé. I dubbi e le insicurezze di Frances, che si trova a fare un lavoro che non le piace ma che è sicuro, sono gli stessi di noi oggi: cosa devo fare della mia vita, perché gli altri sembrano sempre più avanti di me, così sicuri del loro futuro, perché gli altri sanno cosa vogliono fare mentre io no? La prima parte del fumetto mi ha un po' annoiata perché tutta concentrata sul lavoro da impiegata di Frances in uno studio legale, e a me non interessava granché, mentre la parte finale mi ha coinvolta di più proprio perché mi sono rivista nei pensieri e dubbi dei protagonisti.

[Rachele Baz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il libro è interessante e ben scritto. Tuttavia non sopporto la protagonista che pur nel suo essere 'carrierista' risulta quasi un'inetta, che non è in grado di dire cambiare il corso di una vita (lavorativa) insoddisfacente. Questo malessere si ripercuote su tutti gli ambiti e pur riuscendo ad avanzare professionalmente il libro rivela una grande apatia, mediocrità e generale infelicità della vita.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A workplace tale of young legal assistant in Toronto who is likeable and friendly, and spends way too much time at work. Classic comic panel and black & white drawings gave this one a nostalgic feel. There's some sweet friendship moments. The story is basic, and about life and the people we work with. If you've enjoyed the work of Jillian Tamaki and Adrian Tomine, this is in that same vein.

[Hannah Garden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow so this is stunning! The characters zum right alive from the moment you meet them, and it’s such a tidily tenderly crafted world.

I don’t really like Peter? Is my only mildly sour note. But otherwise this is just such an absorbing read, really lovely.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frances is a background character in her own story which is both frustrating and painfully realistic.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you finish a book and it was so Great and so Fun and so Perfect and WHY isn't it more famous and popular EVERYONE needs to read this RIGHT NOW!

But sometimes you finish a book and it's just as Great and just as Fun and just as Perfect, but you don't want to recommend it to people. Because you found it by chance at just the right time, because it feels like it might not even be real, like the cosmos opened up and dropped this book into your lap that was specifically written for you. And you keep these books to yourself and you cherish them and you re-read them even though you really ought to get through that growing to-read pile. You can't bear the thought of someone else reading it and hating it, so you keep it to yourself. And you say to your partner, as you turn the page late at night, this is really good!, and they ask, "should I read it?" and you frown and say no, I don't think you'd like it.

I loved this, I loved this, I loved this.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insider Industry stuff is fascinating to me. I am very interested in what exactly people do all day long in their job.

Here, we get to see what working for a law office is like in a big city. Frances is a Young Professional who is upwardly mobile at her place of work. She also has an actor roommate and a sometimes sorta love interest, but those weren't the interesting parts here, for me.

Frances finds herself at a career direction decision point when she's singled out by one of the people in power at the office. There are ethical and existential questions here, but it's relatively below the surface. Things are shown more than told.

The whole story is portrayed in Little Orphan Annie-style illustration work. The big boss even has the vacant circle eyes. Black and white illustrations, three rows per page, 9 panel total on average. Extremely accessible, with good flow.

Went down easy, with an insidebaseball spike.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked out from the library simply because I liked the cover, and am very pleased that I did. Hartley Lin is a Canadian cartoonist with a great sensibility for depicting everyday human existence. This graphic novel (originally serialised in issues #2, 3 and 5 of the comic book Pope Hats) is the story of Frances Scarland, who works as a legal clerk after not finishing law school. But Frances is good at her job, and while associates at the firm are cut (seemingly left and right), she catches the eye of Castonguay, one of the partners, with a reputation for being an eccentric.

The narrative sees Frances oscillate between her (shred of) personal life, mostly together with her roomie, Vickie, and her career as a law clerk (on the rise, potentially).

All in all, a well-told tale with fine visual storytelling.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta historia sobre la aceptación de lo que viene con una vida profesional exigente funciona en la medida que se compren las bases sobre las cuales se sostiene: tus aspiraciones laborales pueden verse satisfechas, no es necesario sacrificar en el altar del trabajo la faceta personal, tu vida puede ser como una dramedia televisiva... Con mis tragaderas habituales lo acepto aunque se me queda un poco en tierra de nadie. Sobre todo porque la parte del estrés profesional dentro de un bufete de abogados top, la mitad del tebeo, es cianuro para mi atención. Me interesa más la faceta humana, ese retrato tan comedido de un adicto al trabajo, pero con una contención que transmite unas gotas de frialdad. Se lleva bien porque Lin apunta maneras en el dibujo.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad coming of age story about a young woman who is working as a paralegal with no real ambitions to move up the ladder in the firm she's working in but discovering she's highly valued by management, who is looking to boost her career. The drama comes from her best friend moving out to be an actress for a big TV show, leaving Frances with no one to talk to and wondering if she's fulfilled in life and what she really wants. Not a lot a stake, exactly, but good storytelling with very smart observations about human behavior.

[Ryan Ebling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really sweet story. I thought I knew the type of book it would be, having read and seen many stories of young, wandering millennials, but this book takes the best parts of those stories and is brave enough to find direction and resolution that doesn’t minimize or negate any conflict that came before. The characters of Frances and Vicky are lovely, and I found myself increasingly drawn to them as their friendship is fleshed out.

[Davina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like this book got a little tedious at times with the quantity of legal jargon but otherwise the character of Frances drew me in and I found myself rooting for her to find happiness and fulfillment. Also, I thought it was interesting to ruminate on the difference between being good at something and deriving satisfaction from something.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe expectations were too high, but this just didn't resonate with me. The artwork is great, but I couldn't stop trying to figure out who it reminded me of (maybe Herge? I couldn't figure it out). The story was a little too focused on the work environment and not on the characters for my liking.

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Usually I enjoy getting a perspective on a life that is different from mine, but I guess this life is just so different that I closed the book just feeling confused. I couldn't relate to or even empathize with the characters.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing slice-of-life that didn’t go the way I anticipated. Engrossing story though and the relationships between Frances and her friends and colleagues were well developed. The law bits went over my head.

[Loz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this. The only major improvement could've been gayness. Art is good, story is engrossing. High recommend!

[Kat Hulu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well drawn but boring