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Tamara Drewe
Avec son nez refait, ses jambes interminables, ses airs de princesse sexy, son job dans la presse de caniveau, ses aspirations à la célébrité et sa facilité à briser les coeurs, Tamara Drewe est l'Amazone urbaine du XXIᵉ siècle. Son retour à la campagne, dans le village où a vécu sa mère, est un choc pour la petite communauté qui y prospère en paix. Hommes et femmes, bobos et ruraux, auteur à gros tirage, universitaire frustré, rock star au rancart, fils du pays, teenagers locales gavées de people, tous et toutes sont attirés par Tamara, dont la beauté pyromane, les liaisons dangereuses et les divagations amoureuses éveillent d'obscures passions et provoquent un enchaînement de circonstances aboutissant à une tragédie à la Posy Simmonds, c'est-à-dire à la fois poignante et absurde. Librement inspiré du roman de Thomas Hardy Loin de la foule déchaînée, un portrait à charge délicieusement cruel et ironique de l'Angleterre d'aujourd'hui.
136 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2007
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About the author
Posy Simmonds
72 books173 followersRosemary Elizabeth "Posy" Simmonds MBE is a British newspaper cartoonist and writer and illustrator of both children's books and graphic novels. She is best known for her long association with The Guardian, for which she has drawn the series Gemma Bovery (2000) and Tamara Drewe (2005–06), both later published as books. Her style gently satirises the English middle classes and in particular those of a literary bent. Both of the published books feature a "doomed heroine", much in the style of the 18th- and 19th-century gothic romantic novel, to which they often allude, but with an ironic, modernist slant.
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October 19, 2024
‘Among these heavy yeomen a feminine figure glided, the single one of her sex that the room contained. Se was prettily and even daintily dressed. She moved between them as a chaise between carts, was heard after them as a romance after sermons, was felt among them like a breeze among furnaces. It had required a little determination – far more than she had at first imagined – to take up a position here, for at her first entry the lumbering dialogues had ceased, nearly every face had been towards her, and those that were already turned rigidly fixed there.’
(Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd)
Having finally read Far from the Madding Crowd, a reread of this delightful graphic novel, loosely inspired by the novel by Thomas Hardy turned out even more amazing and gratifying then the first time.
Set in a sleepy village in the countryside, adventures and intrigues are entwined with life in a luxurious writer’s retreat – a farm hosting would-be writers at the edge of the village, run by Beth and Nicolas Hardiman - a thriving and libidinous crime writer. The return to the village of a former village girl, Tamara Drewe – metamorphosed in a long-limbed, nose-jobbed, utterly attractive and charming young woman, disturbs the apparent calm of the little community. When Tamara decides to come over each weekend to live in her childhood’s house in the village, she starts troubling the lives of a triumvirate of suitors, playing with them like a modern Bathsheba Everdene, the heroine in Hardy’s story - unwillingly blighting the lives of other villagers also.
In her contemporary retelling of Hardy’s novel, Simmonds playfully broaches themes like creativity, love, lust, adultery and loyalty. Her graphic novel is also enjoyable without having read Hardy first: apart from the enthralling narrative, she presents visually superb character portrayals and does not shy away from a touch of sharp social criticism rooted in the strained relationship between the rich newcomers and the working-class locals and in the confrontation of the townish way of life and rural boredom (personified by two teenage village girls).
From the rocking-horse when Andy Cobb/Gabriel Oak first sets eyes on Tamara/Bathsheba to the mock Valentine card substituted by a skanky e-mail, spotting the numerous pictorial and wordy references and witty parallels to Hardy’s novel is great fun – as is comparing the characters in the novel and the graphic variation – characters which aren’t quite unequivocally likeable, just like the ones in Hardy’s novel.
This slightly soapy tale on the powerful and tragicomic spell a woman can cast on men offers delectable and outstanding entertainment.
(Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd)
Having finally read Far from the Madding Crowd, a reread of this delightful graphic novel, loosely inspired by the novel by Thomas Hardy turned out even more amazing and gratifying then the first time.
Set in a sleepy village in the countryside, adventures and intrigues are entwined with life in a luxurious writer’s retreat – a farm hosting would-be writers at the edge of the village, run by Beth and Nicolas Hardiman - a thriving and libidinous crime writer. The return to the village of a former village girl, Tamara Drewe – metamorphosed in a long-limbed, nose-jobbed, utterly attractive and charming young woman, disturbs the apparent calm of the little community. When Tamara decides to come over each weekend to live in her childhood’s house in the village, she starts troubling the lives of a triumvirate of suitors, playing with them like a modern Bathsheba Everdene, the heroine in Hardy’s story - unwillingly blighting the lives of other villagers also.
In her contemporary retelling of Hardy’s novel, Simmonds playfully broaches themes like creativity, love, lust, adultery and loyalty. Her graphic novel is also enjoyable without having read Hardy first: apart from the enthralling narrative, she presents visually superb character portrayals and does not shy away from a touch of sharp social criticism rooted in the strained relationship between the rich newcomers and the working-class locals and in the confrontation of the townish way of life and rural boredom (personified by two teenage village girls).
From the rocking-horse when Andy Cobb/Gabriel Oak first sets eyes on Tamara/Bathsheba to the mock Valentine card substituted by a skanky e-mail, spotting the numerous pictorial and wordy references and witty parallels to Hardy’s novel is great fun – as is comparing the characters in the novel and the graphic variation – characters which aren’t quite unequivocally likeable, just like the ones in Hardy’s novel.
This slightly soapy tale on the powerful and tragicomic spell a woman can cast on men offers delectable and outstanding entertainment.
March 1, 2018
fulfilling book riot's 2018 read harder challenge task #4: a comic written and drawn by the same person
(although i could also count it for #15: a one-sitting book or #18: a comic that isn’t published by marvel, dc, or image.)
extra points given to me, by me, for choosing a book that i have owned for more than a year.
review to come.
(although i could also count it for #15: a one-sitting book or #18: a comic that isn’t published by marvel, dc, or image.)
extra points given to me, by me, for choosing a book that i have owned for more than a year.
review to come.
February 6, 2022
He disfrutado mucho de la lectura de esta novela gráfica, que con su adaptación libre de Lejos del mundanal ruido de Thomas Hardy, nos translada al campo inglés en la actualidad. El encanto tranquilo del paisaje está perfectamente reflejado en el dibujo, pero la trama es ágil, con unos personajes que atrapan nuestra atención.
El formato no es el típico del cómic, ya que en algunos fragmentos predomina el texto, mientras que en otros hay sólo dibujos, pero la narración fluye sin parar, de modo que se funde la lectura con las ilustraciones. También es interesante cómo se van alternando las voces narrativas de los diversos personajes, cada página nos da un punto de vista y esto hace que tengamos una perspectiva muy completa de la situación.
Tamara, la protagonista, es una chica muy atractiva que vuelve a la granja familiar y con su presencia altera el entorno: tres hombres se enamoran de ella y los efectos colaterales se suceden. El encanto del campo inglés, el mundillo intelectual y literario del 'refugio de escritores' vecino de la granja, las vacas, los aburridos adolescentes del pequeño pueblo, la infidelidad... todos son elementos que hacen de esta obra una pequeña joya, con un dibujo lleno de sensibilidad.
Para una reseña más completa: http://amrazgz.blogspot.com/2021/06/2...
El formato no es el típico del cómic, ya que en algunos fragmentos predomina el texto, mientras que en otros hay sólo dibujos, pero la narración fluye sin parar, de modo que se funde la lectura con las ilustraciones. También es interesante cómo se van alternando las voces narrativas de los diversos personajes, cada página nos da un punto de vista y esto hace que tengamos una perspectiva muy completa de la situación.
Tamara, la protagonista, es una chica muy atractiva que vuelve a la granja familiar y con su presencia altera el entorno: tres hombres se enamoran de ella y los efectos colaterales se suceden. El encanto del campo inglés, el mundillo intelectual y literario del 'refugio de escritores' vecino de la granja, las vacas, los aburridos adolescentes del pequeño pueblo, la infidelidad... todos son elementos que hacen de esta obra una pequeña joya, con un dibujo lleno de sensibilidad.
Para una reseña más completa: http://amrazgz.blogspot.com/2021/06/2...
August 9, 2012
Where I got the book: my bookshelf.
I'm not sure how well known Posy Simmonds is over here in the US; I've been collecting her adult graphic work since the 1980s when she had a much-loved comic strip in The Guardian. Tamara Drewe is a full-length graphic novel that deals, as Simmonds' work very often does, with the English literary life and the coveted status symbols of the country weekend cottage and, in the case of Gemma Bovery , the "little place in France."
Here literature and country life overlap in the shape of a writer's retreat. I haven't yet been to one of these wonders (although I get regular email newsletters from one) but try to imagine a country haven with the service of a five-star hotel, filled with wannabe authors prepared to pay through the nose to have nothing to do but write and, if they wish, socialize. The retreat is run by frumpy but efficient Beth, whose husband Nick is a successful author prone to letting his lust wander and leaving every detail of his professional life to Beth so that he has space to write. Into the mix steps Tamara, once a rather plain girl from the village but now transformed by a nose job and the glamor of London life; Casey and Jody, two village girls who have nothing to do but hang around the bus shelter watching the weekenders' flashy cars roll by; and Glen, an American academic working on an overdue novel. The outcome is hilarious, tragic, and inevitable.
Simmonds has found a wonderful way of combining the elements of a graphic novel and regular text. If you don't like graphic novels, this one will reconcile you to the art; it is entirely grownup and sophisticated, often nastily poignant and horribly realistic. I could hear the rain striking the muddy paths and smell the cow pats and rank grass. Simmonds is quick to reveal the ordinariness, sometimes ugliness, behind our disguises; beautiful women are always made not born, country life is made up of quaint cottages with expensive alarm systems (because they're often uninhabited) while the real villagers live on squalid council estates and have to drive miles to the nearest town to shop and eat.
Death, for Simmonds, comes in mundane forms; characters may achieve moments of magnificence or grand tragedy but they're never allowed to hold on to them. Everything's a facade; even the countryside is just a pretty backdrop for the lives of its transient owners when they want to get away from their real lives in London. It helps to be English to read these novels, but I think they should be more widely known in the US. Brilliant.
I'm not sure how well known Posy Simmonds is over here in the US; I've been collecting her adult graphic work since the 1980s when she had a much-loved comic strip in The Guardian. Tamara Drewe is a full-length graphic novel that deals, as Simmonds' work very often does, with the English literary life and the coveted status symbols of the country weekend cottage and, in the case of Gemma Bovery , the "little place in France."
Here literature and country life overlap in the shape of a writer's retreat. I haven't yet been to one of these wonders (although I get regular email newsletters from one) but try to imagine a country haven with the service of a five-star hotel, filled with wannabe authors prepared to pay through the nose to have nothing to do but write and, if they wish, socialize. The retreat is run by frumpy but efficient Beth, whose husband Nick is a successful author prone to letting his lust wander and leaving every detail of his professional life to Beth so that he has space to write. Into the mix steps Tamara, once a rather plain girl from the village but now transformed by a nose job and the glamor of London life; Casey and Jody, two village girls who have nothing to do but hang around the bus shelter watching the weekenders' flashy cars roll by; and Glen, an American academic working on an overdue novel. The outcome is hilarious, tragic, and inevitable.
Simmonds has found a wonderful way of combining the elements of a graphic novel and regular text. If you don't like graphic novels, this one will reconcile you to the art; it is entirely grownup and sophisticated, often nastily poignant and horribly realistic. I could hear the rain striking the muddy paths and smell the cow pats and rank grass. Simmonds is quick to reveal the ordinariness, sometimes ugliness, behind our disguises; beautiful women are always made not born, country life is made up of quaint cottages with expensive alarm systems (because they're often uninhabited) while the real villagers live on squalid council estates and have to drive miles to the nearest town to shop and eat.
Death, for Simmonds, comes in mundane forms; characters may achieve moments of magnificence or grand tragedy but they're never allowed to hold on to them. Everything's a facade; even the countryside is just a pretty backdrop for the lives of its transient owners when they want to get away from their real lives in London. It helps to be English to read these novels, but I think they should be more widely known in the US. Brilliant.
May 2, 2021
Tamara Drewe es un cómic rabiosamente inglés en el que Posy Simmonds ahonda en uno de los temas más reconocibles de su obra: la red de secretos cotidianos de la gente más ordinaria y las consecuencias de estos en las vidas de las personas de su entorno.
Un rechoncho académico, la servil esposa de un reputado escritor de novela negra, un sexi jardinero, una explosiva columnista y un par de adolescentes cotillas son el elenco que se va pasando el micrófono para narrar una historia coral y mundana en la que la campiña y el carácter inglés sirven de telón de fondo para el desarrollo de unas relaciones algo mezquinas y basadas en el propio beneficio.
De Posy Simmonds me encanta la capacidad de hacernos entender que todas las personas que en nuestras vidas son simples figurantes son los protagonistas absolutos de sus propias historias y que, aunque creamos que nada tenemos que ver los unos con los otros, el hecho de compartir tiempo y espacio nos vincula tremendamente y, a menudo, de forma bastante sorprendente. También me gusta mucho como, en sus amplias composiciones. combina textos y dibujos en una proporción que da mucha más importancia a la palabra que la mayoría de autores de cómic que conozco. Y también lo expresivo de sus rostros, lo pretendidamente decorativo de sus acuarelas y su capacidad para narrar usando elementos inesperados: un email, una lista de la compra, un sms.
Un rechoncho académico, la servil esposa de un reputado escritor de novela negra, un sexi jardinero, una explosiva columnista y un par de adolescentes cotillas son el elenco que se va pasando el micrófono para narrar una historia coral y mundana en la que la campiña y el carácter inglés sirven de telón de fondo para el desarrollo de unas relaciones algo mezquinas y basadas en el propio beneficio.
De Posy Simmonds me encanta la capacidad de hacernos entender que todas las personas que en nuestras vidas son simples figurantes son los protagonistas absolutos de sus propias historias y que, aunque creamos que nada tenemos que ver los unos con los otros, el hecho de compartir tiempo y espacio nos vincula tremendamente y, a menudo, de forma bastante sorprendente. También me gusta mucho como, en sus amplias composiciones. combina textos y dibujos en una proporción que da mucha más importancia a la palabra que la mayoría de autores de cómic que conozco. Y también lo expresivo de sus rostros, lo pretendidamente decorativo de sus acuarelas y su capacidad para narrar usando elementos inesperados: un email, una lista de la compra, un sms.
May 7, 2021
This must be one of the first graphic novels I ever read. Hearing that it was an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, one of my favorite novels, was enough to attract me. During the years that I worked at King’s College London, I took full advantage of Lambeth Library’s extensive graphic novel collection and would pick up big piles of all sorts of books on my lunch breaks – I got a gentle ribbing from library staff nearly every time I showed up. Anyway, this is all backstory to me finding a severely underpriced secondhand copy (99p! the dear old ladies pricing things couldn’t have known what they had) in the Hay-on-Wye Oxfam shop in April 2017. It took me until earlier this year to reread it, though.
Simmonds recreates the central situation of FFTMC – an alluring young woman returns to her ancestral village and enraptures three very different men – but doesn’t stick slavishly to its plot. Her greatest innovation is in the narration. Set in and around a writers’ retreat, the novel is told in turns by Dr. Glen Larson, a (chubby, Bryson-esque) visiting American academic trying to get to grips with his novel; Beth Hardiman, who runs the retreat center and does all the admin for her philandering crime writer husband, Nicholas; and Casey Shaw, a lower-class teenager who, with her bold pal Jody, observes all the goings-on among the posh folk from the local bus shelter and later gets unexpectedly drawn in to their lives.
Tamara is a hotshot London journalist and, after a nose job, is irresistible to men. Andy Cobb, the Hardimans’ groundsman, runs a small organic food business and is a clear stand-in for Hardy’s Farmer Oak. He’s known Tamara nearly all their lives, and isn’t fussed about her new appearance and glitzy reputation. But she certainly turns Nicholas’s head, and also draws the attention of Ben, former drummer for a washed-up band. Tamara and Ben are a power couple in this sleepy village, and stir up jealousy. Ben is closest to Sergeant Troy, but he and Nicholas (who’s most like Boldwood) aren’t one-to-one equivalents. Casey and Jody fill the role of the servants and rustics, with chavs serving as the early 21st-century peasantry.
So Simmonds takes what she wants from Hardy, but adapts it as it suits her. There are a lot of words on the page compared to some graphic novels, so this would be a good halfway house for someone who’s new to comics for adults and still wants a good story to get the teeth into. At nearly 150 pages, there’s plenty of time for Simmonds to spin an involved, dramatic tale and give insight into her characters and their interactions. One ends up feeling, perhaps inevitably, more sympathy for the narrators than for the other characters, but all are well drawn. There’s a surprise ending, too. Back in 2010 I was probably more interested in getting a straight Hardy remake, so might have been disappointed when Simmonds strayed from the source material, but now I thoroughly enjoyed this for its own sake.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Simmonds recreates the central situation of FFTMC – an alluring young woman returns to her ancestral village and enraptures three very different men – but doesn’t stick slavishly to its plot. Her greatest innovation is in the narration. Set in and around a writers’ retreat, the novel is told in turns by Dr. Glen Larson, a (chubby, Bryson-esque) visiting American academic trying to get to grips with his novel; Beth Hardiman, who runs the retreat center and does all the admin for her philandering crime writer husband, Nicholas; and Casey Shaw, a lower-class teenager who, with her bold pal Jody, observes all the goings-on among the posh folk from the local bus shelter and later gets unexpectedly drawn in to their lives.
Tamara is a hotshot London journalist and, after a nose job, is irresistible to men. Andy Cobb, the Hardimans’ groundsman, runs a small organic food business and is a clear stand-in for Hardy’s Farmer Oak. He’s known Tamara nearly all their lives, and isn’t fussed about her new appearance and glitzy reputation. But she certainly turns Nicholas’s head, and also draws the attention of Ben, former drummer for a washed-up band. Tamara and Ben are a power couple in this sleepy village, and stir up jealousy. Ben is closest to Sergeant Troy, but he and Nicholas (who’s most like Boldwood) aren’t one-to-one equivalents. Casey and Jody fill the role of the servants and rustics, with chavs serving as the early 21st-century peasantry.
So Simmonds takes what she wants from Hardy, but adapts it as it suits her. There are a lot of words on the page compared to some graphic novels, so this would be a good halfway house for someone who’s new to comics for adults and still wants a good story to get the teeth into. At nearly 150 pages, there’s plenty of time for Simmonds to spin an involved, dramatic tale and give insight into her characters and their interactions. One ends up feeling, perhaps inevitably, more sympathy for the narrators than for the other characters, but all are well drawn. There’s a surprise ending, too. Back in 2010 I was probably more interested in getting a straight Hardy remake, so might have been disappointed when Simmonds strayed from the source material, but now I thoroughly enjoyed this for its own sake.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
April 8, 2012
I am on a graphic novel kick this weekend, but don’t worry, I have a week of Grossmith, Dostoevksy and Nicola Barker lined up, so normal service will be resumed. This one is known mostly in the UK and was serialised in The Guardian, then turned into a movie with the brilliant Roger Allam and Tamsin Greig. Being a parochial, very English piece gives it little international appeal but it is spiky and witty in a BBC Radio 4 sort of way. The movie irons out several crinkles in the original, such as the fate of the arrogant rock drummer, Jody’s death by huffing computer polish, and bringing about a happier ending for the bearded American. Very unHardylike, perhaps, but I love my underdogs to win. The plot concerns a writer’s retreat in the English countrywide, probably somewhere like Devon, and the various adulterous hijinks that take place after a local beauty returns with her crooked nose fixed to stir up trouble. Lots of fun. See the movie if you can.
August 31, 2021
È una rilettura, ma non me lo ricordavo così bello questo graphic novel pseudo letterario ambientato in England in una residenza per scrittori. SE vi piace il genere consiglio di non perderlo, io, intanto, me ne sono ordinata un altro suo che mi incuriosisce.
May 28, 2017
Posy Simmonds' graphic novel, originally serialised in the Guardian's Review supplement, follows the chain of events that unfolds when the eponymous Tamara Drewe - a former wallflower who, via plastic surgery and increased confidence, has transformed herself into a stunning and much-desired woman - returns to her parents' country home. There, her life fatefully intersects with a number of local residents, most significantly the inhabitants of a nearby literary retreat; its married owners, Nicholas and Beth Hardiman; and a pair of bored teenage girls, Jody and Casey.
I devoured this every week in its original comic-strip format, and loved it even more second time round - I literally couldn't put the book down until I'd finished reading. The plot unfolds in both words and pictures, with the author using a number of different narrative voices to tell the story from different angles. The combination of styles makes for fantastic storytelling; Simmonds captures body language and facial expressions perfectly in her illustrations, and her narration is never anything less than totally convincing (the way she skips between fiftysomething, middle-class Beth Hardiman and fifteen-year-old, working-class Casey, without ever losing a trace of authenticity, is particularly impressive). The fact that this is a graphic novel takes nothing away from the fact that it is also a brilliant, compelling, always believable story. I would recommend it to everyone; it's a book I know I will enjoy over and over again.
I devoured this every week in its original comic-strip format, and loved it even more second time round - I literally couldn't put the book down until I'd finished reading. The plot unfolds in both words and pictures, with the author using a number of different narrative voices to tell the story from different angles. The combination of styles makes for fantastic storytelling; Simmonds captures body language and facial expressions perfectly in her illustrations, and her narration is never anything less than totally convincing (the way she skips between fiftysomething, middle-class Beth Hardiman and fifteen-year-old, working-class Casey, without ever losing a trace of authenticity, is particularly impressive). The fact that this is a graphic novel takes nothing away from the fact that it is also a brilliant, compelling, always believable story. I would recommend it to everyone; it's a book I know I will enjoy over and over again.
October 24, 2023
This is a very clever adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd which has been updated for the modern age with competing sheep farmers, wastrel soldiers, and duplicitous land owners replaced by pretentious authors, washed up rock stars, and the sexy weekly newspaper columnist who riles them all up.
Quite a lot of fun this.
Quite a lot of fun this.
February 14, 2011
Strong examination of rural life suffers from the blurb description "that rare graphic novel for adults". I am unfamiliar with the literary precedents of Thomas Hardy so I cannot examine the novel on that level, nor can I see how it could adequately be translated to a film (admittedly Gemma Arterton is the perfect fit for the title role).
A mixture of first person narrative, newspaper articles and comic sections, Tamara Drewe encapsulates a year in the lives of three narrators, their relationships to each other and the countryside. Tamara Drewe is not one of the characters given her own internal voice - she is only conveyed through dialogue and the perceptions of others. Consequently, some key relationships are only ever experienced second hand, a sort of voyeurism even when the page is open to only two characters and the reader.
Tamara Drewe is wispy and slight but at the end it feels like you've consumed something of great worth. It has the capacity to surprise by its simple unorthodoxy, and it allows the reader to delight in several situations. Unfortunately Posy Simmonds is not quite up to the task of implying action on a key page, but otherwise everything ties together nicely - except for the horrible font used for Casey's passages.
It's a quick read by design, the sort of thing that would suit a rainy winter's day perfectly - but any day will suffice.
PS. Posy Simmonds doesn't understand what the BCC function on an email is and how it works. This distresses me.
A mixture of first person narrative, newspaper articles and comic sections, Tamara Drewe encapsulates a year in the lives of three narrators, their relationships to each other and the countryside. Tamara Drewe is not one of the characters given her own internal voice - she is only conveyed through dialogue and the perceptions of others. Consequently, some key relationships are only ever experienced second hand, a sort of voyeurism even when the page is open to only two characters and the reader.
Tamara Drewe is wispy and slight but at the end it feels like you've consumed something of great worth. It has the capacity to surprise by its simple unorthodoxy, and it allows the reader to delight in several situations. Unfortunately Posy Simmonds is not quite up to the task of implying action on a key page, but otherwise everything ties together nicely - except for the horrible font used for Casey's passages.
It's a quick read by design, the sort of thing that would suit a rainy winter's day perfectly - but any day will suffice.
PS. Posy Simmonds doesn't understand what the BCC function on an email is and how it works. This distresses me.
September 15, 2014
Really liked this second book based loosely on a Great Novel. Gemma Bovary was terrific, based on Madame Bovary, obviously, and this is more loosely based on Tomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, updating it with a feminist twist, satirizing academics and the artist/writers crowd. Simmonds is, I take it, less known here in the states than abroad, but she should be better known here. She is a deft artist and smart and funny and a good observer of the contemporary scene. Tom Wolfe writes a rave blurb for it; that's an indication of the territory she's in. Funny and smart book. She's a good storyteller, too, weaving her own story through the work she honors, Hardy's, in the process, echoing some of the themes there and creating some of here own.
October 23, 2020
Highly unusual! Simmonds has taken Far From the Madding Crowd and turned into an illustrated novel (graphic novel? multimedia novel?) about a writer's retreat in the English countryside, and the nearby village, which are all thrown into uproar at the arrival of prodigal daughter Tamara Drewe, along with her new nose, new boyfriend, and new career as a writer. Excellent artwork combines with a story that takes several unexpected turns to make this a truly immersive read.
April 21, 2019
I haven’t read Far From the Madding Crowd, and didn’t know going in that this book is sort of about that book, or around it, or whatever, so maybe someday I will and then I’ll reread this and love it even more, but I don’t need to, because man, what a book.
I love the unusual layout and I love the swimming back and forth between narrators and I love Beth so much with her devotion and pragmatism and grief and bravery.
Really a great read.
I love the unusual layout and I love the swimming back and forth between narrators and I love Beth so much with her devotion and pragmatism and grief and bravery.
Really a great read.
April 23, 2010
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
As the graphic novel gets older and older as an artistic format, it of course continues to become more and more diverse and interesting as well, and with there being with each passing year more and more types of full-length image-based narrative tales out there for all of us to enjoy; take for example British writer/illustrator Posy Simmonds, who has been creating a whole series of long-form serial tales for the UK Guardian newspaper since the early 1980s, tales that like the late Victorian Age tend to gently poke fun of the suburban middle-class, told not in a traditional comic-book style but rather as an intriguing blend of images and text, often alternating paragraph by paragraph from comics to the written word all the way down a page. It's the exact kind of thing for those interested in the graphic-novel format, but who don't have a penchant for the the types of subjects that usually make up the medium (superheroes, post-apocalyptic worlds, etc etc), and it's no surprise that she's one of the best known graphic artists on the planet right now among her fellow middle-aged urban intellectuals.
Her latest project for the Guardian, in fact, is a rather direct interpretation of an actual late-Victorian book, Far From the Madding Crowd by our old pal Thomas Hardy; her contemporary version is entitled Tamara Drewe, originally published serially in 2005 and '06, then with a British hardback version in '07 and paperback in '08, then finally with the American version in '09, which is why you're just now starting to see it reviewed in the US. And indeed, Simmonds starts out right on the first page with a highly smart and fascinating adaptation decision: she decides to keep the small-town sheep-farm setting of Hardy's original, but instead of the characters being actual feuding sheep farmers like in his book, in Drewe they are all upper-middle-class Londoners who have moved into refurbished sheep farms in order to "get away from it all," kind of like in America the rash of New Yorkers who all now live in WiFi-equipped rustic barns upstate.
This was incredibly wise of Simmonds to do, because it allows her to retain all the humorous and pointless village infighting that makes Hardy's book so adored, even while updating the circumstances to make things both more believable and relatable to her middle-class London readers; for example, in her version the story sort of spiritually revolves around a writers' retreat called Stonefield, made out of one of these rehabbed sheep farms just mentioned, which gives Simmonds the opportunity to introduce all kinds of funny, snotty intellectual types into this rural environment. Like the original, the plot itself revolves around the machinations of a young, self-destructive ingenue (the Tamara Drewe of the book's title), who in this case is a hipster columnist for a Guardian-type liberal London newspaper, who splits her time between her city flat and her aunt's old rural cottage; over the course of the 150-page manuscript, then, she ends up in complicated relationships with a former famous rock guitarist now down on his luck, the Scott-Turow-type wealthy (and married) crime novelist who actually owns Stonefield, the hunky and noble local farmhand who actually tends to all these sheep that are still around for the picturesque pleasure of the city refugees, and more.
Simmonds uses this beguiling antihero and her various entanglements to then spin the tale of the entire town around it -- the bored teens who are the catalyst behind most of the story's drama, the various writers who are in and out of the retreat, the put-upon wife of the crime novelist who is the one actually holding the retreat together, etc. By the end it adds up to a highly complex, highly entertaining look at one small British community, the kind of project you can only get away with by being given two years to let the story organically grow, and I have to say that it's almost like magic that Simmonds ends up with such a thoroughly Victorian-feeling novel by the end of it all, despite you hardly ever thinking of Victorianism when actually reading any particular page. It was a true delight, and comes recommended not just to existing comics fans, but also as that fabled "One Graphic Novel You Should Read This Year, If You're The Type Who Only Reads One Graphic Novel A Year."
Out of 10: 9.3
As the graphic novel gets older and older as an artistic format, it of course continues to become more and more diverse and interesting as well, and with there being with each passing year more and more types of full-length image-based narrative tales out there for all of us to enjoy; take for example British writer/illustrator Posy Simmonds, who has been creating a whole series of long-form serial tales for the UK Guardian newspaper since the early 1980s, tales that like the late Victorian Age tend to gently poke fun of the suburban middle-class, told not in a traditional comic-book style but rather as an intriguing blend of images and text, often alternating paragraph by paragraph from comics to the written word all the way down a page. It's the exact kind of thing for those interested in the graphic-novel format, but who don't have a penchant for the the types of subjects that usually make up the medium (superheroes, post-apocalyptic worlds, etc etc), and it's no surprise that she's one of the best known graphic artists on the planet right now among her fellow middle-aged urban intellectuals.
Her latest project for the Guardian, in fact, is a rather direct interpretation of an actual late-Victorian book, Far From the Madding Crowd by our old pal Thomas Hardy; her contemporary version is entitled Tamara Drewe, originally published serially in 2005 and '06, then with a British hardback version in '07 and paperback in '08, then finally with the American version in '09, which is why you're just now starting to see it reviewed in the US. And indeed, Simmonds starts out right on the first page with a highly smart and fascinating adaptation decision: she decides to keep the small-town sheep-farm setting of Hardy's original, but instead of the characters being actual feuding sheep farmers like in his book, in Drewe they are all upper-middle-class Londoners who have moved into refurbished sheep farms in order to "get away from it all," kind of like in America the rash of New Yorkers who all now live in WiFi-equipped rustic barns upstate.
This was incredibly wise of Simmonds to do, because it allows her to retain all the humorous and pointless village infighting that makes Hardy's book so adored, even while updating the circumstances to make things both more believable and relatable to her middle-class London readers; for example, in her version the story sort of spiritually revolves around a writers' retreat called Stonefield, made out of one of these rehabbed sheep farms just mentioned, which gives Simmonds the opportunity to introduce all kinds of funny, snotty intellectual types into this rural environment. Like the original, the plot itself revolves around the machinations of a young, self-destructive ingenue (the Tamara Drewe of the book's title), who in this case is a hipster columnist for a Guardian-type liberal London newspaper, who splits her time between her city flat and her aunt's old rural cottage; over the course of the 150-page manuscript, then, she ends up in complicated relationships with a former famous rock guitarist now down on his luck, the Scott-Turow-type wealthy (and married) crime novelist who actually owns Stonefield, the hunky and noble local farmhand who actually tends to all these sheep that are still around for the picturesque pleasure of the city refugees, and more.
Simmonds uses this beguiling antihero and her various entanglements to then spin the tale of the entire town around it -- the bored teens who are the catalyst behind most of the story's drama, the various writers who are in and out of the retreat, the put-upon wife of the crime novelist who is the one actually holding the retreat together, etc. By the end it adds up to a highly complex, highly entertaining look at one small British community, the kind of project you can only get away with by being given two years to let the story organically grow, and I have to say that it's almost like magic that Simmonds ends up with such a thoroughly Victorian-feeling novel by the end of it all, despite you hardly ever thinking of Victorianism when actually reading any particular page. It was a true delight, and comes recommended not just to existing comics fans, but also as that fabled "One Graphic Novel You Should Read This Year, If You're The Type Who Only Reads One Graphic Novel A Year."
Out of 10: 9.3
July 1, 2020
I'm one of those people who likes to read the book before I see the movie, but I did it differently this time. I didn't even know there was a book. I saw the movie, of the same name, on DVD and found out about the book by watching some of the bonus features. The book is a graphic novel, and was available at my library, so I thought "why not?" It only took me a couple of evenings to read it, even though I had to wait until after my kids were in bed to do so.
Tamara Drewe is a woman who moves back to her childhood home from London, after her mother passes away. She grew up there, and was apparently known mostly for her big nose. Now she has returned, has had a nose job, and writes a newspaper column, mostly about herself. In the tiny English village, there is a well known novelist, who with his wife (well more the wife than him actually) runs a bed and breakfast/retreat for visiting writers. There is also a hunky gardener who fancies Tamara, a bunch of local teens who spend most of their time getting into trouble, and lots of cows. Don't forget the cows.
The movie followed the book fairly closely, with a few exceptions. There is a second death in the book that they change into a happy ending for the movie, and there is a budding relationship at the end of the movie that wasn't in the book. I liked some of the changes, and didn't like others. In both versions I had a hard time trying to figure out the affair Tamara had with a married man. It just didn't make sense to me. There wasn't any motivation that I could understand. In fact, I really didn't understand a lot about Tamara. For being the main character she remained pretty mysterious.
I liked this book, and thought it was fun that it was a graphic novel. The trouble was my kids noticed the comics and wanted to read it too. The story and drawing are really really not for children. I'll have to keep it hidden until I can get back to the library. The story is apparently based on "Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy, which I've been meaning to read for some time but haven't yet. Maybe now I will be inspired.
Tamara Drewe is a woman who moves back to her childhood home from London, after her mother passes away. She grew up there, and was apparently known mostly for her big nose. Now she has returned, has had a nose job, and writes a newspaper column, mostly about herself. In the tiny English village, there is a well known novelist, who with his wife (well more the wife than him actually) runs a bed and breakfast/retreat for visiting writers. There is also a hunky gardener who fancies Tamara, a bunch of local teens who spend most of their time getting into trouble, and lots of cows. Don't forget the cows.
The movie followed the book fairly closely, with a few exceptions. There is a second death in the book that they change into a happy ending for the movie, and there is a budding relationship at the end of the movie that wasn't in the book. I liked some of the changes, and didn't like others. In both versions I had a hard time trying to figure out the affair Tamara had with a married man. It just didn't make sense to me. There wasn't any motivation that I could understand. In fact, I really didn't understand a lot about Tamara. For being the main character she remained pretty mysterious.
I liked this book, and thought it was fun that it was a graphic novel. The trouble was my kids noticed the comics and wanted to read it too. The story and drawing are really really not for children. I'll have to keep it hidden until I can get back to the library. The story is apparently based on "Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy, which I've been meaning to read for some time but haven't yet. Maybe now I will be inspired.
February 12, 2009
I've never read Far From the Madding Crowd, which this comic is loosely based on, so I'll have to respond on the merits of it on its own. The characters are well-drawn and the plot well-crafted. I will say, even though Tamara Drewe seems like she's supposed to be the main character (hence the title), in many ways she is the least developed. This lack of development seems intentional to enhance the tension, but since so much of the plot centers on her, her shallowness can be distracting. Like a lot of attractive leading female characters, there's a hollowness behind the face, and less central characters are left to do the work of infusing most of the personality and humanity into the story.
SPOILER ALERT BELOW
In terms of the ending, Nicholas' death is a little too convenient, if unexpected. I mean, trampled by cows? For real? And Jody's death seems unnecessary and tacked on, although I guess it is the catalyst that ties all the characters together at the end. And of course, as the book CONSTANTLY FORESHADOWS, Tamara randomly ends up with the guy she probably should have been with all along with very little ceremony or attempt at explanation for why she didn't at least give him a shot at the beginning. Meh. The interesting characteristic of Posy Simmonds' writing is how clear the scaffolding underneath it is. You are very conscious of how the prose runs and the sequential logic of the plot even when you might not know how it will all turn out. I can't decide if this is a good quality or a bad one.
Overall though, it was a compelling read with a lot of nice details. Recommended.
SPOILER ALERT BELOW
In terms of the ending, Nicholas' death is a little too convenient, if unexpected. I mean, trampled by cows? For real? And Jody's death seems unnecessary and tacked on, although I guess it is the catalyst that ties all the characters together at the end. And of course, as the book CONSTANTLY FORESHADOWS, Tamara randomly ends up with the guy she probably should have been with all along with very little ceremony or attempt at explanation for why she didn't at least give him a shot at the beginning. Meh. The interesting characteristic of Posy Simmonds' writing is how clear the scaffolding underneath it is. You are very conscious of how the prose runs and the sequential logic of the plot even when you might not know how it will all turn out. I can't decide if this is a good quality or a bad one.
Overall though, it was a compelling read with a lot of nice details. Recommended.
November 1, 2012
This book was about how men make women objects, and how women feel pressurised by men and other women to conform to their expectations. This was made abundantly clear to me by the daughter of the main character, who appeared every now and again, and, in the guise of explaining to her mother her PhD, explicitly stated the themes of the book.
I think this book would have been stronger if we had some grasp on the main character. She appears quite late in the work--as do the novels two other more interesting characters, the local girls. We have no sense of her motivation a lot of the time, particularly her reason for dating the ex-band member. She appears to kiss him because she wants the details of the band's spilt, yet the goes on to set up house with him. We never have a sense of her wants or needs. I think this adds to her objectification, rather than her resistance to it, undermining the (explicitly stated) themes of the novel.
The use of blocks of texts and images made both seem redundant at times. Surely the point of graphic novel is that the pictures can carry much of the story? The drawing style too was sometimes a little off, particularly the characters facial expressions. Tamara frequently looked worried and/or perplexed without cause from the surrounding scene. This added to her blankness as a character.
And the ending? Terrible.
I think this book would have been stronger if we had some grasp on the main character. She appears quite late in the work--as do the novels two other more interesting characters, the local girls. We have no sense of her motivation a lot of the time, particularly her reason for dating the ex-band member. She appears to kiss him because she wants the details of the band's spilt, yet the goes on to set up house with him. We never have a sense of her wants or needs. I think this adds to her objectification, rather than her resistance to it, undermining the (explicitly stated) themes of the novel.
The use of blocks of texts and images made both seem redundant at times. Surely the point of graphic novel is that the pictures can carry much of the story? The drawing style too was sometimes a little off, particularly the characters facial expressions. Tamara frequently looked worried and/or perplexed without cause from the surrounding scene. This added to her blankness as a character.
And the ending? Terrible.
January 30, 2021
Il aurait mieux valu que je le lise en anglais, car là, la traduction était trop franchouillarde à mon goût. Mais aussi, il n'y avait pas tant de choses pour moi dans cet univers: je m'en fous un peu des intellectuels/écrivains qui trompent leur femme ou qui vivent des crises existentielles en essayant d'écrire leur roman, des ados qui trippent sur des vedettes, pis des relations toxiques que tout le monde entretient avec tout le monde. Je sais pas. Je suis sévère, peut-être.
August 19, 2016
Een stripverhaal zoals we het niet gewend zijn. Als het ware een tragikomedie uit de grote engelse film- en literaire traditie. Een portie humor, veel tragiek en Ingewikkelde liefdesverhoudingen en heel sfeervol: je moet het maar doen in een strip. Heel mooie tekenstijl die ook typisch engels is: de met aquarel ingkleurde pentekeningen maken dit tot een prachtig boek.
January 28, 2024
Tamara Drewe returns to her home village after her mother's death. Plastic surgery has increased her confidence, and her striking looks capture the attention of the locals. Nearby, a woman runs a writer's retreat, as well as managing her writer-husband's career. Tamara rapidly becomes drawn into their world, with tragic results. Posy Simmonds' drawings are as compelling as ever: quirky, deft, full of life and atmosphere, this book is a joy to look at. But the story itself isn't as successful as Simmonds' other graphic novels. There are many characters here, and they are all either pitiful or horrible: there is little nuance, and as the complex threads of the story rely on the different characters to hold it together, it can be confusing, or seem to be all on one note. That being said, even a mediocre Simmonds comic is still entertaining and enjoyable to read.
April 9, 2012
Loved it. Could not put it down. It is cosy and charming and almost painful to read due to how incredibly well observed and realised it is. It is as if Posy Simmonds has managed to go to a typical English village, distil and bottle the essence and feel of life there, add in her own dashes of drama and intrigue and the product is this graphic novel. From the angry locals who hate outsiders for turning their once functional farmland into 'extortionate real estate', to the bored teenagers who constantly spy on the adults hoping something might happen in between snogging behind barns and smoking in the bus stop, I feel I know all of these characters. Everyone knows everyone and, equally, everyone else's business and it is fascinating to watch as characters flirt and...more in some cases! You really live on top of each other in villages like this one; they may seem lazy and idyllic from the outside, but on the inside they are filled with people who are bored, lonely and nosey.
I found the Hartiman's relationship really interesting. I mean, I hate Nick Hartiman. He is a dick. His long-suffering wife Beth types up pages and pages of his novel each night, is his personal skivvy in every way, cooks for him, does all the domestic chores, runs their guesthouse business, is his assistant and secretary, and yet he can never be honest with her. She, on the other hand, is a fool. She thinks that by waiting on him hand and foot and acting like the perfect wife, mother and secretary whilst hiding her bubbling jealousy, annoyance and rage at his ingratitude under the surface that he will love her. He won't. He is selfish and keeps treating her badly because she has no self respect. If she did she would kick him out after they cause a scene in front of the writers at the retreat, which was completely humiliating. She thinks he is too good for her and so tries to make up for it by presenting herself as the perfect wife. I know people in real life who think they can keep up this facade, but the rage and jealousy always win in the end, as they do in this story.
I liked Tamara Drewe's character; she is very flawed which I always admire in a main character. She is completely in love with herself and knows she can make people do things for her by showing her body and flirting a little. In other words, she is manipulative and uses Andy, the man who loves her from afar, for the attention she craves, as well as more practical considerations like the gardening. When she embarks on her relationship with a married man, she appears naive and vulnerable and it is obvious that she is just a little lost and easily influenced by power and persuasion. Her column, which is presented throughout the novel, is outrageously honest and funny in its own oblivious way.
I loved the two girls who are bored in the village and long for excitement; Casey and Jody. Casey is overshadowed by her glamourous friend and feels invisible and insignificant while Jody is just scared of being boring. The way that they gossip about celebrities in the same way they do about their neighbours is hilarious. It made me think that parents are kinda cruel for making kids grown up in these tiny villages that are miles from anywhere and have absolutely nothing to do except walk in muddy fields and sit in a bus stop. No wonder that by the end of the novel they have caused havoc.
There is a lot of humour in this novel too. The satire on writers is really funny. Beth Hartiman runs a 'writer's retreat' where writers come to get the peace and tranquility they need to write their novels and whatnot. Nick Hartiman dubs them UFF's (Unpublished Fifties Females) which I found amusing because that is what I imagine the clientele would be made up of for a place like that! They all hang onto his every word and giggle at his jokes because they are both in awe of his success and also hoping he can help them get published...funny but also quite sad in a way.
Overall, I adored this graphic novel and am glad I can add it to my ever growing pile of beautiful books. It is printed on thick, high quality paper and is lovely to feel and look at. The story is intriguing and you really want to know what will happen to the characters.
I found the Hartiman's relationship really interesting. I mean, I hate Nick Hartiman. He is a dick. His long-suffering wife Beth types up pages and pages of his novel each night, is his personal skivvy in every way, cooks for him, does all the domestic chores, runs their guesthouse business, is his assistant and secretary, and yet he can never be honest with her. She, on the other hand, is a fool. She thinks that by waiting on him hand and foot and acting like the perfect wife, mother and secretary whilst hiding her bubbling jealousy, annoyance and rage at his ingratitude under the surface that he will love her. He won't. He is selfish and keeps treating her badly because she has no self respect. If she did she would kick him out after they cause a scene in front of the writers at the retreat, which was completely humiliating. She thinks he is too good for her and so tries to make up for it by presenting herself as the perfect wife. I know people in real life who think they can keep up this facade, but the rage and jealousy always win in the end, as they do in this story.
I liked Tamara Drewe's character; she is very flawed which I always admire in a main character. She is completely in love with herself and knows she can make people do things for her by showing her body and flirting a little. In other words, she is manipulative and uses Andy, the man who loves her from afar, for the attention she craves, as well as more practical considerations like the gardening. When she embarks on her relationship with a married man, she appears naive and vulnerable and it is obvious that she is just a little lost and easily influenced by power and persuasion. Her column, which is presented throughout the novel, is outrageously honest and funny in its own oblivious way.
I loved the two girls who are bored in the village and long for excitement; Casey and Jody. Casey is overshadowed by her glamourous friend and feels invisible and insignificant while Jody is just scared of being boring. The way that they gossip about celebrities in the same way they do about their neighbours is hilarious. It made me think that parents are kinda cruel for making kids grown up in these tiny villages that are miles from anywhere and have absolutely nothing to do except walk in muddy fields and sit in a bus stop. No wonder that by the end of the novel they have caused havoc.
There is a lot of humour in this novel too. The satire on writers is really funny. Beth Hartiman runs a 'writer's retreat' where writers come to get the peace and tranquility they need to write their novels and whatnot. Nick Hartiman dubs them UFF's (Unpublished Fifties Females) which I found amusing because that is what I imagine the clientele would be made up of for a place like that! They all hang onto his every word and giggle at his jokes because they are both in awe of his success and also hoping he can help them get published...funny but also quite sad in a way.
Overall, I adored this graphic novel and am glad I can add it to my ever growing pile of beautiful books. It is printed on thick, high quality paper and is lovely to feel and look at. The story is intriguing and you really want to know what will happen to the characters.
October 13, 2008
For a Thomas Hardy novel, “Far From the Madding Crowd” is a lighthearted romp: though it’s full of darkness and death, at least the two main characters, shepherd Gabriel Oak and independent beauty Bathsheba Everdene, remain alive and wed at the denouement. Posy Simmonds’ bang-up graphic novel “Tamara Drewe,” a riff on “Madding,” is far funnier and less bleak than its inspiration, but she doesn’t shy away from modern takes on Hardy’s themes of jealousy, unintended consequences, and the ennui of rural life.
“Tamara Drewe” is set at Stonefield, a writers’ retreat in the English countryside, run by philandering mystery novelist Nicholas Hardiman and (mostly) his patient wife Beth. The eponymous heroine has returned to the neighborhood after her mother’s death, and is making a splash: Tamara’s had a nose job, and it’s changed her attitude, her wardrobe, her whole outlook. She’s simultaneously bemused and excited by the new attention she gets from men, which she documents in a wry column for a London newspaper. Local landscaper Andy Cobb, who’s always loved her, doesn’t suit her new lot, and she takes up with indie rocker Ben Sergeant, much to the delight of the neighborhood gossips—and the teenage torment of local girl Jody Long, who’s sure her musical idol would overlook the age difference if he’d just give her a chance...
That’s the set-up, told masterfully in a combination of text, news clippings, and loose-jointed pen-and-ink drawings. Like Hardy’s original, it’s a prankish missive that serves as catalyst for the unraveling of the characters’ relative happiness, when Jody and her friend Casey break into Tamara’s house in her absence and send a fateful email from her laptop: Ben, Nicholas, and Andy all get the sentence, “I want to give you the biggest shagging of your life.” Reactions—and tragedy—ensue.
Like Simmonds’ previous reimagined classic, “Gemma Bovery,” art and text tell the story from different points of view; while the drawings are more or less omniscient, the narrative of “Tamara Drewe” is told mostly by peripheral characters: Beth, Casey, struggling American novelist Glen Larson, a frequent guest at Stonefield. This allows her to play with dramatic irony, who knows what when, and pulls us into the plot as curious eavesdropper. Smart, funny, honest, and mature, “Tamara Drewe” is a superlative book.
“Tamara Drewe” is set at Stonefield, a writers’ retreat in the English countryside, run by philandering mystery novelist Nicholas Hardiman and (mostly) his patient wife Beth. The eponymous heroine has returned to the neighborhood after her mother’s death, and is making a splash: Tamara’s had a nose job, and it’s changed her attitude, her wardrobe, her whole outlook. She’s simultaneously bemused and excited by the new attention she gets from men, which she documents in a wry column for a London newspaper. Local landscaper Andy Cobb, who’s always loved her, doesn’t suit her new lot, and she takes up with indie rocker Ben Sergeant, much to the delight of the neighborhood gossips—and the teenage torment of local girl Jody Long, who’s sure her musical idol would overlook the age difference if he’d just give her a chance...
That’s the set-up, told masterfully in a combination of text, news clippings, and loose-jointed pen-and-ink drawings. Like Hardy’s original, it’s a prankish missive that serves as catalyst for the unraveling of the characters’ relative happiness, when Jody and her friend Casey break into Tamara’s house in her absence and send a fateful email from her laptop: Ben, Nicholas, and Andy all get the sentence, “I want to give you the biggest shagging of your life.” Reactions—and tragedy—ensue.
Like Simmonds’ previous reimagined classic, “Gemma Bovery,” art and text tell the story from different points of view; while the drawings are more or less omniscient, the narrative of “Tamara Drewe” is told mostly by peripheral characters: Beth, Casey, struggling American novelist Glen Larson, a frequent guest at Stonefield. This allows her to play with dramatic irony, who knows what when, and pulls us into the plot as curious eavesdropper. Smart, funny, honest, and mature, “Tamara Drewe” is a superlative book.
May 12, 2009
A groundbreaking marriage of novel and comic book. Really a lot going on here, more than in most graphic novels. Seamless segues from text to comic book panels and back again, and it all works in this meeting of murder mystery and comedy of modern manners. Posey places her story in a rural English retreat for writers, which allows for a fascinating intermingling of glitterai from the literary and pop worlds with regular folks as well as teenage working class chuffers. All the levels you'd expect in a good novel, but you can read it so much faster and really see the characters. If you don't want to buy or borrow the book, the serialized version from the Guardian is available online. Highly recommended.
June 15, 2009
I'd almost give this 5 stars. Picked it up in the library on a whim, knowing nothing about Simmonds, and was very impressed. It's not laid out like a traditional paneled comic, and there's rather a lot of text, but the narration by different characters (serif v sans-serif, which is clever) really adds something and her delicate art is lovely. Those two things would be enough, but she's thrown in a smart and twisty story of affairs and death and nosiness. There are some choices I'm not sure are right, and those are the ones that knock it back to a mere strong 4 stars, but it's a beautiful book and worth your time.
June 5, 2008
combined with reading this piece in New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/relationships/sex/47...), I fell into a long running contemplation of (in)fidelity, self-esteem, trust, and marriage in general.
If you are really attached to your huffing habit you might want to avoid reading this graphic novel- not graphic in that way but still. I read and enjoyed Simmonds' Gemma Bovary about a year ago or more. I enjoyed this one more although the discovery of Simmonds' work then was more of a joy as it was all new to me.
If you are really attached to your huffing habit you might want to avoid reading this graphic novel- not graphic in that way but still. I read and enjoyed Simmonds' Gemma Bovary about a year ago or more. I enjoyed this one more although the discovery of Simmonds' work then was more of a joy as it was all new to me.
July 10, 2017
This was an amazing read. Funny, entertaining, tragic, cynical. You smell the country and you hear the British accent - with cows in the background. In the beginning, I felt a bit skeptical towards the non-classical form of the book, half-written and half-drawn, but this allowed for more details, more feelings, and also an additional kind of humour to be inserted in the story. And the story itself is great! (made me think of Louise Rennison's "Georgia Nicholson", for older readers).
October 9, 2017
74th book read in 2017.
Number 632 out of 638 on my all time book list.
One of the most boring books I have ever opened.
Number 632 out of 638 on my all time book list.
One of the most boring books I have ever opened.
April 15, 2010
Posy Simmonds, Tamara Drewe (Mariner, 2008)
If Henry James had lived long enough to get himself into the graphic novel movement, and embrace the more explicit nature of today's plotlines, I can easily see him having written something along the lines of Tamara Drewe, Posy Simmonds' easy, slightly seedy comedy of manners set in the British countryside.
Loosely based on Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Tamara Drewe is the story of a rural town in Britain divided into upstairs (a posh writers' commune run by Nicholas and Beth Hardiman) and downstairs (the locals). Enter Tamara Drewe, a former local who moved to London, landed a big job writing for the society pages, got herself a nose job and a former-rock-star boyfriend, and is now back for the ostensible reason of getting away from it all. Two local girls, one of whom is obsessed with Ben (the former rock star), start stalking Tamara, while every male connected to the writers' retreat, including Nicholas, instantly falls for Tamara. Hilarity ensues, though as usual in things like this, that hilarity has a sour taste in the mouth, and inevitably leads to tragedy.
Warning: how you're going to feel about one big event in this book is going to have a lot to do with your feeling on the deus ex machina thing. (You'll know it when you get to it.) I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, and I finished the book a couple of weeks ago; I'm more ambivalent about it than I was about the end of, say, Ann Patchett's Bel Canto (which I loathed), even though I understand both big twists exist because of the literature on which they're modeled; deus ex machina was a lot more fashionable in Victorian England than it is today, and for some reason part of me wants to forgive Simmonds based on that (even though I have refused to forgive Patchett for, what, nine years?, for the same thing). Still, it does annoy, and it's one of the only weak spots in an otherwise sharp, funny book. (The other is Glen, one of the book's narrators, who's very ineffectual for a character with such a large part; I figure this is another analogy to Victorian structure, but this one seems less forgivable to me.)
One way or the other, though, this is another of those books that's well-suited for giving to your friend who doesn't understand why you read “comic books”, though it's not quite on the level of something like Burns' Black Hole or Smith's Bone. Bottom line, it's a lot of fun, it's intelligent, and it'll make you think a bit. *** ½
If Henry James had lived long enough to get himself into the graphic novel movement, and embrace the more explicit nature of today's plotlines, I can easily see him having written something along the lines of Tamara Drewe, Posy Simmonds' easy, slightly seedy comedy of manners set in the British countryside.
Loosely based on Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Tamara Drewe is the story of a rural town in Britain divided into upstairs (a posh writers' commune run by Nicholas and Beth Hardiman) and downstairs (the locals). Enter Tamara Drewe, a former local who moved to London, landed a big job writing for the society pages, got herself a nose job and a former-rock-star boyfriend, and is now back for the ostensible reason of getting away from it all. Two local girls, one of whom is obsessed with Ben (the former rock star), start stalking Tamara, while every male connected to the writers' retreat, including Nicholas, instantly falls for Tamara. Hilarity ensues, though as usual in things like this, that hilarity has a sour taste in the mouth, and inevitably leads to tragedy.
Warning: how you're going to feel about one big event in this book is going to have a lot to do with your feeling on the deus ex machina thing. (You'll know it when you get to it.) I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, and I finished the book a couple of weeks ago; I'm more ambivalent about it than I was about the end of, say, Ann Patchett's Bel Canto (which I loathed), even though I understand both big twists exist because of the literature on which they're modeled; deus ex machina was a lot more fashionable in Victorian England than it is today, and for some reason part of me wants to forgive Simmonds based on that (even though I have refused to forgive Patchett for, what, nine years?, for the same thing). Still, it does annoy, and it's one of the only weak spots in an otherwise sharp, funny book. (The other is Glen, one of the book's narrators, who's very ineffectual for a character with such a large part; I figure this is another analogy to Victorian structure, but this one seems less forgivable to me.)
One way or the other, though, this is another of those books that's well-suited for giving to your friend who doesn't understand why you read “comic books”, though it's not quite on the level of something like Burns' Black Hole or Smith's Bone. Bottom line, it's a lot of fun, it's intelligent, and it'll make you think a bit. *** ½
August 22, 2021
Posy Simmonds a travaillé en tant que dessinatrice de presse avant de se tourner vers la littérature jeunesse, puis vers la bande dessinée. Depuis Gemma Bovery et jusqu’à Cassandra Darke en passant par son oeuvre qui reste certainement la plus connue Tamara Drewe – certainement grâce à son adaptation au cinéma –, elle développe une approche originale de la bande dessinée résolument tournée vers la littérature. Ce penchant se manifeste à deux niveaux différents. Tout d’abord en s’inspirant très librement d’oeuvres d’écrivains comme Flaubert, Dickens ou ici Thomas Hardy, puis en proposant ce que j’appellerais des hybrides entre le roman et la bande dessinée où l’on trouve de vrais paragraphes qui ne sont pas de simples récitatifs puisqu’ils se substituent complètement au récit en images. Pour en revenir à ce livre, il est aussi question de littérature dans l’histoire puisque le lieu de l’intrigue est une résidence d’écrivains. L’arrivée d’une jeune fille, la fameuse Tamara Drewe, au sein de cet environnement très policé va créer une onde de choc qui aboutira à un classique vaudeville. Ce n’est pas une inconnue, elle résidait dans ce village, mais l’avait quitté pour la grande ville d’où elle est revenue disons transformée.
Ce livre est d’une qualité irréprochable sur tous les plans et notamment sur le plan graphique où les dessins d’inspiration classique réalisée par Posy Simmonds font merveille. Un bon moyen pour les connaisseurs de BD de faire une incursion dans l’univers du roman anglais et aux amateurs de roman de lire une belle BD – le genre de passerelle que j’affectionne tout particulièrement.
Également publié sur mon blog.
Ce livre est d’une qualité irréprochable sur tous les plans et notamment sur le plan graphique où les dessins d’inspiration classique réalisée par Posy Simmonds font merveille. Un bon moyen pour les connaisseurs de BD de faire une incursion dans l’univers du roman anglais et aux amateurs de roman de lire une belle BD – le genre de passerelle que j’affectionne tout particulièrement.
Également publié sur mon blog.
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