Not claiming to provide any answers, this story will compel readers to consider both sides of the gun control issue.
Cowen’s debut graphic novel explores gun control and gun violence–related issues.
Set in Austin, Texas, the story follows Adam and Maggie Brooks, newlywed “progressives” who are trying to start a family; Adam is a high school counselor and Maggie works as a video producer at National Public Radio. When the couple gets robbed at gunpoint outside of a market (where they just purchased a pregnancy test), their relationship is put to the test: Maggie—afraid for her and Adam’s lives after the robbers identify their names and home address after stealing his wallet and her purse—purchases a gun without telling her husband. Having a gun in their home ignites intense debates about safety statistics regarding gun ownership, the Second Amendment, and license to carry regulations, among other issues. Complicating matters are Adam’s three overbearing sisters; the news of a mass shooting at the Texas capitol building in which 47 people are killed; and a deeply troubled teen named Dave, a highly medicated high school senior who has aspirations of being a filmmaker. As Dave’s home life deteriorates, his mental health spirals out of control and the prevalence of violence in his everyday life (Quentin Tarantino is a role model) threatens to push him to do something unimaginable. As a conflicted Maggie has second thoughts about buying the gun, her husband surprisingly finds solace in gun culture and embraces his aggressive machismo by becoming “Rambo Adam.”
The raw emotional intensity of the couple’s struggle to reconcile their differences regarding gun ownership and save their crumbling marriage is complemented by an array of profound quotes from historic figures including Martin Luther King, Jr. (“Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it”), Abraham Lincoln (“He permits war for some wise purpose of His own, mysterious and unknown to us”), and Susan B. Anthony (“Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation”). A sequence toward the novel’s end, in which Maggie creates a piece for NPR sharing her story with the world, features some powerful Jungian-inspired wisdom: “If we learn to deal with our own shadows. We have done something real for others. We have succeeded in shouldering a small part of the unsolved problems of our day.” The brilliantly understated approach to the look and tone of the graphic novel can’t be overlooked. The seemingly simplistic drawings by Gabriel Wexler create a stark contrast to the complex subject matter; Wexler manages to convey an impressive range of emotions experienced by the characters through an uncluttered and minimalistic perspective. A dream sequence in which Molly’s dead, gun-toting father (who traces his lineage back to the lawman Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the OK Corral) shoots and kills one of the couple’s robbers while a helpless Adam watches paralyzed with fear, for example, is emotionally stunning.
Not claiming to provide any answers, this story will compel readers to consider both sides of the gun control issue.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
