Journal

A diary about an author’s attempts to overcome a major breakup can be a peculiar thing. It sometimes puts the reader in the delicate position of having to decide whether the work is anything more than an exercise in self-indulgence. But Delporte manages to talk about such issues in a manner that connects as visual narrative. The book follows Delporte’s diary from February 2011 to October 2012, after she and her partner go their separate ways. It also deals with the challenges Delporte faces in acclimating to Vermont when she moves there to undertake a fellowship at the Center for Cartoon Studies. What makes this so effective is not only the beautiful artwork that traces her recovery from the loss of her partner, but also Delporte’s honesty about the successes and failures of her efforts to cope. Indeed, she underscores these successes and failures through an emotive canvas that shares, with great subtlety, images of the mundane, the figurative, and the symbolic. At its very best moments, Journal becomes indistinguishable from poetry—and there are, as the reader will discover, many such moments. (May)