Notes on a Thesis

Jeanne, a literature-loving Parisian, ditches the drudgery of teaching high school to pursue a Ph.D. on Kafka in this delightfully expressive graphic novel (originally serialized as a webcomic) laced with dark, self-deprecating humor. The studious heroine enthusiastically dives into The Trial, certain she’ll finish her thesis in an ambitious three years, but winds up in a Kafkalike quagmire herself, battling brain-numbing bureaucracy and self-doubting dead-ends. Rivière’s languid linework transforms Jeanne’s daily grind into spot-on visual metaphors: the undergrad literature students she’s saddled with teaching initially seem to be a class of fearsome tigers, but turn out to be simply mewling kittens, and at times Jeanne sees herself as a slobbery cocker spaniel desperate for a treat (or merely guidance) from her long-suffering advisor. As Jeanne spirals (her writing goes nowhere, the college stiffs her on a paycheck, her family thinks she’s wasting her life), she must muster the confidence to find a new direction. What could be a rambling plunge into misery instead unfolds as a truthful, witty tale, relatable whether readers are Ph.D., ABD, or neither. [em](May) [/em]