Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
An autobiographical graphic memoir tracing a young woman's experiences across Europe.
Work Information
Fragments of travel and memory shape one woman's passage into adulthood.
A candid graphic memoir of escape and self-discovery rendered with vivid visual force.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Fantagraphics Books
- Published
- 2013-06-15
- Pages
- 462 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 17.78 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781606995570
- ISBN-10
- 160699557X
- Price
- 7162 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Comics & Graphic Novels/Graphic Novels
Back in 1984, a rebellious,17-year-old, punked-out Ulli Lust set out for a wild hitchhiking trip across Italy, from Naples through Verona and Rome and ending up in Sicily. Twenty-five years later, this talented Austrian cartoonist has looked back at that tumultuous summer and delivered a long, dense, sensitive,and minutely observed autobiographical masterpiece. Miraculously combining a perfect memory for both emotional and physical detail with the sometimes painful lucidity two and half decades’ distance have brought to her understanding of the events, Lust meticulously shows the who, where, when, and how (specifically, how an often penniless young girl can survive for months on the road) of a sometimes dangerous and sometimes exhilarating journey. Particularly haunting is her portrait of her fellow traveler, the gangly, promiscuous devil-may-care Edi who veers from being her spunky, funny best friend in the world to an out-of-control lunatic with no consideration for anything but her own whims and desires. Universally considered one of the very finest examples of the new breed of graphic novels coming from Europe, Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life won the 2011 Angoulême “Revelation” prize, and Fantagraphics is proud to bring it to English speaking readers.
Ulli Lust was born in 1967 in Vienna, Austria. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Kim Thompson (1956-2013) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the co-publisher of Fantagraphics Books and a champion of alternative and global comics. He lived in Seattle, WA, with his wife, Lynn, and their dog.
Reviews
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Pretty much a perfect book
Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical Persepolis sort of became an international publishing event, and that means that there have been lots a slightly similar autobiographical graphic novels published both in the US and in Europe... so many that it's almost become a dominant modern comics genre. Many of them have not quite been as good as Persepolis. Some have been stunning artistic achievements - for example brilliant books like Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and Epileptic , but they've also been perhaps a little bit dry compared with the compulsively readable (and often very funny) "Persepolis". This book feels like the real thing - it's the the book people can search out if they enjoyed "Persepolis". It's got a charismatic rebellous 'punky' female main character not too far removed from Marjane in "Persepolis". It's set in the 80s, and it's got an international outlook. In some ways I think it may even be a better book than "Persepolis". "Persepolis" had flawed minimal art in the early chapters and a few self-indulgent scenes that were mostly fixed in the brilliant movie version. Ulli Lust's book, on the other hand, just feels perfect. The writing and the vivid recollections are astonishing. And the art is loose and almost sketchy, but I wouldn't change a line. It just feels so right and perfect. It's a great book for mature readers, and probably also for some older teenagers, although conservative US parents would probably have nightmares about their little 'kids' reading the decadent European truths about life found in this book. Things get dark, this is a young girl trying to survive on her own in an often hostile country. (Considering the title of this book, "Today Is The Last Day of The Rest Of Your Life", it was a little bit unsettling that I later found out I started reading it the day before its influental translator and publisher Kim Thompson died of cancer. This must have been one of the last books he worked on. He was one of the most brilliant people working behind the scenes in the comics world. R.I.P. Kim ... I never knew him, but he sure influenced my reading-habits)
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Wonderful account of a turbulent life
This book is presented as an autobiographical account of a troubled life plagued by unusual choices. An alternative lifestyle to say the least, with some adventure, danger, and plain misery at times.
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I can't express how much I love this book - I read it one sitting until ...
I was stalking Amazon waiting for the reprint of this as used copies started going for $50 and higher (I checked it out from the library originally). I can't express how much I love this book - I read it one sitting until 2 AM. There are few things I love more than well-written stories of women going on ill-advised misadventures.
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Five Stars
Love it!! The story, the characters, the capacity of the author to picture a time, ... Just terrific!
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No es un must have
Ni la narrativa ni el dibujo me parecen gran cosa. Todo el mundo lo recomienda y a mí no ha conseguido atraparme.