So. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a pretty cool idea for a book, and even a pretty cool book. It’s a sort of graphic novel, but it’s not a graphic novel. It’s not an illustrated book, either. It’s about half pictures and half text. The pictures don’t have text, or captions, or dialogue boxes; they are sort of still photos from a movie of the story, while the text is the novel of the story. But you can’t pick one; the plot is brought forward through both. And the story is lovely, and the pictures are lovely, so that’s all good.
I had two complaints. The first is that although the pictures are lovely, they aren’t terribly detailed. Having turned a page of text to find a double-page spread, I wanted to read that picture. Instead, I found myself just registering what was going on (he’s running, he’s scared, there’s someone behind him) and flipping the page. This is my preference for how I wanted to read, and of course Brian Selznick (who both wrote and illustrated it) made the book he wanted, not the one I wanted, which is fine. But I found that frustrating and disappointing.
My other complaint is that the book is incredibly heavy. It’s printed on higher-quality paper than most books of its size. I don’t know if it’s full picture-book paper, but it feels about halfway between, in terms of slickness and thickness. As a result, the books is very thick and very heavy, and difficult to read. And because it’s half-pictures, and the pictures go by very fast, and there isn’t much text on a page, it takes about as long to read as a 250-page YA novel, which is to say, not very long at all. And yet it’s as big and heavy as a Harry Potter book.
In fact, I weighed them:
Hugo: 534 pp., 2 lbs, 13 oz (no dust jacket)
Harry (VII): 759 pp., 2 lbs, 12 oz (including dust jacket)
I’m not saying it’s a book with thump, I’m saying it’s a heavy book.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
So thinking about the book, which I read just before using the forklift to hand it to you:
I think the illustrations are supposed to be filmic. They are supposed to evoke the heavy border of the film reel and the idea is supposed to be that you flip through the action in a way that complements the discussion of movies that is happening in the book.
That said, the design of the book would work as well on lighter paper with condensed text to lighten the whole poundage, IMHO.
Thanks for the review! I saw this in a bookstore a while back and thought it looked cool, but was uncertain about the likely quality of the story (and didn’t love the art), so I figured I’d wait for reviews. And here’s a review, without my even having to go look for it!
“Harry (VII)” made me think of Shakespeare. Was that intentional? If I were more awake and/or had more time, I’d be tempted to try to do a quick Order of the Phoenix parody in Hank Cinq style.
As for weight, how does it compare with Dhalgren? “Oh, can you imagine a crueler blow / Than dropping your copy and breaking your toe?“