Word: gemma
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Some people feel as if they are living in a novel, but rarely does a novel feel as if it is living in a novel. Yet, such is the case with Posy Simmonds' "Gemma Bovery" (Pantheon, 106 pages, $20), a graphic novel that freely adapts Flaubert's classic "Madam Bovary" by updating the tragic narrative and making its near-namesake heroine quite aware of the parallels between her own "life" and that of "Madame Bovary." The resulting satire offers a fresh approach both to modern mores and to graphic literature...
First serialized during the late '90s in the UK newspaper The Guardian, "Gemma Bovery" looks nothing like the mirthless "funnies" Americans have gotten used to in their daily papers. One can scarcely imagine the generosity of space and wit that would be needed to accommodate Simmonds' striking compositions, much less her racy and literate subject. As clever with her brush as she is with her typewriter, Posy Simmonds seamlessly matches swatches of strongly written text with expert spot illustrations and uproarious traditional panel sequences. "Gemma" makes for a rich reading experience, as well as a rewarding...
...Simmonds opens with the line, "Gemma Bovery has been in the ground three weeks." This somewhat surprising beginning - we knew she was going to die, after all, but as soon as that? - immediately establishes the author's playful post-modernism. "Gemma" completely avoids the pitfalls of being too close to the original text or too blithely ironic or too coyly obtuse. Instead it uses the original novel as a key plot point. The narrator of "Gemma Bovery," a French intellectual-turned-baker in a small Normandy village, becomes convinced that Gemma, an English expatriate, has been cursed to follow...
...evidence, however, is against her. For one thing, Gemma is as dull, pretentious and hopelessly middle class as her literary doppelganger, though, as a modern woman, she makes a living as an illustrator living in London. Rebounding off of a failed relationship with someone even more narcissistic than herself, she marries an older divorcee named Charlie Bovery. (Strike two!) As the routine of married life begins gnawing at her, she fantasizes about a quaint life in rural France. (Uh oh.) After hounding her husband to move she soon becomes bored and claustrophobic. So she takes a lover, a young...
...Wisely, Simmonds makes sure that knowledge of the original material isn't a prerequisite for enjoying "Gemma." Though it takes a bit of getting used to the mixture of text and comix, it rewards patience with its involving story that offers plenty of unexpected twists. One of the book's particular pleasures is its caustic examination of the English and French culture clash. The wealthy Anglais who buy property in Normandy but never bother to interact with the natives, short of buying bread and cheese, are held up to scorn, as are the snobby nouveau riche native French who hold...