Teo Degas' Books & Decks

Lena Finkle's is the semi-autobiographic novel of writer and graphic artist Anya Ulinich.A priori, the story of a divorced mother of two, late 30s, coming back into the dating world sounds too mundane or uncool to be the subject of a graphic novel. However, Ulinich's alter ego Lena Finkle is not your usual woman. It is Ulinich's multifaceted personality and self, her honesty about who she is, and the way she narrates the story what makes the book the interesting entertaining story it is.

The book is engaging and entertaining. This is a book for adults as there are nudity, sex scenes and adult themes in it. The story is far from linear because Lena's adventures in dating, which are pathetic-kinda-funny and very entertaining for the reader, are accompanied by flashbacks of her past childhood and teens ages in Russia and her first years as immigrant in America, conversations with her mother, best friends and lovers.

Ulinich is both a graphic artist and a writer, so this novel is as much visual as it is readable, with much more words than more graphic novels. I found fascinating the way she incorporates long two-people conversations into an image (even with her alternative thoughts while talking!), with a sort of puzzle-ish composite of bubbles that adjust cosily to each other.

Regarding the illustration system, Ulinich alternates very realistic virtuoso drawing with childish caricature-ish drawing when she speaks of her childhood and teens in Russia. I love the graphic depiction of her anxiety after the final episode with The Orphan, which is just brilliant.

Ulinich is very honest about who she is, how she feels, and how she approaches reality, relationships, love, sex, immigration, gender roles, and Jewish and national identity. She is also honest about her image. She does not beautify herself in the book. She draws herself a bit fatty and ugly at times, with dark circles under her eyes! Ulinich even shares her own bullxt. The little "mini-Lena", a sort of evil on her shoulder, appears when Lena is fooling herself or fooling others, ignoring things she should not, or just to remind herself to follow common sense.

I confess that I expected a closure at the end of the book. However, life is not always a novel or has a happy ending, or has an ending, as living is a process. We don't know what happens to Lena, but we somewhat intuit that she is ready for something good because we see her change and evolve into a more mature woman throughout the book.

I would love a follow up graphic novel!