Daniel AlarcónCity of Clowns

I heart all things Daniel Alarcon -- his journalism, his fiction, his Radio Ambulante for NPR. I was purchasing one of his novels when I noticed this graphic novel as well. It was beautifully done and transcends any geopolitical ideas of poverty in South America by humanizing it through the main character's hope and desire. It's a short work, but it also looks at identity-- what it means in a landscape so impoverished that survival trumps everything else.

Full disclosure: I’m a 70+ year old woman who has recently learned to love graphics novels. City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcon did not disappoint. It can probably best be described as a South American Noir offering. It explores the life and mores of the street people of Lima, Peru, by exploring the boulevards where they live.The novel opens with young journalist, Chino, learning of the death of his scoundrel father Don Hugo. Don Hugo had moved his young family from a mining town in the mountains and settled them in the hustling, bustling city of Lima. Here he promptly abandoned them and takes a mistress, started a new family and continued his life of crime. The shocking revelation to Chino is that upon the rogue’s death, his mother moved in with the common-law wife and his half-brothers. What furthers startles him is that this blended family seems very happy with this arrangement.His newspaper assignment during this slice of chronology was for Chino to write a tabloid piece about the street clowns that roamed the city thoroughfares in their kitschy and lurid makeup. Chino assumes the role of a clown and is taken aback that he is suddenly invisible to those who know him. Author Alarcon writes of the city of Lima from the perspective of the negative influence – the used nail salesmen, the corruption of the politicos, the prostitutes and of course the clowns. All of this is woven around the main theme that is the death of the worthless patriarch.Illustrator Sheila Alvarado also presents her art in a negative perspective – the drawings are in black and white and in some cases the main focus is exhibited by an empty space filling the black line background. The stark black and white of the artwork along with the frustration you feel from the protagonist come together in a slice of life that is both depressing and wildly captivating.

Love the concept of a Graphically illustrated novel. I especially like the art work in this book.

I picked this up having previously read a few of Alarcon's novels and as someone who enjoys a wide range of graphic storytelling. As he relates in the afterword, the book has quite the past: based on time he spent in Peru, then written in an Iowa farmhouse, then published three years later in The New Yorker magazine, then almost ten years later, translated into Spanish for this collaboration with the Peruvian artists Alvarado, and then a few years later revised into this English-language edition. Phew!The book revolves around a 20something newspaper writer in Lima whose estranged father dies at the beginning. The story then moves back and forth between present-day and memory, as he struggles to process his anger at his father and the new realization that he had another family with three other sons. Even more confusingly, he mother has moved in with the woman he abandoned them for. Meanwhile. the journalist wanders the streets of Lima, as Fukimori's regime starts to crumble, and hangs out with poor street clowns for a feature he's supposed to be writing.Like the rest of Alarcon's fiction that I've read, it's kind of interesting, and there are some scenes and moments that are powerful, but the overall story never really landed for me. However I suspect it works much better in this graphic format, than the purely textual story does. There are a lot of different illustration styles and techniques deployed, and you can tell that each two-page spread has been labored over. There's not the kind of regular grid or rhythm that most graphic novels have -- it's almost more like a series of paintings or triptychs. At times it can be somewhat distracting and disjointed, but it's a more interesting approach. All in all, the book is probably more of a curiosity than anything, but could be especially interesting to readers who haven't sampled graphic storytelling.

Highly entertaining. Unique mixture of narrative and art-work.

amazing

Oscar “Chino” Uribe is a young Peruvian journalist and after the death of his philandering father, he must confront the idea of his father’s other family. While deals with his grief Chico’s latest assignment is to chronicle the life of the street clowns who populate the vibrant and violent city streets of Lima and while doing so he becomes drawn into their haunting yet fantastical world.City of Clowns was originally a short story by Alarcón and the he and Alvarado collaborated to turn it into a short graphic novel with striking black and white illustrations. How the illustrations and the text is set out on the pages, with it not being afraid to leave a lot of negative space, really puts across how Chico is feeling. There's black pages and isolated figures when it comes to Chico, but with the clowns it's often a mixture of lively figures with melancholy faces.After his father dies he and his mother are suddenly introduced to his father’s mistress Carmela and their sons, Chico’s half-brothers. His mother takes everything in her stride and the relationship she appears to form with Carmela is incomprehensible to Chico, further isolating him as he refuses to acknowledge his emotions.City of Clowns is a interesting look at grief, emotions and identity. As Chico learns more about the clowns, he admires the way they are hiding behind a mask, that people pay them little attention and they can be whoever they want to be when they perform.City of Clowns is a quick read but a memorable one. The writing is simple yet eloquent while the illustrations convey so much emotion.