Exquisite Corpse

by Pénélope Bagieu
Published by First Second in 2015
Published by Gallimard in 2010
Cadavre Exquis was translated by
Alexis Siegel
Genres: Graphic novel, Cultural, Romance, France
Pages: 124
Goodreads

This winter, my public library has been organizing a winter reading challenge: they choose a book for you to read. The one I got last month led to an interesting journey into unfamiliar territory So I decided to renew the experience. I was thrilled they had managed to pick up Exquisite Corpse, a graphic novel translated from the French, and unknown to me. This time, however…

 I did like the art work, especially cool scenes of Paris apartment buildings, such as the example here.

It was also neat that it had to do with an author.

Zoe is not a happy camper. She’s not in a great relationship, to say the least, and her job is totally uninteresting, even for someone like her who has never entered a bookstore. Really??!!
One day, she meets this super famous author. Well, of course she had never heard about him. But she likes him, though she finds him weird, and she can’t understand why he never wants to leave his apartment. Then one day, she meets his editor…

I won’t say more, and I think the official synopsis reveals way too much.

It’s supposed to be funny — yes, there were a few funny references, for instance to Romain Gary. But I have a hard time laughing about people living in difficult social situations. Or with huge egos, like the author depicted here.

I admit I didn’t even understand the title, the literal translation of the French title, referring to the very funny game of the same name. What’s the connection though between the game and the book, can someone tell me?

I didn’t like too much Zoe’s character, the way she was handling or not-handling her life.

Most of all, I was super disappointed by the end. It was really unexpected, which is usually a very good thing, but here I thought it fell totally flat.

I hope your first book of 2018 was much more thrilling.

VERDICT: Disappointing graphic-novel about a quirky triangle.