Asterios Polyp

By David Mazzucchelli,

Book cover of Asterios Polyp

Book description

The triumphant return of one of comics’ greatest talents, with an engrossing story of one man’s search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait.

Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Asterios Polyp as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I didn't get into graphic novels until I was an adult. This one’s about a pompous armchair architect whose career was once promising, but not anymore due to his impractical theories.

Asterios nevertheless has this highfalutin view of himself–and is in a contentious relationship with a younger woman who idolizes him at first until she realizes that he’s washed up. It's such a situationship. But the breakups, non-breakups, and everything between leads to a very tender moment at the end. Yeah, pick this one up.

If the other books on my list are about disillusionment, Asterios Polyp provides a good counterpoint as its message runs in the opposite direction. Sometimes people are better than you think. Asterios is an obnoxious architect whose worldview starts with the assumption that everyone else is wrong. After a series of crises (thrown out by wife, apartment fire) he has to flee the city and rent a room in the home of a rightwing redneck married to a hippie, just the sort of people he would never associate with by choice. He learns humility and goes about fixing his life.…

From Moro's list on ideological adventure.

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