Page 45 Review by Stephen
Possibly the most poignant collection of short stories in the comics medium, and one of the most accessible, relatable, timeless and truthful.
So accessible and so skilful is this relatively early work by Tomine, drawn with an already accomplished, tender, black and white portraiture, that I rate it right up there with Glyn Dillon’s THE NAO OF BROWN.
What’s remarkable is Tomine’s capacity to connect with those who can’t, and then to splice us too into that connection. The behaviour is astutely observed in surprisingly precise detail, and communicated with such understanding that we too might try.
In ‘Lunch Break’ a frail, thin lady who lives alone switches off the news to make herself a sandwich. She packs it into a paper bag with a can of pop, leaves her house and takes the picnic... to her curb-side car. It’s an American classic: she’s had it for a long time. She gets in the front and sits eating the sandwich, alone.
Three further pages follow and if I’m not already in floods of by the second, then I am by the fifth.
A young woman alone in a cafe reads an “I Saw You...” which matches her description perfectly. “Wish I’d said hi,” it continues. “Second chance? Same place, same time, next week.” Although she tells herself that she’s reading too much into what must be a coincidence, she nonetheless keeps the potential appointment, even making the effort to dress up a little and put on some makeup. She knows she mustn’t get her hopes up; but she does.
A young man misses his plane and, while waiting for another, he returns home without feeling able to knock on his own front door, his girlfriend’s or his best friend’s for fear of having to explain himself. Instead, he watches them from afar.
In two separate stories relationships, only recently severed, are revisited. Will they be rekindled too?
Two sisters are taken on a road trip by their Dad, who’s perhaps trying a little too hard to be cool, but at least he’s trying to connect, whereas his two daughters simply cannot or will not – either with him or each other. One of them is aware of this, and cares; one of them might be, but doesn’t.
These, and more, are the sorts of quandaries being faced by individuals all around you, right now. Take a moment, look around, and wonder.
Returning to ‘Lunch Break’, I find 13 of the 15 panels on those first two pages profoundly moving; and as a sequence they are cumulatively devastating. Tomine has framed each shot to emphasise the body, precise minor body movements, the body language and thereby the soul of the woman inside: the fragility yet dignity; the self-knowledge and self-guidance; the stoicism and determination. She is self-contained, now, and has reconciled herself to that.
Remember I told you that there are three further pages.
