I’m no comic book junkie, and after reading my first graphic
novel Watchmen, I was convinced that finding one as enjoyable as that could not
be done. I then neglected my latent affinity for illustrated novels. Recently I
started picking up works such as Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and the manga
series Bakuman. However, Building Stories by Chris Ware has had the most potent
effect on me as a reader. It is possibly literature’s most uniquely blasé story.
First, the book isn’t a book with numbered pages and a cover-flap with the
author’s bio in the back. It’s actually a large, heavy box. A box which, when
opened, reveals scrambled pieces of packets, newspaper sized foldouts,
accordion style comic strips and large foldable boards. Not like any book I’ve
ever seen! But what’s so blasé about it is the story, which has typical low-life
average joe antagonists leading average joe lives. There aren’t any plot twists,
and no magical realism. I’ll go into some more detail about the plot later, but
if I talked about it in detail, it actually might bore you more than Ethan
Frome.
The title literally means Building Stories. There’s no order
to the parts, and from what I understood when I researched it before I began,
is that it is the reader’s responsibility to craft the story in whichever way
she chooses, depending on the order in which she reads each part of the box. I
choose a very random order, and yes, it was confusing at times. But I
persevered, and by the end you could really see how each part worked in tandem
with the others to create a storyline that went on for decades, even entire
lifetimes. There were entire parts, entire stories that referred to a minute
detail or single panel illustrated in another piece. There were whole sections
depicting years that were void of dialogue, and the story unfolded instead by character’s
mute actions and the changing of the seasons in the background. Conversely, there
were sections where words and musings would overflow the white space, crisp
dialogue and cursive narration cramming into my head as I read. I would
recommend, once finishing, going back and reading some of the first pieces you
read because there will probably be a ton that you have missed or didn’t understand
at first. Many parts don’t make sense until you have read the whole story in
its entirety.
The story is about several women who live in the same
apartment building. Their life experiences, introspective thoughts and external
relationships are uncannily similar, despite some tenants being from different
generations. The themes of the story, mainly, at least from what I understood,
being insecurity and love, are amazingly relatable. As all the main characters
are women, they are insecure about their weight and appearance, dependent and
naively in love with their boyfriends, committed to their children and
neglectful of their dreams. They are the embodiment of women who give up. Women
who aren’t proud of who they are. They are the women who all women promise
themselves that they will never be. They desperately want to be loved,
desperately want to make emotional connections with those around them. Every
time they reach out to the world, the world hurts them. Each time that happens,
they shrink more and more into seclusion and depression. I believe, Chris Ware
is trying to send us a message. We need to learn from these fictional women rather
than let them become our reality. These women aren’t innately pitiable, that
they have so much capability and yet they passively watch as their aspirations
fade away. They give up on everything and everyone. And perhaps most
importantly, they don’t realize that the best things in life are right in front
of them. We need to learn to not shroud the priceless pieces of our lives with negativity.
We need to actively seek them and be thankful, rather than constantly show
ingratitude to our surroundings. In other words, it’s time for us to stop watching
and hoping that life, love and dreams will come to us. It’s time to build stories
of our own.
Rating: 5
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