Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A young man wanders a war-torn tundra accompanied only by a stuffed bear. As he wanders, he encounters various animals and humans who all prove inferior to the lifeless bear as a real companion-imaginary friends are the best ones in a world where everyone competes for meager resources. Nilsen has crafted a haunting fable of humanity and loneliness, confronting tropes about journeys and destinations. "I know this whole venture is not about having a goal," he tells the bear at one point. "But doesn't the whole idea of a journey become kind of meaningless if there's not a sense of some destination?" Each encounter is more troubling than the last: a bus shows up but a passenger shoots at the narrator. A pack of reindeer try to steal the bear. In return, the narrator blinds one of the majestic stags with a rock. A human who shows up in the bleak terrain tries to steal the narrator's pack. The narrator is finally accepted by a pack of wild dogs that lives off the remains of both the humans and animals already encountered. Nilsen's open, simple yet graceful art captures the eerie, empty sense of loss that permeates this unsettling, memorable story. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-Nilsen's narrative lens focuses narrowly on a lone traveler wandering in a desolate landscape. In a series of simple black-line drawings that dissolve into the whiteness of the page, an unnamed man clad in a hoodie stumbles through a desertlike environment with a stuffed bear strapped to his backpack. The bear is both a source of companionship and the target of frustrated outrage. Wild dogs pursue the traveler; after fending off their attack, he joins the pack, sleeping among them and walking alongside them as they march toward the empty horizon. The journey is punctuated by dreams of a vast ocean, illustrated in muted and ashen blue tones. The sparse narrative leaves many questions unanswered, offering no explanations for how or why any of this has come to pass. Events are depicted with an eerie sense of detachment, underscoring the bleak circumstances in which the young man is trapped. Nilsen conveys a sense of isolation, loneliness, and alienation within a loose framework that leaves itself open to myriad interpretations. Teens interested in independent comics or independent film will be attracted to it.-Heidi Dolamore, San Mateo County Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
