Misery of Love

Colonial history haunts this stunning, spectral-looking graphic novel, a spiritual sequel to the author s Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures.In Misery of Love, a spiritual sequel to the acclaimed Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures, Yvan Alagbé continues his unflinching interrogation of race and family in modern France.The book focuses on the dream-like memories of a woman named Clare, who is reluctantly spending time with her relatives for a funeral. Alagbé seamlessly glides between narratives of the family s past and present, all haunted by the legacy of France s colonial subjugation of Africa.Alagbé works in stormy grayscale washes, using comics, as he puts it, as a sacred dimension which celebrates, questions and perpetuates life.... I believe that life is not damnation but grace. Told through time shifts that echo Richard McGuire s Here, Misery of Love is another ambitious, devastating masterpiece from one of France s best contemporary graphic novelists.