While the overall narrative attempts to disguise itself as a mystery novel, “Solitaria” is primarily an origin story jumping between the first half of the twentieth century and fifty years later in the early twenty-first century.  When the decades old corpse of one Vito Santoro is discovered in Italy by a construction crew, a family spread across the World is brought to the Republic in an attempt to understand how and why he died.  The bulk of the story is then told through a series of reminiscences by Vito’s sister Piera, a secluded woman who refuses to speak with anyone but her Canadian nephew David.

“Solitaria’s” story is told from two perspectives, that of Piera’s, a self-pitying woman voluntarily secluded in her bedroom away from her family members.  And David, Piera’s now adult nephew from Vancouver, Canada.

Piera’s side of the story is shared through the recounting of her own life (to David), from the birth of her brother Vito (which was before Piera was actually born) to her marriage, and the hardships both her and her family faced as hardworking but poor farmers.  Upon hearing of the discovery of her brother’s body, Piera confines herself to her bedroom, refusing to speak to anyone but David.

Piera is the novel’s most prominent character as it is made apparent from the beginning that she knows more about her brother’s death that she is letting on.  With Piera, Gunn has crafted a layered storyteller whose own self-pity leaves both David and the reader in a state of uncertainty with regards to her honesty.  It is not uncommon for Piera to end her stories with the words, “Everything I did, I did for love,” and yet there are times when it seems she loves no one but herself.

The real mystery of Gunn’s novel is not how Vito Santoro died, but instead who exactly was he?  We are never given direct access to his life, instead being told of his various exploits and deviations through Piera’s own story.  With Vito, Gunn has created a fascinating character portrait.  A romanticized vision of a James Dean -like “Rebel Without A Cause,” coming and going as he pleases, always smoking cigarettes even though his family can barely afford to feed themselves.  He is the novel’s strongest character, and yet due to the nature of the way his story unfolds, we are never given enough to understand his motives.

Piera’s nephew, David, is the the middle man of the story, he is the only one Piera is willing to share her intimate past with.  On the other end of the spectrum, however, David is being told by the rest of his family how delusional she is and how her stories are constantly skewed in favour of making her out to be the victim.  It is through David, then, that the reader is forced to decide just who is telling the truth.

Gunn’s greatest accomplishment with “Solitaria” is her rejection of any specific form of linear story-telling.  Instead she takes a modernist approach by embracing story-telling through multiple perspectives, with an omniscient narrator acting as the connective tissue linking the past with the present.

Genni Gunn’s previous work in short fiction (she has published two collections), poetry (she has also published two collections of poetry), translating from Italian (Gunn was born in Italy), and opera libretto, are all apparent in “Solitaria.”  Her prose have a flow to them that allows the narrative to change time periods and perspectives with the fluidity of a film edit.  Gunn is a visual story-teller and “Solitaria’s” narrative effectively evokes images art, childhood, love, and nature on every page.

Gunn clearly has a passionate love for her home country as “Solitaria” primarily takes place in the countryside of  Italy’s Adriatic coast.  Through both Piera’s recounting of her own life and David’s contemporary experiences, the reader is given a fascinating looking at how Italy’s landscape and culture have evolved through the twentieth century.

“Solitaria” is as clear and concise a novel as one may find, it runs only 256 pages.  There are no wasted scenes or prolonged dialogues between characters. Gunn refuses to spend time on the excessive detailing of the minutia of a moment.  Instead, she chooses to focus on the key emotional reactions brought on by each character. Gunn will enter a moment at it’s emotional peak, effectively chopping off the beginning and end.  Where some writers may not be able to successfully execute this technique, instead delivering choppy scenes and dialogue, Gunn puts her experience with the structure of short fiction and poetry to excellent use.

Genni Gunn’s “Solitaria” is by no means a perfect novel.  In it’s opening pages the reader is set up to believe the mystery of Vito’s death would be a prominent factor in the overall narrative of the story.  While his death is undoubtedly the catalyst, Gunn makes little mention of the investigation surrounding his death, and the mystery for better or worse is relegated to being an underlying push when the story needs one.

“Solitaria’s” shorter length also has detrimental effects as the novel could have benefited considerably from greater character development with regards to the supporting cast.  Throughout the novel we are given glimpses of Piera’s siblings, small anecdotes revealing their unique character traits, and yet Gunn never gives us enough to truly consider them individuals separate from Piera and Vito.

In addition, the character of David is somewhat underwhelming as the reader’s mediating source between the past and present.  His list of distinguishable features can be listed on one hand and because of this, he lacks a distinct voice.  If Gunn didn’t make the character of David a generally decent guy (morally that is) the reader would have very little reason to care about what he has to say.

While the bulk of my issues with Solitaria are directly related to the novel’s short page count, I do acknowledge that a longer duration could also have affected it’s excellent pacing and structure.  Solitaria at no point left me bored, but also rarely evoked a strong emotional response, instead leaving me pleasantly entertained with every page.

While this might be writer Eric Skillman’s first foray into writing, he does a decent job crafting dialogue for his characters and building some interesting interactions among them as well. The book does stumble in a couple of spots however with an awkward exchange of words with Archer, his secretary and Abbey that comes across as being completely unnatural or a confrontation between Archer and his client’s secretary that seems interesting at first but quickly becomes completely unnecessary mere moments later.

The pacing near the end of the book is also very uneven and a little too conveniently. Within a matter of pages, the entire mystery of the book completely unravels and all the details come spilling out before fitting together a little too smoothly. As a whole though, with my nitpicking aside, the story itself is written with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing right up until the last few pages and does make for an impressive debut for Skillman.

Jhomar Soriano’s art was what initially pulled me to this book and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The story’s main sequences are drawn out in simple black and white with a very minimalist look that fits nicely with the tone of the book. Flashback sequences, by comparison, are done in a much more artistic, painted look creating a nice contrast.

Liar’s Kiss is certainly a chance I’m glad I took. It’s a great start for Skillman and an excellent showing by Soriano. Fans of the crime/noir genre looking for something new should definitely take a peek at this one.

For more info on Liar’s Kiss, or to grab a copy for yourself, check out Top Shelf’s website.

I had a bit of a tough time coming up with what exactly to say about the 75th Anniversary Poster Book since I’ve never really had to review anything aside from comics here on POA but I can definitely say, after flipping through the book in it’s entirety, that there’s certainly a little bit of something for everyone within it’s pages.

Myself, I’ve been a comic fan since my mid-teens and, as such, have been able to experience a good portion of the great comics that DC has produced through their 75 year history. For me, this book is almost a time capsule of all those great moments compressed into a 200-or-so page book, perfect for my coffee table I might add.

The Poster Book itself it much more than just pretty covers. On the back of each page, which are all conveniently and completely removable as well as perfectly sized for framing, author Robert Schnakenberg details each piece and provides some pretty great reading that both longtime comic book collectors and new readers alike will find educational and interesting to learn. There’s also several related covers that either follow the cover presented, are drawn by the same artist or are similar to it in some way.

Tying it all together is a great introduction to the book by former DC President Paul Levitz in which he talks about both his history in comics before his days as a writer, editor and company president. It’s a pretty powerful piece that speaks about the importance of a comic book’s cover and how much of an impact it can have on the reader both long and short-term. This, in combination with the writing of Schnakenberg and obviously the wonderful covers create an almost irresistible package that I would recommend to any fan of comics, specifically those published by DC.

For me, this book was a trip back to my childhood reading comics like Watchmen, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Dark Knight Returns to name a few. It was also a great look back at some of the moments that I’ve been able to check out more recently such as Alex Ross’ fantastic Batman R.I.P. covers, Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier, James Jean’s Fables, Jim Lee’s work on Batman: Hush plus much, much more.

What will this book be for you? I definitely recommend you pick it up and find out for yourself. This is a history lesson you shouldn’t miss out on.

…until now.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with this particular tale, the story follows our heroine and her sidekick Booga as they take part in the highly dangerous but extremely rewarding Watermelon Run, a Death Race style trek across desert, mountain and any other environment in between, all to gather up enough money to save Tank Girl’s friend Barney who has tragically fallen into a coma following a skateboard trick gone bad. The writing, which is done by longtime Tank Girl scribe and co-creator Alan Martin, is smart, juvenile, crude and, with twists and turns aplenty, unpredictable. Needless to say, this combination makes for a pretty entertaining read if you’re unfamiliar with the character and her supporting cast.

Those familiar with the animated musical group Gorillaz with see some similarities in the style of artwork used by the series artist Rufus Dayglo, who seemingly emulates original series artist Jamie Hewlett’s (Tank Girl co-creator and co-creator of the Gorillaz ) style from the older Tank Girl books. Dayglo’s technique used in the book is just as chaotic and outrageous as the writing so the duo of Martin and Dayglo is the perfect fit for a title such as this.

So while the story itself is wildly fun and entertaining, it’s really the interactions amongst the various characters that’s the most interesting. From Tank Girl’s drama with Booga to her inadvertent hostility and then partnership with Dee Dee Ramone and Jet Girl, both of which are trying to win the race for the same reason, there’s a ton of great writing here that is sure to please fans of the character, both new and old. In addition to the main story, which is more than enough material for this to feel like a solid read, there’s a number of extras at the end of the book that add even more value to the book and help to really make it feel like a total package.

So while this book may have been somewhat of a departure from my usual strict diet of superhero books and nothing else, it’s certainly a trip I’m glad I took. If you’re looking for a light read that’s sure to make you chuckle at least a little bit, give Tank Girl: Skidmarks a look.

Tank Girl: Skidmarks
Format: Trade Paperback
Published by: Titan Books
★★★★★★★★ ]]> http://panelsofawesome.com/2010/09/10/review-tank-girl-skidmarks-tpb/feed/ 0