W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M 65

Review_FICTION

inee, works full time with adults with de-velopmental disabilities, which may have been an inspiration for Swallow Me Whole, a stand-alone graphic novel about two teen-age stepsiblings with psychological prob-lems. Ruth suffers from obsessive compul-sive disorder and thinks she can hear insects speak, making it difficult for her to walk across grassy lawns but landing her a sweet internship in the natural history museum. Perry sometimes sees a tiny wizard who speaks to him about his destiny, which would be cute if this were a fantasy comic; instead, it’s sadly tragic since Perry recog-nizes the wizard as nothing more than a troublesome hallucination. It should be ob-vious from the start that things will not end well. Dark inks and elongated whisper-ing word balloons carry us into Ruth’s world of voices and missing time, while ex-perimental paneling masterfully conveys the characters’ inner worlds and altered states. Powell’s ultimate message remains unclear: is this a cautionary tale reminding ill teens to take their medication(s)? Or should we take a hopeful message away from Ruth’s tragic story, knowing that one need not give in completely to one’s delu-sions? (Oct.)

The Curious Case of Benjamin But-ton: A Graphic NovelF. Scott Fitzgerald, Nunzio DeFillippis, Christina Weir and Kevin Cornell. Quirk, $15.95 (128p) ISBN 978-1-59474-281-1

The impending release of a movie ver-sion starring Brad Pitt has made this hu-morous tale, formerly among the least known of Fitzgerald’s short stories, a hot property. DeFillippis and Weir’s adapta-tion preserves the original’s straight-faced tone describing the career of a man who begins life in his 70s and grows progres-sively younger. If bystanders find this more than “curious,” they usually are just irritat-ed at Benjamin for not behaving like other people. He himself is surprised as his body morphs, but is always open to new possi-bilities; his good-natured adaptability gives the social satire a gentle edge. Read-ers should, of course, look up Fitzgerald’s original, but there’s much to enjoy in this handsome little hardbound book. Cornell’s sepia watercolor panels are especially clever at showing physical and emotional changes as Benjamin moves backward through life while America rolls forward for 70 years. A

Do you have any personal connection with Treacher Collins syndrome?Last year I watched a special on the Discovery Channel about a pre-school-age girl born with Treacher Collins. I was so touched by her plight and all she has had to go through to have a func-tioning face. A novelist naturally asks, “What if?” and so I found myself wondering what might happen if someone like this little girl had the same condition... and the story bloomed in my head. I’m also fascinated by the power of beauty, so the story gave me an opportunity to juxtapose the two—beauty and facelessness.Why did you make faces, and the things they reveal, so significant to your story? Studies have shown that not only do our facial expressions reveal our emo-tions, but our emotions can be ignited by our facial expressions. In order to be fully human, Sarah not only had to learn how to communicate through her face, but to feel the emotions her face could convey. On a deeper level,

her new face represents an emotional and spiritual rebirth. Because she receives a new face, she receives a new future and a new life.

You did a lot of research for this novel, from CIA pro-tocol to extreme medical procedures. How impor-tant is it to you to blend fact into your fiction?I cut my teeth writing nonfiction and I suffer from rabid curiosity, so research is fun for me. Why make something up if it really exists? So I do as much research as I

can and travel whenever possible. I spent a week in the Amazon jungle to research one novel, and I visited the Spanish coast for The Face. When I saw an old monastery on an island off the coast of Spain, I knew I’d found the location for Sarah’s fortress.What comes first for you, building the characters or building the story?I work with four elements: plot con-cept, character, setting and theme. The plot concept usually shows up first, then the other pieces either fall into line... or I give them a shove. —Miriam Gingras

[Q&A]

PW Talks with Angela Hunt

Face TimeCIA researcher Sarah Sims, a young woman rendered faceless by Treacher Collins syndrome, is the unusual protagonist in Angela

Hunt’s novel The Face (Reviews, Sept. 8).

useful, gracefully written afterword by Donald G. Sheehy, professor of English, completes the volume nicely. (Oct.)

I Live HereMia Kirshner, J.B. MacKinnon, Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge. Pantheon, $29.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-375-42478-6

This “paper documentary,” as they bill

it, tells hot-button stories from four world crisis areas: Chechnya (in the midst of war), Burma (ethnic cleansing), Mexico (global-ization) and Malawi (AIDS). Those credit-ed are identified as an actor, an author and two “creative directors who have conceptu-alized international advocacy campaigns,” as well as a number of other artists and writers. Each 84-page book (collected in a

See the review at www.publishersweekly.com/theface

pwk080905-MAG_Rev_Fic id 65pwk080905-MAG_Rev_Fic id 65 9/24/2008 9:52:26 AM9/24/2008 9:52:26 AM