“Here by Richard McGuire is an innovative graphic novel that centers on a single corner of a room and examines the flow of time—stretching from billions of years ago (dinosaurs roaming) to far future epochs—through overlapping, non-linear panels supersummary.comen.wikipedia.orgscreendiver.com. What starts as a six-page comic has been expanded into a richly illustrated, 304-page volume where mundane moments (birthdays, arguments, cleaning) stand alongside epochs of geological transformation and human history brokenfrontier.com+5en.wikipedia.org+5newyorker.com+5. With layered visuals and shifting art styles, McGuire offers a poetic meditation on place, memory, and the impermanence—and persistence—of human life within physical space.”
At the time of writing this book review, I’m unsure of how to rate my experience reading the book. I don’t fully know what I just read, but one takeaway is that memory is a significant theme here. A home or a plot of land holds our memories, much like our bodies hold our lives. Our homes experience everything—every emotion, every sense. They witness parties, gifts being exchanged, disasters, sickness, love blooming, and major news events happening around the world. It makes me want to hug my house and say thank you for being the keeper of my memories. Just thinking about that brings up a lot of emotions.
This has to mean something more than just a physical space; a piece of land or a building must have more significance than being merely physical. There’s an emotional connection there that’s giving me a lot to think about.
As for the book itself, when I first got into the story, I noticed a lot to look at, visually speaking. There are multiple time frames presented on the same page—maybe one in 1957 and another in 1999—which made it hard for me to follow the story and understand why both events were being shown simultaneously. I found myself questioning how the characters are connected. Are they linked only because they occupied this plot of land at different times? There’s one family that we see having their picture taken every year, which made me wonder if some of these characters, decades down the line, are related to them or if they are the same characters in different forms, and I just can’t tell because of the art style.
This left me very confused, and I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with the flow of the book and the characters. Despite that, I experienced emotional moments that tugged at my heart. I do think this was a valuable experience, and it made me reflect a lot, but it was also quite frustrating. So, I would maybe recommend this book with some reservations.
3.25 out of 5 stars
Izzy Reads 