Truth is Fragmentary: Travelogues & Diaries

by Gabrielle Bell

For an impoverished cartoonist, I do an awful lot of international traveling.

Raw, bare-boned, scathingly funny dispatches from the renowned comic diarist Gabrielle Bell, with biting cultural commentary mixed with her signature introspective, self-deprecating humor, and surreal digressions (from car-driving bears, through Zombie Apocalypses, to cute babies, and . . . more bears!) as she visits France, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Colombia, back to Brooklyn, and finally landing in upstate New York. In Travelogues Gabrielle Bell proves she can be . . . funny!

Gabrielle Bell was born in England and raised in California. Her work has been selected for the 2007, 2009, and 2010 Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and she has contributed to McSweeneys, Bookforum, the Believer, and Vice. The title story of Bell's book, "Cecil and Jordan in New York," has been adapted for the film anthology Tokyo! by Michel Gondry. Her latest book, The Voyeurs, was selected as one of the top five graphic novels of 2012 by Publishers Weekly. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Travel, Memoir, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2014

About the author

Gabrielle Bell was born in England and raised in California. In 1998, she began to collect her “Book of” miniseries (Book of Sleep, Book of Insomnia, Book of Black, etc), which resulted in When I’m Old and Other Stories, published by Alternative Comics. In 2001 she moved to New York and released her autobiographical series Lucky, published by Drawn and Quarterly. Her work has been selected for the 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and she has contributed to McSweeneys, Bookforum, The Believer, and Vice Magazine. The title story of Bell’s book, “Cecil and Jordan in New York” has been adapted for the film anthology Tokyo! by Michel Gondry. Her latest book, The Voyeurs, is available from Uncivilized Books. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
(source: http://gabriellebell.com/contact/)

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabrielle Bell kept a travel diary while going to several international comics conferences. Why should I read this?! Why should I care?! Craig Thompson did one, Lucy Knisley did one, others, and I read (and liked) them all… But I just now finished the 13 volumes of 100 Bullets, where like a million people get wasted in full technicolor splendor, with noirish curvy women and sleek (or beefily muscled) potty-mouthed men killers in starched white shirts and skinny gambler ties. And Bell is angsty, tormented, anxious, self-conscious, annoying, and details her annoying-ness panel after panel. Azzarello and Risso would puke at this girly frailty. There is no (emotional) softness in their women!

And yet, there I was as my son practiced soccer initially annoyed (see above) and yet I read and was sucked in increasingly with every page… there is something about how she depicts herself and her cartoonist (she doesn't say comics) friends (oh, she is having coffee with Michael DeForge!) that manages to convince us that she, uncomfortable with people in so many ways, is also adorable in her self-deprecation. Another thing that convinces me she is adorable is a third person section of her diary that is so playfully insightful and hilarious I kind of wanted to hug her.

So I can't say what huge deep insights I got from this about life and art (uh, I already knew Truth is Fragmentary, Gabrielle, an insight she got from talking with a French comics writer friend…). {That was an ironic title, Dave, duh!) But this is clearly fragmentary, with a skewed perspective that forces us to like her in spite of herself! Diabolocal! We have been seduced! And you know, I hate Facebook for mundane observations, and twitter, and blogging your personal life… why is it I still like memoir comics?! But I do.

[Hollowspine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interested mostly as I read in Bell's comics about her and Steve, it almost felt like she didn't want to depict their relationship because it would take away from the side of herself that is an introverted loner. Whenever they had a scene together they seemed to be in their own world, imagining zombie survival groups, bear strategies, getting lost.

There were a few times in the comic when I really sympathized with Bell, I know the feeling of finding out a new game and wanting to continue with it, even when the others seemed to have moved on. At the same time I kept wondering to myself, for an introvert she spends an extraordinary amount of time at parties.

So, in short, I liked the comics, but I also don't really know what to think about them. If I had a comic diary it would involve a lot less airplanes. It would just be panel after panel of me staring at a computer screen, maybe I'd draw the pose different, sometimes.

[J.T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of people dump on autobiographical/diary comics, but I've always loved them. Even the poorly executed ones give you a glimpse into someone else's life and a perspective different than your own.

That said, Gabrielle Bell has always been at the top of the heap when it comes to auto-bio. She sometimes unexpectedly swerves into absurdist, surreal fiction mid-entry. It keeps you on your toes and probably reveals something of her inner psyche.

This collection remains true to life (as far as I can tell!) more often than not, but there are a few detours. Maybe being in countries other than her own is enough weirdness (a lot of these are from tours abroad) or the fact that she's forced to be in her own thoughts more than normal.

In any case, this is an incredibly strong collection. Highly recommended!

[Derek Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Bell's most engaging collections, and definitely her most self-aware. And in this way, it's more experimental than her other books when it comes to the narration and her representations of self.

[Jesús · Rating 5 out of 5]

With every work I read by Gabrielle Bell, I realize more and more how hard it is to do diary comics well. She can make the hardest, most challenging comic to write seem like the product of a mere minute and at the same time seem like the product of years of revision.

Her pacing is spot-on. She has finely honed her humor and insight into sharp, unflagging six-panel strips. And her collections are carefully curated so that there are key themes and ideas that get developed across her various diary strips. This collection focuses mostly on her career as a cartoonist and traces the parallel arcs of her increasing success and increasing anxiety.

This is among her best collections.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects daily comics (she apparently does an annual thing in July) and travelogues from 2010 to 2013. I especially enjoyed the bits where she narrated the nitty-gritty process of travel. Also some good work around describing what it's like to have social anxiety.

Wanted to refresh my memory of her before I read Everything is Flammable.

[Hannah Garden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her. I want to adopt her and she can be my kitten and I will keep her safe and happy.

[MariNaomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabrielle Bell has somehow gotten into my brain and expressed all those things I haven't found words (and pictures) for. Brilliant work.

[Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was posted on PostSecret this week, and I found it very relevant to this reading. The internet has a conflicted relationship with both our reading lives and real lives and how this affects the urges to engage in memoir and sharing comes through in this thoughtful graphic novel.

Named after a line from Tennessee Williams, Truth is Fragmentary is a collection of Gabrielle Bell’s autobiographical diary comics from 2010-2013, many of which were published online previously, including her yearly July Diaries. This is a great description of much of the web, particularly the fragments we share of our own lives on social media (whether reviews, pictures of food, or memoir comics) that may or may not reflect our true selves.

“For an impoverished cartoonist, I do an awful lot of international traveling,” Bell writes as she discusses the trips to Scandinavia, France, Switzerland, Colombia to promote her work, but her diaries also illustrate just hanging around her apartment reading or visiting friends, or using (or not using) the net. Discussing art with fellow comic writers, enduring awkward encounters with other people, forgetting things, eating with friends, daydreaming surreal encounters with zombies, bears, and alternate versions of her life, Bell shares her life in such an idiosyncratic way, I feel she is one of the most perceptive and affecting comic memoirists working right now.

Gabrielle Bell’s comics have always fascinated me and these are no different, they way that she can make the most banal aspects of day to day life interesting, or even beautiful, intimate and yet distant. I find much that resonates; as Bell reads the difficult works of the Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne, she shares this quotation, “I make silly and stupid remarks unworthy of a child, I have a dreamy way of withdrawing into myself and a dull and childish ignorance of common things,” (very familiar sounding sentiments) marveling that 16th century nobleman could have such identifiable ideas. Reading such things illustrates what is so fascinating about autobiography and reading, seeing how another person lives, thinks, and feels, what is different and what is the same. Bell wrestles with the contradictions of being a very private person who blogs and publishes very personal journals, sharing them online, the most public of venues. As she struggles to express in a panel in Colombia, the internet can be a contradictory place to share for writers and artists, hoping to put their work into the world but can also drain energy from other projects with real resonance.

There is much I identify with in Bell’s works, yet also much that seems guarded, unstated, both as she relates to her reader and to the other people in her life. How does one share one’s unique perspective yet make it accessible to others? How does our act of writing autobiography change us, and how does our act of reading other people’s? Is it easier to understand people through books than through interaction? As Bell expresses in her July 15th 2013 comic, interacting with other people can be exhausting, painful. As an introvert, I know this as well and I often feel like withdrawing from “other people tell me who I am supposed to be, other people tell me what reality is.” Does the internet allow one to escape more easily or does it trap one in constant connection?

In a way, my reviews are all autobiographical as well, as I try to reflect and define myself through the books I read, and the reactions and feelings I get from them. As Bell reads the work of Montaigne, or as I’m currently reading (aloud to myself) the difficult, intriguing poems of Robert Burns, I try to connect myself with the world through the lives of other people. Now, I attempt to share some of these ideas, in a little way, with others.

[Garrison Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabrielle Bell is a struggling comic book artist who puts herself on a schedule to draw every day despite her mental exhaustion. Her travels around the world give her more than enough creative fuel for an autobiography, both because of the experiences and the exhaustion. She specifically travels to places where other comic book artists meet, as a way to not only better her own style, but to market herself to the public. With a shy personality and an emotionally wrecked mind, putting herself out there becomes increasingly difficult as the graphic novel marches on.

The themes of shyness, stress, and depression are all relatable topics that most readers can get behind. The ways in which Miss Bell shows them are creative and razor-sharp, to say the least. For example, when asked about her shyness, the next panel shows Miss Bell morphing into a two-headed creature as she wracks her brain thinking of an answer. Being stressed out also takes its toll on her as evidenced by her sarcastic “cat riding” vacation photos. It gets so maddening at times for her that she pops Xanax on airplane rides and chews cocaine leaves just to numb the pain. While I don’t recommend going too hardcore with the medication you take, it’s certainly understandable.

Of all the places Gabrielle has traveled to, her visit to Columbia has to be the most eye-opening. We all have this image of Columbia being a corrupt place where guys like Pablo Escobar can run roughshod over everyone while the police do nothing about it. To some extent, that could very well be the case. But Gabrielle also knows that beneath all the violence and drugs, there’s a spark of humanity and a cry for help. As an open-minded liberal, she knows not to judge an entire culture based on the actions of a few people. That’s a lesson we all need to understand at some point, especially with our current politics the way they are now with the Donald in charge.

If there’s one complaint I have about this graphic novel, it’s that the themes I care about the most took too long to kick in. At first it seemed like Gabrielle was having a good time with all the traveling she did. Then you scratch beneath the surface and find that nothing is okay and she needs help. I wish that was more prevalent in the opening chapters of the book. Maybe it was already there and I missed it, but it just seemed to be a deviation from the near end of the story. If you don’t have a lot of patience as a reader, I can see how this would be a turn-off. But I must advise you to keep going until the very end. I did and I’m grateful for it.

It’s easy to tell that Truth Is Fragmentary was a labor of love for Gabrielle Bell and she should be rewarded for soldiering through the stress and depression. Buy a copy of her book and give her your undivided attention. If you like what you see, keep buying her works. She’ll be grateful for any attention she gets, as are many up-and-coming writers and artists. That’s what you have to remember as you go through this book: everybody starts somewhere and it’s the journey, not the destination, that matters the most. Thank you, Gabrielle Bell, for giving me something worthwhile to read! A passing grade for you, my dear!

[Roeliox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another graphic autobiography by a financially struggling, socially challenged introverted comic book creator.

And I loved it!

It took me a while to get used to Bell's crude (and deceptively childlike) drawing style, but after a few pages, I became hooked on her 'adventures.'

Any book that makes me laugh out loud multiple times deserves 5 stars.

[kavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good book 10/10

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is more descriptive than one might expect. These are diaries in cartoon form, but, since making comics is more labor-intensive than writing, they jump around quite a bit, and are far from comprehensive accounts of her life and travels. She also fictionalizes, quite blatantly on occasion. It never seems to be with the intent to deceive, just Bell following her muse. This is autobiography in the classic Robert Crumb/Harvey Pekar/internal dialogue/"Look how neurotic I am" mode. Fortunately Bell has a sense of humor about it, as well as the necessary self-observational skills to make it work. If her style seems a bit crude in places, one needs to consider the circumstances (drawing on planes, etc) under which it was created. This is some fine work, definitely a cut or two above the average autobio comic.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately,it was really hard to get into and stay in,for that matter. I found myself relating to the character a little bit but not enough to feel totally invested. It also didn't help that it felt extremely disjointed and all over the place. Her thoughts and memories are sporadic and non sensical at times with a little bit of humor thrown in. I almost feel bad because it's the authors actual thoughts and feelings that the book is about and therefor feel like I'm somehow putting down the author herself. It puts the reader in a difficult/uncomfortable position and some people made be put off by that.

[Emilia P · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm reading it, I'm all "where's the oomph, G.Bell! How will I hold onto this. Why isn't it going faster!" but she's a master of diary comics, I love her illustration style, there's a baby in this one!, and it's just heartbreakingly honest, and sometimes dull in its honesty, but that's the mark of a truly great diary cartoonist, so here here. Also, this line, I love it, I know it, thank you: "Every single interaction is painful. I never get used to it.I never develop calluses. It just chafes. How do you people manage it?"

[Valerie Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt all ways about this book: A few pages were perfection, but many fell flat, and some were good but in a just-ok way. I mean no disrespect to her as a person, since this is autobiographical, but at times it just felt like she was so out of control of her own self and life that I didn’t even want to read it. It would put me in a strange, annoyed mood. I personally understand self-doubt, anxiety, shame, etc. These are also universal struggles and experiences. But when these hang ups seem to rule a person’s life it can be quite tiresome to read.

[Mike Bautista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autobio is a tightrope. It's difficult to explore your neuroses without coming off as a self-obsessed wreck. Difficult to make jokes without it feeling insincere. But Bell not only manages it, she makes it look effortless. There's an honesty and respect to herself and others, and a self-awareness that doesn't restrict but allows daily changes in feelings to be examined without too much criticism. It's an enlightening and charming read.

[Rebecca I · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a graphic novel novice, I chose this book because it looked interesting. And it was. I am just trying to see the scope of what is being done in this genre with story and the level of art. Certainly this is much different than Alan Moore. I know a few artists that I think could make a very good book and I am encouraging them to try it. I will continue my research...

[Kim]

Rob Clough's review is well written. http://highlowcomics.blogspot.ca/2015...

[patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little romp through the trials and tribulations of a cartoonist covering several international book tours and a monthly diary (July).

[Hina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot of graphic novels and usually delve right into the stories from the get go. This one however was different. I haven’t read anything else by the author, but the rave reviews about her work got me curious.

I started reading this and a few chapters in, I thought about abandoning the book because it seemed like a series of endless complaints and whining about the author’s life against the world and her place in it. A lot of it seemed like self-inflicted and I didn’t really garner any sympathy for her or her experiences. I put the book down and didn’t get back to it for a few weeks.

When I continued on, the book seemed less annoying and I got the flow of her thoughts and what she was trying to get across in her stories. I don’t suffer from social anxiety, nor am I someone you could consider shy or awkward. These personality traits seem like self-made limitations to me, but reading about how the author was aware of her shortcomings in these areas and repeatedly kept finding herself in situations that could have been easily avoided was a different perspective on life and how some people, despite their better judgement, just can’t stop themselves from getting in their own way. I finished the book with a more empathetic view of those who, despite their best efforts, haven’t been able to get over some of their formative life experiences and can’t seem to become the kind of people they think they ought to be.

The author even shed some meta awareness light on how she comes across to her friends and the contradictory behaviours she exhibits in her relationships. I honestly felt kind of bad for her towards the end.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I might have enjoyed the works in this book more in small doses, rather than as a book-length collection. My problem with it was that reading the book pretty much straight through left me puzzled about why she is successful, and yet she has been, for a long time.
Once I started realizing that she was portraying her life as an odd thing, rather like a train wreck with no train tracks to guide it, I felt sorry for her, because of the apparent insecurity she has about her own skills, her own creativity and her own life, even while being invited to speak around the world about her work.
Overall, I found this book to be worth reading, and I'm glad I read it, but it was a bit of a downer while I was turning the actual pages. That's okay, though.

[Tess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this at a book swap, and really wanted to get into it but couldn't. The story was too, um...fragmented--a fact that the author acknowledges and references often in the book. I do applaud her effort though at keeping a somewhat rough/unpolished realtime record of her life, even as a personal exercise, because I know that's hard but the self-reflection is infinitely helpful. Having the courage to share it with others, once you've done this self-reflection, is even harder. So that's why I give three stars rather than two! Glad Ms. Bell wrote this, wish I could have gotten into it more!

[Emmeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off mundane and disjointed, but slowly endears you to the author, who becomes a living, pulsing character by the end of the graphic novel. The trope of the unreliable narrator adds a childlike surrealism that is a breath of fresh air-- its whimsy elevates the author (and storyline) above the smog of anxiety that otherwise weighs both down.

[Rachel Tampon · Rating 1 out of 5]

You have to be a bland bougie piece of shit or a completely desperate guy to read this dross. It isn't art or entertainment, it's just a constructed facade to manipulate people. Somehow this gets published even though its just normie Facebook post shit.

[Bryanzk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of autobiography comics. But, as Ms. Bell said, "my side bulges are made of delicious things".

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Gabrielle Bell, I love you (in a totally non-creepy but fangirly way).

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

She either voiced thoughts I didn't know I had, or gave me new insight into how her own mind works. This felt important and grounding, even when it's about social anxiety.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Encountering Tom Hart and baby Rosalie Lightning unexpectedly gutted me.