Saturday, May 19, 2012

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony YP FIC ANTHONY


Glory was a piano prodigy that has turned the classical music world on fire with her missing of modern pop into complicated classic pieces.  Francisco was an Argentinian teen trying to make it in America.  When they met, they made beautiful music. Glory went mad, then missing. Through photographs, assorted objects, IMs, and letters, a mystery of love, music, and madness is revealed. 

This is a truly unique work. It’s a mystery told through found objects.  The reader is like a detective sorting through assorted clues and patching together the ‘real’ story of why Glory disappeared, but looks can be deceiving. There are scattered clues throughout the book that Glory is super mega bonkers and everything she imagined EVERYTHING.  Or you can read it as a super sweet mystery love story.  Either way there are loads of many mysteries to unlock.  Why is Glory obsessed with the song Chopsticks? What REALLY happened to her mother? The fun of solving the mysteries and pondering the big mystery of whether Glory is super crazy or just really stressed is grand fun. Not only is this a super great idea, the execution is superb nearly throughout.  The design of this book is absolutely excellent. The use of slowly revealing more and more through photos is really well handled and the layout are superb. For example, the book will show you the outside of a book or pamphlet on one page and the next page the pamphlet is opened, so you feel like you are leafing through these objects yourself.  My one quibble (and it’s a big quibble!) is that the photos of Glory and Francisco seem really stagey and sort of cheesy.  I never bought them as two real people, but maybe that works out since they may not be real at all!  MIND TRIP!

Check our catalog for Chopsticks here.

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