The Three Incestuous Sisters by Audrey Niffenegger BUY THIS
Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers: 2005
This book is a 'novel in pictures' which was first published, after fourteen years of work, as a small-run hand-made artist's book and now appears as a hefty yet somehow delicate, hard-bound illustrated storybook. It is a pleasure to feel the weight of it in your lap as you read the strange and beautiful tale of three quite uncommon sisters. 'Reading' the book mainly involves immersing yourself in the pictures, as the text is brief, one or two sentences per page, and mainly functions as titles or captions for the pictures. The result is a soft and wonderful tension between the drunkenly-gripping narrative and the scratchy stillness of the etched watercolour images. As a brief description of the book, the author suggests that the potential reader could“...imagine a silent film made from Japanese prints, a melodrama of sibling rivalry, a silent opera that features women with very long hair and a flying green boy...”
Each picture in the book was created painstakingly through an archaic process of acid etching on zinc plates, and it seems that there is, indeed, something slightly acidic in the tale. Each of the three sisters - Clothilde, Ophile and Bettine - has her flaws, powers and peculiarities and these manifest in extreme behaviour - sometimes desperate, sometimes cruel, sometimes beautiful, often unexpected. The dark, surreal sense of humour has a Dame Darcy feel, though with measured subtlety and an almost sublime richness.
The Three Incestuous Sisters defies genre by existing in what seems to be a near void of similar publications. It is more of a 'narrative art book' than a graphic novel, but is an absolute treat to read and I would love the world to be filled with more books like it.
TG 24/03/06