Name: Hubert
ISBN: 9780224101462

Ben Gijsemans

Hubert is a solitary man who shapes his life by going to museums. He talks to few people and only about museums and art. When his neighbour downstairs, a lonely woman, tries to seduce him, he doesn't understand. He takes photos of the pictures he likes - usually of beautiful women - and paints copies of the paintings at home. There is only one real woman who fascinates him; she lives in the opposite building and he can see her balcony from his window. One of the most beautiful graphic novels Jonathan Cape has ever published, Hubert marks the beginning of a great career.

Hubert

Emmett

This is not a comic book, or a typical graphic novel - if by 'typical' one goes by the standard narrative. Gijsemans delicate illustrations - every shade and line so precisely and softly pencil-drawn - seem to suspend the moment in a timeless instance, in a magical use of silence, where pictures by themselves say more than any conversation will. True to this atmosphere, the speech bubbles are so few, so heedless, of their surrounding beauty; they add the trivial and essential counterpoint to every panel. "Sensitive" is a good word for this book. The non-glossy pages add a papery, simple touch (everything comes in whispers and murmurs) to this story of pictures, in which the reader's receptivity to it is paramount. This is not an action-packed graphic novel, and often times the pages in which nothing is happening is richest in ineffable meaning. The reader is not driven, but invited to look, watch, observe, ponder, feel. Gijsemans uses perspective interestingly - the occasional shifts from Hubert's point-of-view to an objective point-of-view are startling and take time to get used to, but rewarding in its cleverness. Perhaps little tricks like these are homages in their own way to the art pieces which are the foci of this book.

Hubert

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