Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I recently had the pleasure of reading "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick (copyright 2007). This book wraps itself around several forms of media and self-identifies as "not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things."

I would also say that this book falls into several genres: historical fiction, mystery, and young adult novel. The upside of all this mish-mash is an excellent way to spend an hour or two, immersed in hand-drawn illustrations and compelled by several competing intrigues found in the plot.

If I was to offer any criticism, I would say that the writing is strong but not especially noteworthy and that the physical layout of text on the page often left me feeling empty. Often, an entire page of the book contained no more than a sentence or two. If the text was laid out in a particularly artistic fashion, I wouldn't mind, but instead, I often found myself wondering why the physical book wasn't condensed into something smaller than a tome.

Even so, if you have the chance, this is a fun read.

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