Lucky Again

Lucky Again

The first thing that struck me (and drew me in) as I began reading Lucky is the recursive quality it has, referring to itself  as it does, telling stories about the stories.  Bell starts the first book with a mention of her journal and throughout all three books she refers to drawing comics and making books (and having to redo work constantly because of water damage or losing them!).  Tell them once, tell them twice, telling about the telling.

The endpapers are very telling.  At the front, Tom is right there, watching Bell as she works.  He is a constant. Lucky #1 (also at the front of the book) is all about Tom and his quest for a room or an apartment in NYC even though the business he owns is in Boston.  The whole first book takes place in 5 weeks - signaling to me (by duration and time-stamping) that this time was very important to Bell--a sort of watershed period in Bell's life (or love life).

In Lucky #2, Tom and Bell experience heightened tensions, culminating on page 56 with Bell helping T with laundry and then T helping Bell with her books but when Bell gets defensive with T's helpfulness and remarks, "You know, I can do this myself!", T drops Bell's stuff on the sidewalk, turns and walks away, saying, "Fine."  (p 56). This is *almost* T's last appearance in the book but definitely signals their breakup.  It is of interest that "fine" and "final" are both derived from the latin "finis" (end) - it is the end of their romance.  Eight pages later it is confirmed when Bell has a park picnic with Andy instead of Tom.

In Lucky #3, we see T one more time, being short with Bell on the phone as he cuts a pizza - he must be back in Boston at the restaurant he owns there.  Then the back endpapers show Bell alone in contemplation.  No Tom, not working--just sitting, seemingly in deep thought.  The work is finished…nothing to do?  The front and back endpapers are all actually frames from the book but without the words, maybe because pictures are really enough to tell the story?

In Lucky#3, I am particularly drawn to the noise in the art that follows the pages with high-saturations of black (that seem to work as a transition from Lucky #2 that used the same drawing technique of lots of heavy black spaces).  Starting on page 88, the art starts be overrun by text and voices, sometime coming from all sides.  Then graphic noise cuts in, especially on page 94, as the pictures in her head take over the frames.  pages 95 and 96 have frames of almost total static noise and the frame on 96 about "monotony" uses a spiral (a design without end) as noise.

Tone:
color tone - there's black and white, which are toneless.  Does this cue me that for G, life is black and white, maybe black OR white.
voice tone - Bell is almost flat, even bored.  How unremarkable her stories are make them so real, their starkness giving them credibility--like black or white (and toneless)?

The humor in Lucky #2, particularly the deadpan reaction to the art museum (pages 49-51) is absolutely hilarious and also a sort of holistic picture of Bell's world view.  As if she is saying to the reader through the art museum experience, "Can you believe how ridiculous this city, this world, this book, is?! - I mean, a whole book (Lucky #1) with story, plot, action, characters, emotion and all the rest is carried by my boyfriend's quest for a room to rent." And again, making me believe in the narrator.

Darin