Last year, a book started coming out on the Vertigo imprint of DC entitled Sweet Tooth. It was a surprisingly charming book, and one that I frequently recommend to friends when they ask me for a new book to read. It’s by author Jeff Lemire, who takes both the writing and artwork credit, but this is obviously not his first work. The thing that I’ve found most people note Jeff Lemire for is a book called Essex County. Being that I am absolutely adoring Sweet Tooth on a monthly basis, I thought it was time to find and read Essex County. And what a treat that ended up being.
My thoughts after the cut.
At it’s absolute least, Essex County is an incredibly sad and moving tale about growing up. At it’s absolute best, Essex County is one of the single most relatable books I’ve ever read in my entire life.
That’s a tough way to start off a review because already I’m setting the bar high, but hear me out.
When I sat down to read Essex County, I didn’t really know what to expect. The cover is somewhat ominous, but from what I knew the story was supposed to be three interconnecting stories. So who were all these characters? And would I get it when it was all over? Well, I more than just “got it.” I practically ripped my heart out over it. In the end, Essex County ended up being such a tremendously moving portrait of young people growing up and looking back on their lives. I couldn’t help but go throughout the entire book seeing how it related to my life and my life’s experiences so far. From the first story all the way through to the end, there was something there that really spoke to my upbringing, but it’s not just an isolated thing. I think it’d be hard to read this and not find something to connect to, personally.
So what’s it all about? Well, let’s break it down by books.
The first book, chapter, or story (however you want to look at it) is about a young boy. He just lost his mother, has no idea who his father is, lives with his uncle, and just wants to be a superhero. He spends his free time planning for an alien invasion and drawing comics of his own design. That right there was the very first thing that spoke to me. Right off the bat! His designs for his comics, how they look and are formatted, look exactly like the comics I used to draw when I was a little kid of a Marvel superhero I invented called Lightning. The similarities are uncanny. Our hero finds a confidant in the much older but rather slow gas station clerk Jimmy, who used to be a hockey player until he had an accident. The two of them get together in the woods and plot for the coming invasion. The book itself is rather haunting but also uplifting at the same time while it deals with both the loss of family as well as a young man becoming more comfortable with who he is vs the peer pressure he feels at school. Easily the most relatable of the three stories.
The second part is about two brothers. More specifically, it’s about one of the two looking back on his life as an old deaf man who can barely take care of himself. This story is rather sad, to be quite honest. The two brothers play hockey together for a living in Toronto and create a dynamic duo who are the most formidable in their league. But unfortunately, our narrator creates an unforgivable divide between the two that staves the two of them from each others lives until their eventual demise. As both grow increasingly old, they find need for one anothers support once more, which eventually leads to one of the most moving death scenes I’ve ever read in a comic. Of course, the story doesn’t exactly end there, because one brother is still alive, and still has to live with himself and his actions. It’s an incredibly powerful look at the relationship between two brothers, growing up with the same ambitions and desires but being torn apart due to the simplest of human natures.
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In the final story, we really begin to see how things tie together. As connections are revealed, we see the story of one of the seemingly minor characters, the Nurse, in how her ancestry ended up in Essex County in the first place, through a fairly tragic tale in it’s own right. Of course, what ends up ultimately depressing about this story is not what happened to her mother and father, but how she goes about her day to day. In fact, this is probably the most depressing thing about the book. We see how her son treats her (basically ignores her), her mother is on the verge of death, and her husband is already long dead. And through her actions, we also learn some things about various characters from the previous stories we did not know and could not have realized until it was too late.
While it is a slightly optimistic end, it’s really not all too cheerful.
With all this in mind, I must say that this book was really quite amazing and I can’t highly recommend it enough. I read this over three concise nights, one for each part, and by the end of it, I don’t think I have ever wanted to call my mother and tell her I love her more. The last chapter especially really opens your eyes to how hurtful negligence can be, and I believe that it is clearly the sign of a great writer if he can convey these emotions upon the reader so well. I took a lot from my first reading of Essex County, and I can’t imagine what’s in store for you. Essex County is a smart and moving portrayal at life as we note it, and Jeff Lemire is very clearly on his game. While I lamented my general disinterest in The Nobody, I’ve praised Sweet Tooth beyond praising. Essex County is even better than that, and as his first large scale work, it really is quite something to pay attention to. While not exactly an original graphic novel, I would put this right up there in my best of the past decade if I’d read it in time, even above Blankets (cue David raining hate down on me).
In my life, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book of this nature that has moved me as such. I mostly read tales of the fantastic, or ones that have fantastic and unrealistic elements. I enjoy stories about human nature and life as well, but they don’t appeal to me as much. When I read a graphic novel of this girth, I never expect to come out the other end kicking and screaming it’s praises. Essex County is just that good, though. Completely real and gut wrenching, this book needs more praise. So with this, I shine a much deserved spotlight and Jeff Lemire’s completely underrated hockey playing, superhero drawing, Canadian loving work: Essex County.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to call my mother and tell her I love her.
