Here

Reviews / Votes

Brilliant and revolutionary . . . In Here, McGuire has introduced a third dimension to the flat page. He can poke holes in the space-time continuum simply by imposing frames that act as trans-temporal windows into the larger frame that stands for the provisional now. "Here" is the -comic-book equivalent of a scientific breakthrough. It is also a lovely evocation of the spirit of place, a family drama under the gaze of eternity and a ghost story in which all of us are enlisted to haunt and be haunted in turn * The New York Times Book Review * The magic of Here is that somehow, alchemically, this sparse little exercise begins to yank on your emotions. As your eye lurches around the page, as you flip back and forth between pages, an irresistible sentiment swells. Rare among conceptual works, Here manages to tug your heart even as it undercuts your comfortable role of reader . . . Meanwhile, though, the past and present humans continue their tender little lives. Telling stories, playing, making love - what will be their fate? That's just one of the countless questions Here leaves unanswered. Even so, it's deeply satisfying. Kind of like a story that never ends * NPR * McGuire is able to wring a surprising array of emotions from simple lines and blocks of muted colour interspersed with deliberately hackneyed jokes and the uncanny wisdom of the everyday. And the non-chronological arrangement seems faithful to how consciousness really works, the way we shape and reshape the story of ourselves by editing and re-editing highlights from our lives. I found it compelling to shuttle around in time to discover how earlier events informed later ones. Midway through the book one character says to another: 'Life has a flair for rhyming events.' Clearly, McGuire does too * Financial Times * Later spreads flash with terrible and ancient supremacy, impending cataclysm, and distant, verdant renaissance, then slow to inevitable, irresistible conclusion. The muted colors and soft pencils further blur individual moments into a rich, eons-spanning whole. A gorgeous symphony * Kirkus * From now on, McGuire will be known as the author of the novel Here, because it's a work of literature and art unlike any seen or read before. A book like this comes along once a decade, if not a century -- Chris Ware * Guardian * Promises to leapfrog immediately to the front ranks of the graphic-novel genre -- Jennifer Schuessler * New York Times * Exquisitely drawn . . . dizzying. To hold it is to covet it -- Rachel Cooke * Observer * Brilliant and revolutionary . . . McGuire has introduced a third dimension to the flat page. Here is the comic-book equivalent of a scientific breakthrough. It is also a lovely evocation of the spirit of place, a family drama under the gaze of eternity and a ghost story in which all of us are enlisted to haunt and be haunted in turn -- Lucy Sante * New York Times Book Review * All comics are somehow sheet music of time, but Richard's book is a symphony. I can't think of too many works that totally justify the odd share of attention comics have gotten in recent years, but this is one of them. * Art Spiegelman * A meditation on "impermanence" . . . emotionally compelling yet unsettling * Atlantic *