Gulliver's Travels

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the inimitable Martin Rowson, a modern illustrated retelling of Swift's classic, Gulliver's Travels.

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Library Journal Review

Written in the 18th century, Swift's novel is a satirical look at life in that period through the adventures of Dr. Lemuel Gulliver. It has set the standard for biting, cynical, and crude literary irony, so it stands to reason that this modern retelling would follow suit. The contemporary Gulliver is a direct descendant of the original traveler and unwittingly shares his ancestor's fate when he falls from a helicopter and awakens on the island of Lilliput. From there, British cartoonist Rowson's pace is breathless: jokes, commentary, and wry observations are hurled at the reader one after another. It can be hard at times to absorb everything that is happening, and Rowson leans heavily on his readers having a firm grasp of the original story. The artwork is similarly frenetic. Strong composition and contrast anchor the pages and allow Rowson to pack his panels full of little details and subtle jokes. Verdict A hectic sense of absurdity saves the book from becoming too desolate. Maybe not for the faint of heart, this book is a dark, dirty, and entirely suitable modern-day retelling of Swift's classic tale.-E.W. Goodman, Art Inst. of Pittsburgh. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

After a series of incidents, including being involved in a car crash and being dropped from a helicopter, a man named Gulliver finds himself washed ashore in a land full of tiny people called Lilliputians. This is not the Gulliver of old however; this is his descendant, and he's about to discover an unnerving world. The Lilliputians now live in a booming, modern society, but the most sickening of bodily substances is the sole source of wealth and success. The leaders of Brobdignag, inspired by the elder Gulliver, dismantled their society in order to return it to its purest state-a goal achieved by killing off farmers and doctors, echoing of the tactics of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Laputa has been turned into the "permanent host to the Global Diplomatic Perpetual Plenary Summit," an ineffective legislative body that does little and debates much. Rowson, an English cartoonist and satirist best known for his work in the Guardian, offers illustrations capturing how corporations, globalization, and misguided political theory have horribly disfigured the lands, peoples, and languages that the original Gulliver visited; his crosshatching and fierce lines capture his rage at a world that is seemingly spinning out of control. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

Cartoonist and novelist Rowson revisits Jonathan Swift's classic caustic exploration of human nature in this visceral, contemporary graphic-novel sequel. Some 300 years after his ancestor first encountered a series of bizarre cultures strewn across the seas, a new Gulliver begins his own travels. Rowson (The Wasteland, 2012, etc.) situates his adaptation squarely in the present, tracking in from a celestial event, through a sky littered with satellites and contrails, to the silhouette of our hero--who holds a degree in "Socio-Anthropological Epidemiology" and a senior post at the "Secretariat of the World Institute of Forensic Therapy"--wading through surprisingly shallow waters. While this Gulliver is only vaguely aware of his ancestor (our hero was tellingly shanghaied during "a Global Forum on Trepanation and Kinship Autotomy"), he soon regrets not paying more attention to the "fantastickal stories" told to him by his aging father when he wakes in the custody of an exceptionally tiny people who mistake him for his forebear. Eventually retracing his ancestor's path, from Lilliput to the country of the Houyhnhnms and all stops in between, this Gulliver learns that the original Gulliver's influence on those he encountered has not always proved to be positive. The new Lilliput presents itself as a nigh-utopian consumer society, though the source of its prosperity is puzzling and its citizenry hide behind ubiquitous smiley-face masks. During a rousing speech about Lilliput's boundless progress, Rowson undercuts the propaganda with an image of riot police violently suppressing the grinning populace while everyone else goes shopping. Gulliver himself faces extraordinary rendition and deportation during his increasingly desperate and scatological journey. (Excreta is essentially a character in the story.) Rowson gleefully plays with language, particularly in the impenetrable pomposity of Gulliver's guides and the blatherskites of Brobdignag, which hilariously reveals itself when read aloud. The fastidiously crosshatched ink illustrations--part Ralph Steadman, part Heironymous Bosch--match the soiled material wonderfully, buzzing with decrepitude and madness. One suspects that Swift would approve. A filthy, fantastic and fitting continuation of a misanthropic classic.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.