I am delighted that Mrs. Janet Glasspool, former Director of Education for Bluewater District School Board, Ontario and Executive Consultant of her own educational administration and governance consulting company, has agreed to provide THE CLIFF, Book 4: "Heart of Brightness" Review #2! Her insights and commentary are very much valued!
Review of The Cliff, Book 4: The Heart of Brightness
-
by Matthew Brown
The
Cliff, Book 4 is a graphic novel with wide appeal on many different
levels.
The lively plot is immediately engaging. Mei Mei
Castiglione asks private detective Poopsie the Penguin to solve the murder of
Carlos Brown. (A prologue reveals Carlos, looking very much like Charlie Brown
of Peanuts fame, getting struck down in a single, disastrous “Paw!”) Mei Mei says that the murder of Carlos took
place in Varanasi, India. Poopsie travels to the famous holy place, and Mutt
Blue (looking very much like author Matthew Brown) appears on the scene. They
pursue a rumour that Linux Fan Belt, a former business partner of Carlos Brown’s,
may have killed Carlos after hearing that Carlos named his beagle, Snooty, as
the beneficiary of his will. And here the adventure begins…during which Mutt
Blue learns more than he wants to about his own family history.
Readers will love the wry comments embedded throughout
the text. Honky, the pig explains: “I don’t really believe in reincarnation.
Most of the people I kill stay dead.”
The meticulously referenced “scholarly” quotations are
a hugely entertaining feature of all the Cliff
books. Here is one—a delicious parodic mashup of Hollywood crime drama “tough
talk” and a life coach’s would-be inspirational message: “ ‘Varanasi is a tough
city. Tough on the nose, tough on the bowels, tough on the heart. It
incinerates you, then smears your ashes on the forehead of some idol… but
nowhere else have I ever felt such love, such clarity, such itchiness.’ -
Poopsie the Penguin, Get me the Ice Cream
and Shut Up: Secrets to Insecure Management, 346 BCE.”
For me, the greatest source of enjoyment is the
beautiful visual art in The Cliff. Matthew Brown’s drawings in black ink are
amazing—suggestive to me of the work of Art Nouveau graphic illustrator, Aubrey
Beardsley (Salomé and John, 1892; The
Climax, 1893; the cover design for The
Yellow Book, 1894).
Aubrey Beardsley - from "Salomé"
Most pages in The
Cliff Book 4 contain multiple panels, sometimes on the diagonal or in
circles. The composition of the pages impacts on the action, and is remarkably
diverse from page to page. The images are
well-balanced. One page with 12 separate panels places tiles of Mei Mei’s
round, big-eyed, white head in strategic opposition to Poopsie’s sleek, black,
white-beaked pate.
Other pages contain only a few intricate images. There
are wonderful drawings of Mutt Blue having a sleepless night. The images of
Varanasi are most evocative and reveal the artist’s study of architectural
design. The narrow lanes and high walls, the overhead views of street scenes
and the waterfront, and the mansion owned by Linux Fan Belt, could all stand
alone, framed and hung in a gallery. There is a full-page, haunting, perspective
drawing of Mutt Blue descending outdoor steps between buildings in Varanasi.
This is a book to savour over and over again.
Janet
Glasspool
April
7, 2015
