Si beau, si agréable. Replonger dans la chaleur, les couleurs du portugal.

Hermoso libro sobre la soledad, la familia y las raíces. Además, el autor usa la trama para reflexionar sobre las diferencias culturales entre Francia y Portugal, el primero un país de costumbres anglosajonas, más individualistas, mientras que el segundo es latino, donde la familia está muy unida y son la principal fuente de interacción social. Siendo latino, pude ver en los parientes de Simón a mis parientes, y en su forma de ser y de vivir, la forma de ser y de vivir de mi gente.
Me identifiqué muchísimo con Simon y su padre, que prefieren evitar a la familia, pero cuando por fin la ven, la disfrutan mucho, incluso si las reuniones toman giros no tan agradables.
Además de lo cálida y bien llevada que está la historia, el arte es muy bello. Sin tener trazos exactos, se las arregla para ser muy detallado, poder identificar todo lo que está pasando, identificar a cada personaje sin equivocación, aún si sólo estás viendo siluetas. Además de que los recursos de color y entintado se las arreglan muy bien para reflejar cosas que suceden al mismo tiempo, y cuando alguien está hablando en portugués y cuando en francés.
Por donde se le vea, un libro encantador. Quizá pueda aburrir a quienes buscan historias más elaboradas, o más acción. De lo contrario, completamente recomendable.

dnf

On one hand, after reading this, I'm desperate to go back to France and finally visit Portugal. The depiction of everyday life in those places lulls you like a good dream (it's certainly helped by the frequent palette as seen on the cover). However, I found Simon to be a bit of a turd, which didn't make me feel totally invested in his genealogy hunt. Pedrosa's style is kind of spidery, making it a mess sometimes and lovely others. A lot of the book is spent on the idle chatter of whatever environment Simon happens to be in, and often the Portuguese goes on for several panels with (what feels like) only a pithy translation by a character, which, again, does lend to the atmosphere of the book, but feels distracting as well. So...I guess I'm really just on the fence about this overall.

This graphic novel is absolutely gorgeous. I love Pedrosa's drawing style and use of colour and given the large format of this book, they really shined here. Every single page is a treasure and full of so much beauty.

The story itself is told in three installments and is very humane. It's a story about family, who your relatives are and what you really know about them. And how you might not know much because your family hasn't wanted to keep in touch. At times I struggled to keep up with who is who as there are a lot of characters, but I enjoyed reading this nonetheless. It's amazing how you can feel the warmth and welcoming atmosphere and the loneliness and basically all the feelings Simon, the main character, feels. It's a real feat to put it all into pictures and words.

As for the translation, I loved the fact that the Portuguese wasn't translated into Finnish. (I'd assume it wasn't in the original French either.) It creates the perfect frustration and isolation and you can feel what Simon is feeling, in a mostly foreign place, not understanding the language - and gradually learning and connecting. (It does help if you know Spanish as you can guess a lot based on that.) I can imagine it throwing some readers off though because you're basically missing a lot of the story when you can't understand everything. But it's such a perfect choice.

Gorgeous art, relatable story, but essentially navel-gazing and plotless. I don't go in for this kind of thing in prose either, so no real surprise it's not my cup of tea.

He conectado con Pedrosa desde el principio, sus historias realistas o no son humanas y cercanas. Te remueven por dentro, a veces de la manera más inesperada. Un dibujo muy original, impreciso a propósito y que transmite más que muchos.

Un très bel album sur les origines et les racines. Magnifique
Mon billet sur le blog : http://moncoinlecture.com/portugal-cyril-pedrosa/

A true graphic novel, it's the tale of a French writer suffering not just from writer's block, but life block. It's classic malaise, existential depression. But it's not a downer, as he slowly reconnects with his family and his roots in Portugal and tries to come to terms with the same issues that seem to run through his bloodline. How far removed are we from where we come from? What is family? Moving book.