Reads 2

The Essex County trilogy by Jeff Lemire is a haunting piece of work.  I say that because it has been stuck in my mind, creeping in in unexpected ways since I first started the trilogy back in the spring.  The graphic novel trilogy includes the books Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories and The Country Nurse.  The stories in these books are connected to each other through family relationships and span several generations and decades.  The stories are compelling, touching and somewhat somber in tone.  Lemire is a master at touching the universal in very subtle ways.   

Lemire is a great visual storyteller.  His artwork may not be immediately accessible to everyone but the way he uses images to advance the narrative, show emotion and connect story elements seems effortless and intuitive.  He has a gift for letting images tell the story and text in the story is sparse.  One must be careful to slow down and let the images work the narrative, they are relatively quick reads, and if one does not pay attention to the images the previously mentioned subtlety may slip right by.

Thematically the story concerns rural life in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. The first book, Tales from the Farm, is about a farmer who is raising his nephew, a superhero obsessed pre-teen, and their strained relationship.  They connect on some levels and there is love there but it is hidden and confused.  It is an ex-hockey playing convenience store clerk that connects with the boy and may have a deeper connection that is hinted at in the story.  

The second book, Ghost Stories, is about hockey playing brothers who share a brief moment of camaraderie and joy.  Later they part ways and have a troubled secret between them.  In this book Lemire hits his visual storytelling stride, using many images to express deep emotion and connect current events to recollection.  In one image a character, recalling the past, has his tears turn into the ice that forms a frozen lake on which the brothers, in their youth, had practiced hockey.  Very powerful image, working on a deeper level than words.

The final book, The Country Nurse,  is about a nurse that travels the county seeing to elderly patients.  Her story is intertwined with the characters of the previous two books.  The narrative stretches decades to the past and also contains a dark secret.  Again the emotion is raw and the images do as much or more than the words to express it.

This trilogy had a powerful impact on me.  I feel the pulse of it more than remember specific events.  The author is from Essex County.  He says the story is not factual but meant to capture the feeling of what it was like to grow up and live in this part of the world, sort of a fictional biography of a place, very interesting.  I have come away from this work with an interest in hockey, an interest in rural Canada, a focus on the emotional subtlety that underlies all life events and how tenuous connections can be and a vow to read everything that this amazing young creator touches.