Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust
Ulli Lust’s autobiographical graphic novel is a masterpiece. There we said it. This review could be that short. We don’t want to give too much up because this book was really enjoyable to read and we wouldn’t want to ruin it for any of our readers. But that having been said let’s get into it!
Story
Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life is a story about two teenage girls from Vienna Austria hitchhiking (or backpacking) across Italy in 1984. The book is based on Lust’s travel journal and she references exact pages several times. Though the story is not very linear (other than chronologically) there is some progression with the themes. What seems very innocent to the narrator of the story at the beginning takes it’s toll on her by the end of the story. Also her awareness of people’s true natures seems to broaden as the story continues. There’s a great deal of insight into the cultural norms in Italy at the time which we found really interesting. Again without getting too into detail and spoiling certain things, we were amazed at the level of detail in each page and with each character. The author does a wonderful job of explaining who each person was to her at the time and how they might have had a lasting impact. This is where the comic book format really does justice to the story, rather than simply publishing a journal, as the sights and sounds and smell are able to be included through the graphic form.
Art
Ulli Lust has drawn this comic herself and the story really benefits from her efforts. As a young teenager Lust was a part of the punk rock scene and her artwork reflects this “messy” and “rough around the edges” mantra. The art also captures the emotional impacts of the story in wonderful ways. There are several instances of harassment and sexual assault in the graphic novel that are handled delicately using expressionism. The terror of the scene is not lost even though it is not drawn within the realm of complete realism. Perhaps this was also her experience in that moment attempting to escape reality and danger, or perhaps it is just a device utilized for the benefit of the reader. Either way, the art is powerful and compliments a powerful story well.
Colors
There are not really colors in this book. The line art is shaded using green, but it does not really count as being “color” in the story. The shading lack of color enhance the fact that this story is a memoir of sorts and also protect the reader from the more grotesque aspects of the story.
Letters
The lettering was translated from German to English so it is not the artist’s original script. It is hand-drawn lettering. What stands out about the letting is how it expresses the emotional content of the script. Intense parts are drawn with many strokes and show the intensity of the scene. We also were drawn to the way the script handles the many languages spoken throughout the story. After a couple pages of “teaching the reader” to understand which brackets were which language, it becomes second nature to see what everyone is speaking. There are even moments where the narrator is trying to converse with people and cannot understand their Italian, which is a shared experience that draws the reader in. The lettering in these moments is drawn as squiggles and makes the scene even funnier.
je ne sais quoi
We kept reading this book even though it required several sittings to complete because of it’s powerful storytelling and adventurous spirit held within. The narrator of the story has courage, whether or not she thinks she does, and it’s hard not to want to know what happens next. Even when things start to go downhill with her adventure and it becomes more of a nightmare, we couldn’t help but want to know how she escapes. That’s part of the great part of how she framed it as a memoir instead of simply writing a story start to finish. The awareness of this story as a memory was the glue that kept our butts in our seat reading.
Rating
On a scale between 100 cats purring a Taylor Swift song in unison and A gorilla that has decided to take a joyride in your car we gave this graphic novel a very strong Standing in a perfectly temperature controlled room eating your favorite ice cream sandwich (It could have been warmer in the room, but ice cream is a delight either way)
You can find this book at Thriftbooks.com and on Amazon