Work-Life Balance

by Aisha Franz, Nicholas Houde (Translator)

Overview

To achieve the proper work-life balance perhaps we just need the right therapist to coach us through our day-to-day. Anita, Sandra, and Dex have ambitions. Anita wants to move from making utility ceramics to fine art sculpture but her pent up dissatisfaction results in an outburst that puts her studio mate’s work at risk. Sandra juggles her practical administrative day job at a startup with her wellness influencer channel, finding both in jeopardy when a messy affair with her coworker comes to light. In another corner of the same startup, Dex’s innovative ideas are rejected, leading him to spend his days hacking and working as a bike courier. All three are disillusioned with their daily grinds. As the pressure for self-improvement builds they all end up looking to the same therapist for answers. Soon the boundaries between work and life begin to bleed into each other and it becomes increasingly impossible to find balance. All the solace the characters expect their therapist to provide is obscured by her quirks, whims, and psycho-parlance, leading to sessions that are neglectful at best and actively inhibit growth at worst. In striking colors and trippy transformational sequences, Aisha Franz captures the comedic absurdity of contemporary work-life and wellness culture. Work-Life Balance is translated from the German by Nicholas Houde.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770466906
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	257
File size:	100 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Aisha Franz is a comic book artist and illustrator living in Berlin. She has published four graphic novels that have been translated into multiple languages and her illustrations have appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Die Zeit Leo, and The New York Times. Her book Shit Is Real was nominated for the Los Angeles Times book Award in 2019. Together with the Berlin-based print studio Colorama she cohosts the residency project Clubhouse.

Editorial Reviews

02/20/2023

Berlin-based cartoonist Franz follows her L.A. Times Book Prize finalist Shit Is Real with a caustic comedy about the ways young people try (and often fail) to reconcile their online lives with time IRL. A trio of protagonists are all patients of the same self-absorbed, scatterbrained therapist. There’s Anita, a sculptor making ceramics for Instagram and Etsy, whose professional jealousy becomes destructive; Rex, a food delivery messenger and freelance programmer whose code is essentially stolen by a successful wellness startup called Agileal; and the sex-obsessed, wannabe influencer Sandra, who gets fired from her administrative job at Agileal after her unhealthy need for intimacy and attention turns into harassment. Franz sports a subtly surreal illustration style, recalling Heinz Edelmann’s album art from Yellow Submarine, which augments both the humor and mundane horror of the internet’s “everything everywhere all at once” nature. The story highlights the lack of separation between digital and analog, as hobbies become jobs, humans become brands, and constant connectivity becomes isolation. Franz’s mordant and melancholy graphic novel reveals the irony of “social” media. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

The three characters in this vibrant, feverish story endure similar problems: unfulfilling careers, lives that are spiraling out of control and a quirky, uninterested psychologist-for-hire who has left them to handle it all on their own.” —The New York Times

“A wise and funny journey through loneliness and confusion.” —The Guardian

“Depression and loneliness – and how people cope – are aptly explored through Aisha Franz’s often surreal pencil drawings.” —The Globe & Mail

“Work-Life Balance remains a funny and pointed satire of modern work culture.” —The Comics Journal

“[Work-Life Balance] highlights the lack of separation between digital and analog, as hobbies become jobs, humans become brands, and constant connectivity becomes isolation. Franz’s mordant and melancholy graphic novel reveals the irony of 'social' media.” —Publishers Weekly

“Although the characters in the book remain unsure of what to strive for professionally, they do find solace in genuine connections with nature, art, and other people — which, Franz suggests, might be the type of self-care worth pursuing.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“In an era of social media and virtual meetings, Franz shows how easy it is for our expectations to become misaligned from... reality.” —BlogCritics

“Franz shows the hollowness underneath much of the contemporary art scene, both in what passes for great work and in the ways people talk about that work.” —Kevin Brown, Solrad

From the Publisher

12/02/2023

Three hapless people troubled in their work life find some consolation, no thanks to unhelpful therapist Dr. Sharifi. Anita churns out ho-hum ceramics for Etsy sale, though she yearns to create "real art" like a colleague who's having a posh gallery show. Sandra sexually harasses a male colleague at the Agileal company. Rex, offering his software to the same company, panics when his design is stolen without payment, and he must survive doing pizza deliveries. These mostly realistic plots are creative and wryly funny, with some goofy touches. Agileal requires staff to wear smiley slippers and use "ergo beanie" chairs while cruelly misleading Rex and Sandra. The supposed therapist gives no advice, keeping clients at arm's length while pampering herself. Franz (Shit Is Real) color codes her roundish, almost Thurber-esque characters: purple toned for Anita's world, orange for Sandra, green for Rex. Mental musings and memories appear in smudgy monochromes. In this work, while therapy may not be therapeutic, failure may not quite be failure, either. Readers will enjoy the absurdities yet will likely relate. VERDICT An inventive take on workplace barriers to mental health, the failure of safety nets, and the resilience of those relying on them.

Library Journal