Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride

by Lucy Knisley

Overview

In 2010, Lucy and her long-term boyfriend John broke up. Three long, lonely years later, John returned to New York, walked into Lucy's apartment, and proposed.

This is not that story. It is the story of what came after: The Wedding.

DIY maven Lucy Knisley was fascinated by American wedding culture . . . but also sort of horrified by it. So she set out to plan and execute the adorable DIY wedding to end all adorable DIY weddings. And she succeeded. This graphic novel, Something New--clocking in at almost 300 pages of humor, despair, and eternal love--is the story of how Lucy built a barn, invented a whole new kind of photo booth, and managed to turn an outdoor wedding on a rainy day into a joyous (though muddy) triumph.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626722491
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	633,228
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lucy Knisley is the author and illustrator of beloved graphic novels about memory, identity, food, and family. Her Alex Award-winning graphic novel, Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, tells the story of her childhood steeped in the food industry. It was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into five languages. Her travelogues (French Milk, An Age of License, and Displacement) and web comic series (Stop Paying Attention) have been lauded by critics, and her combined work has built her a devoted readership for her honest and thoughtful true-life stories. Her recent graphic memoirs include Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride. She lives and works in Chicago, with her new husband.

Editorial Reviews

…digressive, meandering and entirely charming—her comics read like a letter one treasures…This is not a particularly dramatic book—nothing really goes awry on Knisley's route to the altar, aside from some rain and a few squabbles with her mom. That's fine: It's a story about a celebration, and Knisley's work is naturally celebratory. Nearly every panel includes a playful symbolic or metaphorical image…

The New York Times Book Review - Douglas Wolk

03/07/2016
“There’s a difference,” Knisley’s bespectacled self says at the start of this breezy yet substantial graphic memoir, “between being a nerd, a fan, an enthusiast... and being an expert.” By the end of her chirpy story about crafting the perfect ceremony for marrying her fiancé, John, Knisley has gone through all of those stages. She, and in some sense the reader, comes out the other end a near expert in the kind of artisanal, ultra-personalized, not-too-pricey wedding that crafty, non-trust-fund millennials could drown their social media accounts in documenting. Like the almost overwhelmingly twee wedding (a barn raising, handmade wood boxes for the guests, midnight poutine) that she plans, Knisley (Displacement, Relish: My Life in the Kitchen) has a knack for presenting a highly precise type of whimsy that stops just shy of precious overkill. The relentlessly bright tone and artwork power the narrative through its less riveting segments. Agent: Holly Bemiss, Susan Rabiner Literary Agency (May)

Publishers Weekly

"[This] graphic-novel memoir from First Second Books follows Lucy Knisley's own decade-long saga toward the altar, as well as her own keen and amusing observations on the marital industry she curated along the way." --The Washington Post

"It's digressive, meandering and entirely charming -- her comics read like a letter one treasures."--The New York Times

"She artfully makes the details of her own experiences appeal to different readers, but it's the emotion behind her writing and beautiful style that manages to be both sweet and brutally honest." --AV Club

"Knisley is a wonderful creator and artist, and someone who clearly was made to be married. This book is as sweetly romantic as it is manically comedic."--Boing Boing

From the Publisher

★ 07/01/2016
The quirky and the mundane sparkle in this new installment of graphic memoirs from Knisley (Age of License; Displacement). When her on-again, off-again boyfriend John turns into a keeper and then proposes, the besotted couple design their own version of "weddingzilla" that turns into a complicated and thoughtful yet rewarding adventure. Food, decor, venue, outfits, and ceremony all come to incorporate DIY touches, and little how-to vignettes encourage readers to consider similar approaches. Rain and mishaps intrude, of course, and Lucy feels a rush of love when her take-charge mom removes a dead squirrel by hand from the reception area. She also ruminates over issues of gender and feminism vs. American wedding culture, and work vs. love dilemmas. The whimsical full-color drawings interweave narration with images of wedding clichés and traditions worldwide, analysis of the couple's feelings about everything, how-to instructions, and occasional photos. VERDICT This mature-minded, multilayered title succeeds as both entertainment and advice, especially for those who want to reduce wedding costs while personalizing the ceremony and having fun, too. For another book from the groom's perspective, see Adrian Tomine's Scenes from an Impending Marriage. [See also Tom Batten's Graphic Novel Preview, "Picture the Possibilities," LJ 6/15/16.—Ed.]—MC

Library Journal

2016-02-17
A newly wedded comic artist shares her experience, by turns hesitant and enthusiastic, planning the big event. Alex Award winner Knisley (Relish, 2013, etc.) offers another genial and creative graphic memoir. This one chronicles her handmade—down to the veil and groomsman's pocket square—wedding. After what feels like an irreconcilable difference of opinion concerning procreation, a complicated separation, some time in relationship limbo, and a wholehearted subway sob, Knisley finds herself engaged to John, a kind and sincere man whom she loves deeply. With this engagement comes a breadth of unexpected feelings—excitement, reluctance, confusion—a tumult which Knisley terms "emotion sickness." She asks herself hard questions about participating in what she has previously felt is a sexist and antiquated ritual which promotes exclusion, wondering "How can something so universal and ubiquitous as a wedding alter a person's perception of herself so much?" With honesty and humor, Knisley tackles such difficult topics as overbearing mothers-of-the-bride, the misery of the "dress safari," the "bridal weight loss imperative," making the wedding her own artistic accomplishment, and dead squirrels. She documents in a self-expressive and clever style as she learns the compromise that comes with weddings, marriage, and love. Like her wedding, Knisley's book is introspective and inventive; the illustrations are charming, the language clear, and the sequence coherent. At once universal and deeply personal, this book is a visual and emotional achievement. Open, original, and at times amusing narrative of being a "makeshift bride."

Kirkus Reviews