Jar of Fools

by Lutes, Jason; Alexie, Sherman

• ISBN13: 9781896597720
• ISBN10: 1896597726
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly

Summary

Is there a magic trick for mending broken hearts? Ernie is an alcoholic stage magician haunted by lost love and his brother's suicide. He's hooked up with his senile mentor in a last ditch effort to sort his life out. Esther is numb with grief, working a dead end job while her heart atrophies. Nathan Lender is a small time grifter living on his wits and in a car with his twelve-year-old daughter, Claire. These people have run out of escape tricks and when chance brings them together they discover that love can perform miracles. A meditation on love and loss, magic and dreams.

Author Biography

Jason Lutes is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. He has worked as an art director and editor for various alternative media and comics companies but he's happiest being his own boss. He freelances from his new home in Asheville, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

"A lovely, short 'picture novel' exploring the tenacious bond between an alcoholic stage magician and his cranky mentor." --New York Times Book Review

"Jar of Fools is full of people trying to stop things they care about from melting away, like estranged lovers and old-fashioned jobs...all the main characters—the magician, a coffee-shop cashier, a small time con-man--are in danger of ending up beaten down and swallowed up by the silences of life which Lutes’ well-paced art evokes so effectively" --Details

"The story itself is so masterfully told that it could stand alone as a novella in Harper's. When combined with Lutes’ spare black-and-white line drawings and creative use of the comic book medium, it becomes something transcendent--a piece of literature that speaks to the emotional core." --Wired

"Employing the lost skills of mood, sparseness, and language, Lutes' stunning comic Jar of Fools transcends the usually mealy-mouthed limits of graphic novels and, in the process, winds up being a damn good read." --Spin Magazine

"Reading Jar of Fools is like getting a slow motion punch in the face. There's plenty of time to get out of the way, but something compels you to wait and find out of it’s actually going to hurt as much when it hits. And, of course, it does." --Chris Ware, author of Jimmy Corrigan