One of the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2019!
“Off Season is a revelation… The soulful faces of Sturm’s nonhuman, all-too-human characters ask us to withhold judgment, hear out the other sides of the story.”—The New York Times
“Off Season’s subject is estrangement, political and emotional [yet] there is a sweetness here that both mitigates against the story’s existential sadness and deepens it, somehow. It democratises Sturm’s characters and, in doing so, reminds the reader at every turn that the US is growing ever less fair almost by the minute.”—The Guardian
“The ache of a specific sort of masculine longing and restraint is powerfully articulated [in Off Season,] a book that feels true to the current moment.”—The Boston Globe
“In sombre, grey-blue tones, Sturm captures the wintry, desolate mood of a world with Donald Trump ascendant. Powerless to effect change, facing down foreclosed futures, everyone in Sturm’s book feels, as the President is so fond of saying, ‘like a dog.’”—The Globe & Mail
“James Sturm’s spare, clean illustrations... offer glimpses through window panes onto a family’s life.”—The Chicago Tribune
“At the heart of the book, the humanism of the relationships and their aura of palpable hopelessness and also of lingering hope, rings with a gut-wrenching consistency.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle
“The unadorned style of Sturm’s drawing contributes to the book’s emotional tug, focusing our attention on the characters rather than the world around them.”—The Financial Times
“As the troubled characters stagger from crisis to crisis as if punch-drunk, the country experiences its own separation. It’s grim stuff, mostly focused on a single father who just can’t get a break and is, frankly, an idiot. The subtext is plain, yet thought-provoking.”—The Toronto Star
“This finely wrought, politically agitated graphic fiction recalls Raymond Carver, and speaks almost too painfully to the personal strife in today’s political climate.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“What could feel like yet another Trump voter apologist pastiche becomes something much deeper and harder to bear, about loss and lost time. It was one of the first graphic novels of 2019 that I read, and definitely on my list of the best this year.”—PEN America
“Sturm doesn’t make the entire book about the election, but he maintains a strong political undercurrent throughout, reinforcing how partisan allegiances impact personal interactions even when no one is talking about the government.”—The AV Club
“Off Season, is a wintry domestic drama set against an economic downturn and snow. Lots of snow. The result is a punchy, beautifully crafted story that suggests a country in an anxious place.”—The Scotland Herald
★ 04/01/2019
Mark and wife Lisa, passionate supporters of Bernie Sanders, find themselves disoriented and depressed after the senator's presidential campaign comes to an end. Three months later, Lisa has rallied and thrown herself into supporting the Hillary Clinton campaign, but Mark can't help but feel adrift, left behind and more than a little angry, especially after his marriage begins to crumble. Suddenly Mark is tasked with figuring out how to raise two small children on his own, reconnect with his aging parents, and deal with a boss who sports a Bernie bumper sticker on his BMW but seems suspiciously quick with an excuse every time Mark asks for a paycheck. Sturm (The Golem's Might Swing) presents a masterfully illustrated meditation on masculinity, family, and the modern American psyche, delivered with such empathy and insight into the human condition that from page to page readers might forget that all of the characters are anthropomorphized dogs. VERDICT Many readers will relate to the spiritual malaise Sturm captures here, but it's the story's ultimately hopefully ending that makes this the first truly essential graphic novel to tackle American life since 2016.
