“The Great Outdoors” by Catherine Meurisse

Catherine Meurisse relives her childhood home in the countryside of France. As a child, her parents moved the family to a farm in the country, where they could get away from the hectic pace and lack of space in the city. It’s the dream of a simpler, more connected life.

Catherine spent her childhood learning about humanity’s relationship with the land and connecting it to the arts, mostly in the form of quotes from the likes of Marcel Proust and some other French literary types whose names I don’t recognize and works I don’t know.

Yeah, this one is very French.

I have mixed feelings. It’s not a bad book, but it’s just not my thing. There are some parts I enjoyed, though, so it’s worth talking about.

The Trees, The Bees, and The Credits

Living In Simpler Times

Catherine’s parents moved their family — including their two young daughters — out to the countryside to live in a ramshackle home that her father had to fix up into working shape himself. The move away from city life turned into something much bigger.

The parents are showing their children what it means to be connected with nature. Catherine learns the basics of life, including the birth of a cow, the death of a cow for the meat it produces, and the neighboring farm that uses the blood of the dead cows as a kind of fertilizer for their crops.

Yeah, ick.

Her parents also show her how the timing of crops’ growth is not coincidental. Nature has its own rhythms and systems in place. The observant can see how things fit together, from the timing of the blossoms to the arrival of the bees.

And humans, naturally, are disturbing it along the way for reasons of either greed, efficiency, or aesthetics.

Young Catherine is young and impressionable. The biggest influence on her life is the latest influence in her life. And she mirrors her parents’ belief systems so easily, as we all do when they’re the center of our universes and the closest authority to be trusted and believed.

She celebrates the weirdness she finds in nature the way only a child might. The topic of fecal matter is an area of study, for example. She opens a museum in the house to show off the specimens of poop that she’s collected, as well as showing off the ancient pottery and statues she’s found, and how several things on their farm relate back to French literary giants.

That’s the other half of the book. Meurisse connects nature and the characters’ observations on it back to classic literary works of French fiction. She quotes from a few different sources over the course of this graphic novel. Some are from names you may have heard of (Baudelaire! Proust! Others, not so much.

It’s an impressive collection of quotes that Meurisse relates back to the story. I’m sure I’d be more impressed if I was a French grad student of literature. For me, it gets a little tedious at times. I did have to push my way through it a couple of times. I just don’t have a connection to the material.

I’m impressed at the work it must have taken to find the right quotes for the right scenes, but it’s just not my area of interest.

Following the wide-eyed young Catherine on her journey growing up and learning about the world around her in such a close fashion is the draw of the book. If you’re looking for high drama or a soap opera, you won’t find it here. This isn’t a three-act structure kind of book. There are definitely conflicts in the book, but it’s more a rumination than a dramatization. The description of the book refers to it as a poem — don’t take that too literally, though it does have its moments.

There are whimsical touches to the book that are also appreciated. A garden gnome becomes a chatty friend, for example. Catherine’s imagination brings historical figures to life in her backyard, and turns her backyard into the Palace of Versailles. And there’s a funny moment where she realizes that the boys are growing up a bit faster than she is, and she doesn’t understand why they laugh when she holds fresh-picked melons up in front of her.

Drawing On Nature

Meurisse does wonderful drawings of nature. Everything from the fields around the farm to the groupings of trees are impressive. When young Catherine sits in a field of taller plants and flowers, there’s a lot of artistic attention paid to the combination of flora behind her. There’s an educational component to the book, so it’s smart to be so detailed at times when specific plants are being called out.

She has great techniques for drawing all the vegetation in the book. It’s done with what looks like colored pencils, though it might be all digital for all I know. Isabelle Merlet is credited with the colors in this book, though I honestly have a hard time figuring where one job ends and the other begins in a book like this. It looks great, though.

It also contrasts well with the characters in the foreground. Meurisse’s figure work is very simply constructed. The characters are made with minimal line work, often just outlines and solid colors. They stand out against a sea of more detailed plants, flowers, crops, and trees.

The book is framed by a now-adult Meurisse standing in her Parisian apartment and imagining what it would be like to go back to her childhood. She draws a door on the wall and passes through to become her younger self. She comes out at the end and visits her parents in the here and now.

It’s a nicely constructed story that’s filled with great moments and pleasant art, but overall just isn’t my thing.

Recommended

If you want something that feels more “literary” that’s still punctuated with moments of silliness and humor, this book works. If you enjoy the entire Fantagraphics line of books, this one will fit right in.

It’s not that the book is bad. Far from it. It’s very well done. I’m glad I tried it, and I’ll definitely be trying another of Meurisse’s books. She has three others available in English today. And let’s not forget she was a runner-up last year for the Grand Prix at Angouleme, losing out to Chris Ware. (The third finalist was Penelope Bagieu.)

One last note: Matt Madden, noted American figure in the OuBaPo world, translated this book. There is a page of notes in the back of the book to explain where the literary references come from, and it includes extra notes from Madden to explain some of the French references you might not get. That was helpful.

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