Imagine Wanting Only This

When Kristen Radtke was in college the sudden death of a beloved uncle and not long after his funeral the sight of an abandoned mining town marked the beginning moments of a lifelong fascination with ruins and with people and places left behind. Over time this fascination deepened until it triggered a journey around the world in search of ruined places. Now in this genre-smashing graphic memoir she leads us through deserted towns in the American Midwest Italian villas islands in the Philippines New York City and the delicate passageways of the human heart. At once narrative and factual historical and personal Radtke's stunning illustrations and piercing text never shy away from the big questions Why are we here and what will we leave behind? Review This delicate multi-layered mediation on memory loss and the allure of abandoned spaces is an astonishingly sure-footed first work.... Radtke’s clear and earnest linework adds a dimension that elevates it above the standard 'young person’s memoir' genre while bringing the narrative strengths of contemporary literary non-fiction to the graphic novel format. -Forbes“Radtke is first and foremost a superhuman of illustration a grandmaster like Adrian Tomine or Chris Ware. . . . Close-ups of hands and faces alternate with expansive landscapes painted in delicate shades of gray a ray from a flashlight pierces the night birds swoop up into the sky in silhouette a ceiling fan morphs into an airplane in the eyes of an insomniac. Not a line is out of place in these drawings as they depict contemporary reality with uncanny precision. . . . As Radtke attempts to engage with an immense idea that is beyond most people’s grasp-how to live when all things come to an end?-what ultimately emerges is a portrait of a powerful mind grappling with alienation and loneliness.” -Anya UlinichThe New York Times Book ReviewWith elegant writing and arresting drawings Kristen Radtke’sImagine Wanting Only This . . . grapple[s] with the limits of how much understanding our past can help us comprehend our present. . . . Radtke balances the personal-insomnia failed love her own heart ills and loss-with larger historical forces and events. Her atmospheric black and white drawings shift between close-ups of telling details-a pile of mail on the floor a single hanging bulb in a garage-and powerful full-page illustrations. She is a master of silhouette and shadow of negative space evoking a sense of potent isolation. -Nina MacLaughlinThe Boston Globe“One of the most haunting graphic memoirs I’ve ever read. . . . As we turn the pages on [Radtke’s] journey we are ravaged and ravished. There is a proud tradition of graphic memoirists-of those dually equipped to wield word and image-to tell the true and deeply considered story of a life. Alison Bechdel Roz Chast Riad Sattouf David Small Marjane Satrapi Art Spiegelman and others have done it searingly well. Add now to that list Radtke who proves herself an equal among equals with this debut book. . . . Radtke's imagination can't help itself. Her final pages are unapologetic they are forecasts. They force the reader to confront the world as the world might soon be.Did you really just do that Kristen Radtke? I said the words out loud the first time I finished readingImagine Wanting Only This. Are you allowed? To disarm us to charm us to goad us to frighten us to end this book the way you do? But I have just read this book again and indeed Radtke pulls no punches her work is as wonderful and heartbreaking the second time through. I'm still scooped out but I'm still deeply grateful for the towering power of Radtke's vision.” -Beth Kephart Chicago Tribune“Remarkable. . . . a breathtaking mix of prose and illustration.” -The Atlantic “A miracle and a masterpiece.” -Electric Literature“Brilliant. . . . The book is a family drama youthful romance obsessive adventure an