Blurry - by Dash Shaw (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A man can't decide between two dress shirts for a wedding. A woman questions the style of her new glasses and her engagement. A figure-drawing model considers quitting posing. The figure-drawing model's teacher considers quitting teaching. A man drives into a fog bank and is unsure of how to get home. ... In Blurry, Shaw renders the doubts around everyday decisions as startling cliffhangers, presenting us with the kinds of choices that can make a life expand or contract in equal measure"--

Book Synopsis

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, LITERARY HUB, AND FORBES

A warm and quietly inventive new graphic novel about a group of characters whose lives interconnect in subtle, often unseen ways--and the seemingly mundane choices that bring them together or draw them apart.

A man can't decide between two dress shirts for a wedding.
A woman questions the style of her new glasses.
A teacher considers quitting teaching.
A figure-drawing model considers quitting modeling.
A man drives into a fog bank and is unsure how to get home.

From Dash Shaw, cartoonist of one of the New York Times Best Comics of 2021, comes a new graphic novel, Blurry.

In Blurry, Shaw renders doubts around everyday decisions as startling cliffhangers, presenting us with the kinds of choices that can make a life expand or contract in equal measure. Drawn in clear lines and washes, Shaw captures the humor and anxiety of life in a one-of-a-kind structure that bends back to a thrilling, lyrical finish. Blurry is more evidence that Shaw is one of our greatest contemporary cartoonists.

Review Quotes

"Few graphic novels pursue the "novel" part of the construction so successfully. "Blurry" uses a story-within-a-story-within-a-story structure, something less common in comics than in the prose of, say, David Mitchell or Italo Calvino." -- Sam Thielman, The New York Times

"Shaw is in control of all the elements of this book, which could have been created as a prose novel but gains something via the funky, unpredictable turns of his illustrations. Not one moment seems wasted in its 480 pages. It feels like a book I'll reread in a few years. It's the most satisfying new work I've read in 2024." --Frank M. Young, The Comics Journal

"It's a thoughtful work full of well-delineated characters and intriguingly articulated questions." -- Greg Hunter, The Comics Journal

"A chance encounter triggers an intricate sequence of stories within stories in Shaw's kaleidoscopic latest ... Shaw's lithe ink illustrations complement the intimacy of the shared confidences, with subtle stylistic shifts lending each a distinct tone. As the anecdotes form links in a chain of received wisdom, Shaw finds insight glimmering in even the murkiest fog of uncertainty." --Publishers Weekly

"The stories build, blossom and intertwine, moving forward or laterally at their own pace. Truly an example of the journey itself being the designation." --Rob Salkowitz, Forbes

"Shaw has established himself as one of this generation's most distinguished cartoonists.... As characters are faced with decisions ... the focus shifts entirely to a new protagonist, framing personal choices as cliffhangers while steadily expanding the story outward. It all builds to a grand finale that reveals just how much careful consideration Shaw has put into weaving these character threads together to create a fully realized community." --Oliver Sava, A/V Club

"This novel in intricately crafted interconnected stories represents by far the most emotionally affecting and thematically rich entry in Shaw's already-impressive body of work. Not to be missed." --Library Journal

"Shaw, the author-illustrator of "Bodyworld and Bottomless Belly Button," reinvents himself with each graphic novel. Blurry lacks a central character, instead letting the narrative flow from person to person, couple to couple, like a passed baton made up of grace and light." -- Ed Park, The Week

About the Author

Dash Shaw is the author of several graphic novels, including Bottomless Belly Button and Discipline, published by New York Review Comics in 2021 and named one of the best graphic novels of that year by The New York Times. He has written and directed two animated feature films, the most recent of which, Cryptozoo, won the Sundance Film Festival's NEXT Innovator Prize and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.