This is one of those books where I'm mad at myself for letting it set on my shelf for so long before reading it. It's about two older people who find each other later in life. One has just lost her mother and is dealing with never having married but runs her own business. The other has recently been laid off from his job as a mover. The first half of the book can be pretty dour as these two struggle to deal with their bodies getting older and being alone. Then when they meet the book turns to joy. I really like both characters and their outlook on life. (I love the reason why the mover hates books.) The book does take an odd turn towards the end but I rolled with it. It's fiction after all. The art is wonderful and adds to the story.

Surprisingly hopeful, sweet and not sad like I had expected it to be from its description. A lovely little story that reminds us that live and living it to the fullest are not over until they are really over.

A sweet story about two elder people and how love can be found at any age.

It was a book full of different stories and fills you with hope as a reader and for me that is a great mood booster.

My description of Blossoms in Autumn by Zidrou, in three words is beautiful, comforting and bittersweet.

Book synopsis:
Ulysses, a middle-aged widower, is forced into early retirement from his moving job. At a loss for what to do next, the course of his life is changed by a chance encounter with a fellow lonely soul at, of all places, his son's OB/GYN office. Mediterranea, who recently lost her mother, runs a cheese shop that she took over when her beloved Corsican father died years earlier. A romance blossoms between these two people who are supposedly in the "autumn" of their lives and they soon find themselves embarking on a most unexpected odyssey.

My musings:
I found this romantic and amusing, though it did contain some bleak elements. Essentially a tale of growing older and discovering love in the golden years, it's very well-written. The author delivers a lot of story - history, backstory, shared memories of songs and events, music and fun. It’s more than a cursory nod to loneliness... it’s a heartfelt pat on the back to anyone who’s been brave enough to risk connecting with someone new at any age.

In a graphic novel, the messages conveyed by the illustrations are immeasurable. Aimée de Jongh’s art work is detailed and evocative, expressing a kaleidoscope of emotions and feelings. The depiction of Ulysses and Mediterranea doesn’t mask the characteristics of their ages, but showcases them as part of their attraction to each other. The tale is plucky and spirited, but I struggled a little with the unexpected situation that is revealed towards the end of the story. I think Blossoms in Autumn is as deep as the reader wants it to be.

Verdict:
You may find Blossoms in Autumn an infinite stream of insight and illumination, or a lightweight, fluffy, and joyous read. For me, it was enjoyable enough and struck a chord, though it wasn't particularly memorable. Recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of Blossoms in Autumn from Europe Comics via NetGalley at my request, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Beautiful love story of two older adults. I wish I could get non-graphic novel readers to try it! I think they would enjoy the literary quality.

I found this a really interesting read that deals with facing the realities of old age, not the most popular topic I'd say. The protagonists in this story finds new love towards the end of their lives, and they find comfort in one another. The art is absolutely lovely, and I enjoyed this more than I'd expected to!

Actual rating: 3.5

This is a bittersweet little story. As I was reading, first I felt sad, then hopeful, then kind of sad again.

I think this might be one of those ones that is just as deep as you want it to be. You could find an endless pool of insight here, or it could be a fluffy fun read.

For me it was enjoyable enough, and it's stuck in my mind for a while since I finished reading it, so it must have struck some chord, though it didn't feel overly memorable as I was reading it.

3 stars for this one.

Blossoms In Autumn is a charming boy meets girl story, also a sometimes bleak, sometimes amusing look at old age and the things people have to deal with when they reach that point. It is nicely illustrated with the story flowing smoothly. The climax of which is a miracle worthy of Elizabeth and Zechariah which wasn't really what I would go for. I have nothing against older people raising children but is breeding and raising children always the given conclusion in coupledom? Couldn't they be happy just being together? Go off to more adventures? The comics as a whole was enjoyable but I wish the conclusion was different, less trite perhaps.

P.S.

I received a copy of Blossoms In Autumn from Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


Soundtrack

I Ain't Getting Older, I'm Getting Better
Rufus Thomas

Blossom in Autumn
Written by Zidrou
Illustrated by Aimee de Jongh
Self Made Hero

Sometimes it feels like it’s only been in recent history that we’ve realized that people over 60 have actual lives that they live, filled with the same emotions as people in their 20s. Not the same lives as people in their 20s, nor the same lives they lived when they were in the 20s, but lives that involve more than sitting around, watching TV, taking pills, and napping.

My gut is that this partly due to the boomers being the first generation who can afford to have amazing lives at that age, and who actually have the time to have these amazing lives, unlike all the poor generations before. Which seems like it would bode well for the next generations, but I don’t think that’s a safe uniform assumption. And anyone who is paying attention knows that millennials are probably totally screwed, so they should really live to the fullest right now.

Blossoms In Autumn is a sweet romance tale that illustrates my point.



Ulysses, 59, was forced to retire, a widower for two decades who spent his life as a mover and now wanders through his impending old age bored. Mediterranea, 62, is a former model who faces her mother’s death and then the reality of her body reflecting the years she has lived. As happens in these things, they will meet at the right moment and find they soften each other’s rough edges, give hope to each other where before they were just looking ahead to the end, and create an energy that makes them feel far less old than they currently are.

This is a fairy tale in some ways and Zidrou brings that point home with references aplenty to Snow White and The Odyssey. The idea here is that your life can be your eternal slumber or your meandering journey, but your old age can be both the magical moment you awaken to find a new shining reality and the goal of your endless quest, and these two circumstances can merge to create something enchanting.



Corny, I know. But it’s sweet, and pulled off with pithy characterizations by Zidrou. The real star here is de Jongh, whose rendering of Ulysses and Mediterranea doesn’t mask the characteristics of their ages, but rather incorporates them as part of what makes the two attractive to each other, and does an especially wonder job with the tender moments between them, especially in contrast to scenes between Ulysses and a prostitute he regularly visits that have more the tone of therapy than sharing.

As with any fairy tale, the ending reflects the magical circumstances that came before it and this is the one part of the book that may divide readers. Without revealing the outcome of the romance, I will say it is something that depends on the suspension of disbelief but does speak to the story’s underlying concept of biology only allowing the decline of aging because the mind has accepted that action as inevitable. But falling in love and making such a connection is at that point a miracle of some sort, I suppose, since we very often relegate such things to the province of the young, so the ending deserves some sort of actual miracle to mirror the circumstance of their union, as well as illustrate the real meaning of the book’s title — it’s not just about being alive in your autumn years, it’s about being renewed.

A story about age and love, although a difficult one to rate. I adored the art style and the first half of the graphic novel. For the most part, it is heartfelt and a little sad thinking about age and love for older people. There is then a twist which, for me, completely ruined it. Overall I feel 'meh' about it. It had a lot of potential but I wasn't in love with the ending. 2.5-3 stars.

Thank you for a copy in exchange for a fair an honest review to Netgalley, the publisher, author and illustrator.

Graphic novel Blossoms in Autumn is a sweet and charming story about two lonely people who find love and romance in the autumn of their lives. The book is a gentle reminder that life and love don't have to end just because we enter our Golden Years. The book is published by Europe Comics and is written by Zidrou who is a master of stories about the human condition, especially about those who have been marginalized by race, disability, or in this case, age. The art by Aimee de Jong is understated and done mainly in soft greys, browns and white; it is lovely and complements the story beautifully.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Europe Comics for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

The illustrations were fantastic and complemented the story so well. I have not read books like this before and I was very impressed.

The story itself was full of emotions. Ultimately life doesn’t end in your 50s and 60s. Our society puts an expiration date on our social life and value is severely diminished. However, this story teaches that while in the Golden Years there is still much love and life to be experienced.

A retired moving man in his late 50s and a cheese shop owner in her early 60s embark on a relationship. When the woman, against all odds and apparently having never been told that even older folks should practice safe sex, becomes pregnant, they flee the judgement of the man's family and go to Corsica, where the book ends before the woman has given birth. The book is meh--not particularly interesting or deep or thoughtful, but not unpleasant to read.

Hmmm… This was a quite classy affair, as it takes the rare thing of elderly romance and makes a graphic novel out of it, but I didn't think it was as great as it might have been. For one thing, the bloke is a bit of an awkward soul, and when he finds his newly-retired self is sparking back into life because he meets an ex-model, the fact he thinks it romantic to rustle up a copy of the nudie mag she featured in does not really endear him. The shtick of him being Ulysses, and of never having read the book he was named after, and her past career, don't make the characters exactly universal, and they end up a little too specific for us to empathise fully.

I certainly could have done with fewer bodily functions, as well.

The biggest decision I would have to query, however, was the artwork for the first love scene. When they get together it is presented in pastel sketch form, and not the fully finished artwork, which made me wonder if it was in fact happening, and made me think the creators didn't expect the warts and all acceptance from their readers that had been asked of the characters. Yes, the pastel is the equivalent of gossamer veils and Vaseline on the lens, but it's not showing the veracity of the piece. But then, by the end we're really into the realm of the implausible, so by the finish I couldn't really pretend the book had stuck to the reality of mature relationships. The fairy tale element to her narration, and this fantasy, acted as too great a distraction from what the makers should have concentrated on showing us. Nice try, however.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for my open and honest review.

I am very taken by this story. Distilled down, this is a story of boy meets girl. However, it is so much more than that. The premise follows two characters who are in the autumn of their lives. The first is Ulysses. He is in his sixties and has just recently been forcibly retired. The once very active Ulysses is now at a loss about how to move on with his life. Mediterranea recently lost her mother after being her sole caretaker for the last nine months. Mediterranea runs a cheese store inherited from her father, again she is at a bit of a loss in knowing what to do at this point in her life. At a chance encounter at Ulysses sons OB/GYN office, the two of them spark a romance. The writing about romance is so on point. It isn’t forced and hackneyed. It is sweet with heat. Chemistry bubbles between them. It feels like a fresh and real love affair. Love that can blossom in the Autumn of their lives.

Graphically this is fantastic. The panels have a misty quality to them, and the characters are drawn well. The art is enough to make me want to read more of this authors work.

It is a life-affirming and wonderful love story that has a great twist of an ending and should be read. You don’t come by comics like this often.

This is such a delightful read! It has just the right amount of humor and sadness. It also has one of the cutest meet cute and courtship I’ve ever read in a graphic novel. The artwork is gorgeous and the skillful paneling lifts up the narration to whole new levels of emotion.

It is at its center a wonderful and inspiring love story, but more than that it is also a meditation on old age, death, and second chances. The novel forces you to look at the harsh reality of life and strips off the glamour of youth to reveal not an ugliness exactly—but rather the cruel truth about your mortality.

It explores loneliness and how it makes you look back at your life and evaluate its value so far. It bravely makes the readers realize that our pursuit of happiness is also the pursuit of passion and purpose. And that without both, we may just be better off dead.

This book provided an unusual exploration of life, loneliness and love late in life.

The strength of the story lies in the beautiful art and the heartbreaking portrait it paints of the loneliness which surrounds us, oftentimes unseen. The weakness lies in the fantastic and improbable ending, which for me was all sorts of problematic. I could have done without the scenes depicting prostitution.

Overall, I found the story disappointing. It left me unsure, and lacked a clear purpose. SPOILER:

If you're going to write in a late in life miraculous conception, a return of fertility and menstruation, a older woman embarking on a life threatening dangerous journey of geriatric pregnancy, the writing should be robust enough to support that exploration. This script simply wasn't: the story collapsed under the weight of it. It felt like the writer had no clue how...depressing, threatening, frightening the idea of menstruation and unexpected pregnancy returning in late life would be to actual women.

SPOILER OVER



If you get the chance to pick this up and read through it, the first part exploring loneliness makes it worth it, but at the end of it all, I was left disappointed.

Prior of reading this book, I had no expectations at all as I’m not familiar with the writer or the artist.. Finished this in one sitting and now I’m out of emotions, it’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The illustrations and colours are so on point with the characters’ moods. Especially love the panels with nothing said at all.

Truly a one of a kind book that deals with older relationships in such a healthy and beautiful way. The artwork was magnificent and greatly complemented the story.

Art - 3.5 / 5
Story - 1 / 5

There are many things in the story that rubs me the wrong way, so... it's not of my liking. And since this is just my personal taste, well, that.

Blossoms in Autumn, -which in French is called "The programmed obsolescence of our sentiments"- is about two aging people who know each other and get together. Ullyses with 59 years is lay off from a moving company, the loneliness and emptiness of his days is well told. While Mediterranea, with 62 years, still works in a cheese factory, she is going through her own crisis of loneliness after the death of her mother whom she cared for.

Newsflash - Life does not end at 50, or at 60. And I must say (coming from a family that mostly lives after the 90s and a hundred years) not even after that. And yes, they still have sex in some cases. I mean, my maternal grandfather was a hardworking , mean, and lecherous man until the day he died at 96 years old.

But it is Ulysses wich bother me. He repeats again and again that 'he hate reading'. STRIKE ONE. I don't know if that hints at problems like dyslexia? but srly? not good.

I guess that with the fairy tales, the SnowWhite bit and the apple, hints to lost opportunities or something like that. Or waiting too much for something to happen and grasp the Now. The 'they live happily forever'?. But it was weird , specially that ending (view spoiler)
That point , add with the frankly masculine point of view of the thing... with the female friend ... the woman he pays for sex when the photograph of the family beside the bed (really?), and she feels sad because Ulysses leaves her (really?) . Just not believable. Also the behaviour of the guy, with the magazine and crass opennings, and the thing with cheese in her hair? Nope , nope, nope.

Not of my liking indeed.