Near the end of his life, master storyteller Will Eisner (The Spirit) wrote a graphic novel called A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories that is very famous in the right circles. And I have absolutely no idea what to make of it.
I'm starting to notice a trend in books written by great authors shortly before their deaths (not including those who died young or suddenly), namely, that they're...strange. Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune, for example, or Robert A. Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Like A Contract With God, these books are more heavily weighted towards saying something than they are towards telling stories, but what they have to say is cryptic to me. I like speaking with old people, and especially hearing sermons from people who are close to dying of old age, because they're usually very interesting. Important, too, with the weight of so many years behind their words and lessons.
But these books...in particular the Eisner one since I just read it yesterday...there's a trend here, but a trend of what, I have no idea. I should perhaps keep it in the back of my mind to read this stuff when I'm in my twilight years - maybe then I'll understand.
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