Rage. Depression. Divorce. Politics. Love. A visceral story that you
can see, taste, and feel.
How could this happen? The question of 2016 becomes deeply personal in
James Sturm's riveting graphic novel Off Season, which charts one
couple's divisive separation during Bernie Sanders's loss to Hillary
Clinton, Clinton's loss to Donald Trump, and the disorienting months
that followed.
We see a father navigating life as a single parent and coping with the
disintegration of a life-defining relationship. Amid the upheaval lie
tender moments with his kids--a sleeping child being carried in from the
car, Christmas-morning anticipation, a late-night cookie after a temper
tantrum--and fallible humans drenched in palpable feelings of grief,
rage, loss, and overwhelming love. Using anthropomorphized characters as
a tactic for tempering an otherwise emotionally fraught situation, Off
Season is unaffected and raw, steeped in the specificity of its time
while speaking to a larger cultural moment.
A truly human experience, Off Season displays Sturm's masterful pacing
and storytelling combined with conscious and confident growth as the
celebrated cartoonist and educator moves away from historical fiction to
deliver this long-form narrative set in contemporary times. Originally
serialized on Slate, this expanded edition turns timely vignettes into
a timeless, deeply affecting account of one family and their off season.
