The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim

The Eternal Smile is a collection of three short stories by the authors of American Born Chinese and of Same Difference and Other Stories. "Duncan's Kingdom" is, at first glance, a traditional high fantasy tale about a young man who has to kill the Frog King and bring back his head to win the princess' hand. But from the very beginning, when our hero awakes startled from a nightmare, we suspect that not everything is what it seems.

"Granpa Greenbax and The Eternal Smile" is a story written in the tradition of older comics like Uncle Scrooge. Granpa Greenbax is a greedy frog always on the lookout for a new way to make money. When his assistant tells him about the Eternal Smile in the sky and the peace it brings him, Granpa Greenbax decides to start his very own cult.

Finally, "Urgent Request" is the story of a lonely and underestimated young woman who decides to reply to an e-mail from a Nigerian Prince is urgent need of funds. As you can imagine, that e-mail is only the first of many with requests for just one extra loan. But I bet you can't imagine the turn things eventually take.


If there's one thing these three stories have in common is that what I said about the first applies to all of them: things are not as they seem. These stories all seem to lead readers in one direction only to make them question their assumptions later on - assumptions about the story, the world it's set in, the characters and their motivations, and the beliefs that made us jump to certain conclusions. Maybe you're thinking that a book in which all stories use this kind of sleight of hand will be a little gimmicky, and if so I don't blame you. But somehow Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim manage to avoid that completely.

What I loved about these stories was not the fact that they all surprised me, but the fact that they were so human. The twists, if I may call them that, are not there to prove to readers how clever the writers are. They serve a purpose: they add depth to the stories, they make them more effective and more moving.


Another thing these three tales have in common is that they explore the role of illusions, of the imagination and of fantasy in our lives. And I promise that by "explore" I don't mean "make some simplistic point about". There's no no one-size-fits-all conclusion, but rather an honest analysis of how the stories we are told and the stories we tell ourselves can deceive us, comfort us, or free us.

My favourite of the stories was the very last one, "Urgent Request", and I admit that part of the reason was the absolutely stunning art. But even though the final story stands out, I enjoyed the art in all of them. I liked how varied it was, and how well the style of each fit the content. A few more examples:



Other opinions:
Tripping Towards Lucidity
So Many Books, So Little Time
Reading Rants!
Stuff as Dreams are Made On
The Written World

(Please let me know if I missed yours.)