Was She Pretty?
by Leanne Shapton
2006
Leanne Shapton's Was She Pretty? is so lean and spare, it almost reads like poetry. The jacket copy acts like an unofficial prologue or introduction. Shapton, we are told, was inspired by finding photos of her new boyfriend's ex-girlfriend around his apartment, and set about interviewing people about their and their partners' exes. The book itself mentions none of this. Instead, we start with a quote from Kierkegaard, about being a link in a long chain, and then dive into a series of two-page spreads that pair a tweet-length sentence about someone's ex with a drawing by Shapton. I sort of assume the sentences are all true and based on her interviews, but I don't know that for sure.
The entire book is in Shapton's cursive handwriting, rather than being typeset. The drawings are almost doodles, composed solely of thick black outlines and no shading, the same weight as the text, drawn with the same pen. From the text, we learn the name of the person who has the ex, possibly the name of the ex, and some factoid. For some reason, most of the exes are former girlfriends of men. There's only one queer person mentioned. Early on, there is a chain, showing us someone's ex-girlfriend, then her ex-boyfriend, then his ex-girlfriend, and back a few more links. But mostly we get singletons, occasionally pairs. The facts are notable, but don't tell us much. I don't know if Shapton's boyfriend's ex is in here.
I know some people really like really pared down, cut to the bone writing. Haiku, in particular, is supposed to evoke a whole complete image in just three short lines. I've never been able to fully appreciate that though. Maybe, it's the sociologist in me, but what I wanted most from this book was more. More detail, more depth.
The people we're introduced to by name, who are they to Shapton? Her family? Friends? Coworkers? Her own ex-boyfriends? Random strangers who agreed to talk to her? Besides the one key fact, the thing you might say to distinguish one ex from the next, what else is worth knowing about them? How do they impact your current relationship? How does your current partner feel about the memory of them, the clues they left behind, their lingering presence? For most of us, stumbling on reminders of our partners' past loves is the closest we'll ever get to being haunted by ghosts. But I feel like that scarcely comes through at all, even though Shapton's starting point was grappling with her own jealousy and the recurring image of a woman she'd never met.
I liked Was She Pretty?, but reading it made me wish for another book, a different, longer book that uses the same conceit, but whose author allows themselves more words, more space, more detail, more art, more.
The entire book is in Shapton's cursive handwriting, rather than being typeset. The drawings are almost doodles, composed solely of thick black outlines and no shading, the same weight as the text, drawn with the same pen. From the text, we learn the name of the person who has the ex, possibly the name of the ex, and some factoid. For some reason, most of the exes are former girlfriends of men. There's only one queer person mentioned. Early on, there is a chain, showing us someone's ex-girlfriend, then her ex-boyfriend, then his ex-girlfriend, and back a few more links. But mostly we get singletons, occasionally pairs. The facts are notable, but don't tell us much. I don't know if Shapton's boyfriend's ex is in here.
I know some people really like really pared down, cut to the bone writing. Haiku, in particular, is supposed to evoke a whole complete image in just three short lines. I've never been able to fully appreciate that though. Maybe, it's the sociologist in me, but what I wanted most from this book was more. More detail, more depth.
The people we're introduced to by name, who are they to Shapton? Her family? Friends? Coworkers? Her own ex-boyfriends? Random strangers who agreed to talk to her? Besides the one key fact, the thing you might say to distinguish one ex from the next, what else is worth knowing about them? How do they impact your current relationship? How does your current partner feel about the memory of them, the clues they left behind, their lingering presence? For most of us, stumbling on reminders of our partners' past loves is the closest we'll ever get to being haunted by ghosts. But I feel like that scarcely comes through at all, even though Shapton's starting point was grappling with her own jealousy and the recurring image of a woman she'd never met.
I liked Was She Pretty?, but reading it made me wish for another book, a different, longer book that uses the same conceit, but whose author allows themselves more words, more space, more detail, more art, more.
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