Yes, graphic novels are thriving. (Well done, Booker) | Rachel Cooke
Comic book Sabrina by Nick Drnaso is on the longlist for the prize, but it’s just the latest in a fine tradition
How am I supposed to feel about the fact that for the first time a graphic novel has made it on to the Booker longlist? As someone who loves comics, and who has championed them in this newspaper for more than a decade, it should go without saying that I’m thrilled. Sabrina by Nick Drnaso is a good book by any standards: as deeply rich in mood, voice and plot as any regular novel I’ve read this year.
But in truth, I can’t help but be irritated by all the fuss, too. To me, it’s as if someone had suddenly pointed out that music is great, or trees, or swimming pools. Given the thriving state of the comic, and the relative weediness of certain other literary forms, surely the bigger story here by far is the fact that the poet Robin Robertson’s wondrous verse novel, The Long Take, is also on the list.
