Was She Pretty?, by Leanne Shapton

I loved Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry by her so much that I actually bought a copy for myself after I saw the copy I ordered for the library, so clearly, I had to read her earlier book, Was She Pretty?
It was wonderful.
Her line drawings are so emotionally intense, and although parts of the book are very funny, the whole feel of it is almost uncomfortably intimate- I think the drawings feel closer than the photographs used in Important Artifacts.
Each page has a black and white drawing, and a tiny- sometimes really tiny- bit of text that somehow expresses a story that would take other writers/artists hundreds of pages or miles of canvas to tell.
I'm half in love with Leanne Shapton.

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry , by Le

I love this so much. The title was too long for me to have room to put the author's name, so here it is- Leanne Shapton. Yes, it is a novel written in the form of an auction catalog.

She did something so amazing here, and did it so exquisitely well.
It might seem like a gimmick, but it is so well done, it's past gimmick and into art.

In fact, I ordered this book for the library, because of an article I read in the NYT about it, and it sounded like something kind of new and interesting and clever. Then about a week later, I realized that some of the books from that order had arrived, but I hadn't seen this one yet, so I mentioned it to a non-fiction friend at work who told me that our cataloging friend had asked her if it was hers, as it looked so much like an odd non-fiction auction catalog. When non-fiction friend denied any knowledge of the book, cataloging friend was going to send it back as a mistake! Well, I ran to tech services and saved the book. Then about half an hour later I read it has been optioned to become a movie with Natalie Portman and Brad Pitt.

It's material culture as all, it's the objects of life showing the feelings, it's the culmination of our consumer society that a love story, with tingles and kisses and tears can be told, perfectly, through a collection of toast racks and pajamas and that the debris of life can tell a story as haunting as a traditional narrative.

Hats off to Leanne Shapton for this one.

I loved it so much that I ordered my own copy, which I lent to a friend. Today she texted me and said "That may be my favorite book." I replied and said "Oh that is so great that you liked it!" She replied and said "I read it twice."

That says it all, I think.