9781560977834
Heartbreak Soup: The First Volume of "Palomar" Stories from Love & Rockets share button
Gilbert Hernandez
Format Paperback
Dimensions 7.60 (w) x 9.30 (h) x 0.90 (d)
Pages 288
Publisher Fantagraphics Books
Publication Date March 2007
ISBN 9781560977834
Book ISBN 10 1560977833
About Book

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, Love and Rockets is finally released in its most accessible form yet: As a series of compact, thick, affordable, mass-market volumes that present the whole story in perfect chronological order. This volume collects the first half of Gilbert Hernandez's acclaimed magical-realist tales of
"Palomar," the small Central American town, beginning with the groundbreaking "Sopa de Gran Pena" (which introduces most of his main cast of characters as children, plus the imposing newcomer Luba), and continuing on through such modern-day classics as "Ecce Homo," "Act of Contrition," "Duck Feet," and the great love story "For the Love of Carmen."

Reviews

The Washington Post

“An addictive soap opera, replete with humor and heart.”

Douglas Wolk

In the earliest stories, Hernandez's writing owes a distinct debt to Gabriel Garcia Márquez -- he even names a character Soledad Marquez after the novelist and his book One Hundred Years of Solitude. Very quickly, though, he figures out his particular gift: a loose, loopy, telegraphic narrative style, built on broad caricatures, goofy dialogue ("By the big slippers of big slipperdom!" one character exclaims), acutely observed details of facial expressions and body language, and abrupt leaps between scenes that force readers to fill in the gaps on their own. After the title story (1983), Hernandez's stories flutter backward and forward across decades in his characters' lives.
— The Washington Post