Flood!: A Novel in Pictures

When you first encounter Drooker's story-scape, each precious moment of recognition and association collapses the space that holds you outside the book reading, until you are dropped deeper even into your own world, and marveling at all that is around you. Here, the reader is invited to witness and participate in the appropriations of meaning that constitute the individual's identity in a vast and elusive society. The solitary protagonists in Drooker's stories are journeyers and drifters, transgressing a fluid mythotropic environment that pulses with historical memory and a rich cultural symbology. Drooker's world is pervaded with a deep and compelling mystery. The mystery is in the eclectic progression of images that flash across the page, a fragmented and kaleidescopic depiction of a hybrid instance of collective culture. This is evocative of that strange cross-breeding of cultures, which we see in our cities. Drooker sees within this a kind of hope, which emerges out from behind the distinctively apocalyptic mood and stage of the work. The culture is mined for knowledge that will bestow meaning upon the seeker, fostering a vital and visionary experience. The creative and imaginative integrity that the characters find in the midst of stifling urban anonymity and alienation are a type of personal redemption that brings celestial satisfaction within reach, like an instruction manual for surviving the destruction of the great flood.

The visual metaphors in this book are skillful and moving, as well as very witty at times. I laughed, I... well I didn't really CRY, but I did get sniffly. ;) An engaging commentary on life. Note: If you don't really look at the pictures, you won't get anything out of it. Some of this work is very subtle.

3. Type your review in the space below: (maximum of 1,000 words)I will write only 3 words: I LOVE IT

This book is one of the most precious things I own. It is beautiful beyond words. A story, in painstaking, gorgeous, graphic images, of an artist's metamorphisis and life in the city. You can watch Drooker's work progress as each scratchboard image becomes more refined, more gorgeous. Stunning.

this book really touches me. so deep, empathetic, real. no words, everything expressed thru those poetic woodcuts. i bought 5 books and give them as presents to my best friends.......