Acting Class (Hardcover)
Staff Reviews
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players - Shakespeare
In his follow-up to his masterpiece for the age of mass media Sabrina, Chicago graphic novelist Nick Drnaso utilizes his uncanny ability to plumb the psychological depths ofhis characters to devastating effect in his new masterwork: Acting Class. Drnaso turns to familiar existential questions such as: are we all just performers in our daily lives? Who are we if not actors for other people? He then expands upon these questions further to what if we were to play our "roles" differently, how would that shape our reality and our interpretations of truth? How would we be perceived, perceive others and even ourselves? In a dense work such as this, Drnaso offers more questions than answers, and portrays this story in a more detailed and elaborate art style compared to his previous two novels, while maintaining his signature deadpan, minimalist, and melancholic style. This mixture of art and subject matter, as with Sabrina and Beverly, creates a disorienting and devastating combination for the reader, and I often felt perplexed and emotionally hollow, feeling just as confused as I was when the book started. It's a book better experienced than explained, and yet another masterpiece in Nick Drnaso's already stellar career. Marco thinks this graphic novel SLAPS!
— MarcoDescription
A brilliant and suspenseful follow-up to the Booker-nominated graphic novel Sabrina.
"Every single person has something unique to them which is impossible to re-create, without exception." —John Smith, acting coach
From the acclaimed author of Sabrina, Nick Drnaso’s Acting Class creates a tapestry of disconnect, distrust, and manipulation. Ten strangers are brought together under the tutelage of John Smith, a mysterious and morally questionable leader. The group of social misfits and restless searchers have one thing in common: they are out of step with their surroundings and desperate for change.
A husband and wife, four years into their marriage and simmering in boredom. A single mother, her young son showing disturbing signs of mental instability. A peculiar woman with few if any friends and only her menial job keeping her grounded. A figure model, comfortable in his body and ready for a creative challenge. A worried grandmother and her adult granddaughter; a hulking laborer and gym nut; a physical therapist; an ex-con.
With thrumming unease, the class sinks deeper into their lessons as the process demands increasing devotion. When the line between real life and imagination begins to blur, the group’s deepest fears and desires are laid bare. Exploring the tension between who we are and how we present, Drnaso cracks open his characters’ masks and takes us through an unsettling American journey.
About the Author
Nick Drnaso was born in 1989 in Palos Hills, Illinois. His debut, Beverly, received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel. His followup, the graphic novel Sabrina, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2018 and received nominations for the Booker Prize, the Eisner Award, the LD and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. Sabrina has been published in fifteen countries. Drnaso lives in Chicago with his wife and their two cats.
Praise For…
“Nick Drnaso uses a deadpan, quick-cut drawing style to explore loneliness, paranoia, and the subjectivity of “truth.” It’s all very mysterious, kind of creepy, and extremely suspenseful."—Elena Goukassian, Vulture
"Drnaso again distills quite brilliantly aspects of 21st-century anomie and alienation."—Rachel Cooke, The Guardian
"A wholly unsettling masterclass in disquiet."—Nick Duerden, The Independent
"This fascinating tale about an amateur acting group discovering the tenuous line between artifice and reality kept me reading well into the night. It is at once a commentary on the power of art to reshape us, and on the dangers of conforming. Acting Class is uncanny, wholly original, and deeply satisfying."—Esi Edugyan, Washington Black
“Eerily domestic.”—Shelby Shaw, ArtForum
"Masterfully told, artfully layered, and beautifully rendered, Acting Class shows again that Nick Drnaso is attuned to a particular American ennui and eeriness like no other artist currently at work. He is a unique talent."—Kevin Barry, Night Boat to Tangier
“Inarguably surprising and disturbing… [Drnaso’s] careful building of suspense and overpoweringly eerie mood makes the long build worthwhile well before the final and powerfully cinematic twist.”—Chris Barsanti, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"An incisive exploration of alienation that is increasingly unsettling as it builds to a shocking conclusion."—Tom Batten, Library Journal, Starred Review
"A provocative portrait of the search for connection and meaning in modern life."—Publishers Weekly