Lulu stands for a Drink
When a young woman takes a quirky look at the news, the game becomes really biting and engaging, and all of this, without moderation.
From talking about clothes through wide-ranging culture, from economics to politics, or sports to society, Lulu d'Ardis, by a stroke both acerbic and tender, sketches her fellow humans, restoring for us bar-talks straight out of the tradition of overheard counter anecdotes. Her mordant drawings or ironic and funny wordplays, throw a mocking and shifted look over a whole generation…
It is indeed difficult to hit home with just a drawing, only a few very good caricaturists and cartoonists are able to do it and Lulu d'Ardis, who sketches the news on her blog site of LeMonde.fr is certainly one of them. She brings a sort of elegance to her jarring, punchy and so realistic dark humour. Everyone is splashed in turn and it's frankly jubilant…
In addition to a simple sketch-stroke and the quirky humour of her bar-counter anecdotes, this collection combines original illustrations and drawings from publications for "Le Monde" newspaper, that gives a sort of collector look. The book is divided into several chapters and, in the drawings, everyone is unabashedly revealed, be it in fashion, sport, employment, politics, economics, youths… In short, everything that affects us in one way or another, along the incoming news. It is frankly hilarious and even sometimes really puzzling. We read it as if we were tasting a good glass of wine, just a sip at a time, but with relish.
In addition to a simple sketch-stroke and the quirky humour of her bar-counter anecdotes, this collection combines original illustrations and drawings from publications for "Le Monde" newspaper, that gives a sort of collector look. The book is divided into several chapters and, in the drawings, everyone is unabashedly revealed, be it in fashion, sport, employment, politics, economics, youths… In short, everything that affects us in one way or another, along the incoming news. It is frankly hilarious and even sometimes really puzzling. We read it as if we were tasting a good glass of wine, just a sip at a time, but with relish.
However if tone, criticism and language are quite good, pungent, caustic, youthful and even quirky at times; personally, I must confess being somewhat dissatisfied with the book-layout and presentation. So many white pages adorned with very few drawings and many blanks are leaving me a little disappointed… I would have expected a more personal, more documented book than a mere copy/paste out of the blog, with more worked-out pages.
This being said, "Lulu stands for a Drink" (Editions du Chêne) remains a sometimes caustic, sometimes touchy album, but always fair in tone and criticism. In short an excellent remedy against the current sullenness fed by the news.
