O Josephine! by Jason Review

Four shorts make up Jason’s latest book, O Josephine!, most of which I really enjoyed.

The Wicklow Way is a kind of companion piece to his last book, On the Camino, where Jason this time hikes the titular walk in Ireland. As a fellow hiker, I found myself relating to a lot of the scenes: the relief at seeing a sign telling you you’re on the right path (it IS like hi-fiving a friend!) and the sinking terror of realising you’ve been walking for miles in the wrong direction!

One of my criticisms of On the Camino was that it was too little material for too many pages (nearly 200) whereas The Wicklow Way is a much tighter and more compelling read at 49 pages. The pacing is snappier, there’s little fat to bog it down and, despite Jason’s minimalist art style, you got a good sense of Ireland’s rural beauty. This nonfiction piece was my favourite of the four shorts.

L. Cohen: A Life sounds like more nonfiction – and maybe some of it is; I don’t know Leonard Cohen’s biography at all! – though it definitely verges into daffy fiction towards the end. Did he really get into so many fights with other famous people? It’s interesting and funny nonetheless – my second favourite.

The Diamonds was the only one that went over my head. It’s a confusing family drama with meta crime elements – not boring, just unnecessarily convoluted and vague.

O Josephine! is classic Jason: an anachronistic story of Napoleon Bonaparte and his former lover Josephine who feud for years (centuries?) over an ornament. It’s wacky (why Napoleon??), mixing in real-life historical elements with the kind of scenes you’d expect to see in a Mission Impossible movie. That said, it’s not great and, even in this format, the material felt a bit stretched - but I didn’t dislike it either.

Overall, Jason fans won’t be disappointed with his latest collection – O Jason, you are a great cartoonist, sir!