California Dreamin' // Penelope Bagieu

A graphic novel that is not a novel, but is actually a graphic biography! But when I write graphic biography, I feel the need to explain; not graphic as in gory content, but graphic as in illustrated biography. I'm not sure what the non-fiction graphic novel equivalent is but I'll do some research and get back to you with the correct genre title. 

Anywho - this book is about Cass Elliot (Mama Cass) from the musical group The Mamas and the Papas. It's about her pre-Mamas and Papas life, and told from the perspective of the myriad of characters she interacted with from childhood to adulthood. 

Bagieu's illustration and writing style is so fun. You're immersed in the characters, and the drawings give you a physical sense of who Cass was, and how she was. The facial expressions are amazing. Bagieu has written several other books, but most of her work is in French. I've only read Brazen, since it's one of the few translated to English (Aha! Another translated work to add to my list! See my post on "The Color of the Sky is the Shape of the Heart") 

After finishing the book, I fell into a deep hole on Spotify, listening to The Mamas and the Papas and many of their contemporaries. This is how I found the genre "Sunshine Pop." It's basically the softer, poppier version of psychedelic rock. 

*Once again, baffled by how to type the accent marks in the title line, but they show up fine here: "Pénélope."