The Ruby is excited to host the second meeting of its Graphic Lit Book Club! Whether you’re a graphic novel and graphic memoir enthusiast, you’ve always hoped to dive into the world of long-form graphic narratives, or you’re just looking for your next great read, we’re thrilled to have a space for discussing graphic literature in a cozy book club setting.
Co-hosted by Rubies Zareen Choudhury and Rebecca Rubenstein, Graphic Lit Book Club will meet from 6:00 - 7:30 pm, with light snacks and tea provided.
For our December gathering, we’ll be reading and chatting about Artificial: A Love Story, a newly-released graphic memoir by New Yorker cartoonist Amy Kurzweil. We have a special treat for this month's gathering: Amy Kurzweil herself will be joining us! This will be a great opportunity to ask any questions you have about Artificial and learn more about the process of creating a piece of graphic literature.
Read more about the book below, and snag your copy from a local comic book shop, an independent bookstore, or even your local library.
A non-member friend may join if they are hosted by a Ruby member. Ask your Ruby friend for a link to RSVP.
About Artificial (from Catapult website):
"A visionary story of three generations of artists whose search for meaning and connection transcends the limits of life.
How do we relate to—and hold—our family’s past? Is it through technology? Through spirit? Art, poetry, music? Or is it through the resonances we look for in ourselves?
In Artificial, we meet the Kurzweils, a family of creators who are preserving their history through unusual means. At the center is renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who has long been saving the documents of his deceased father, Fredric, an accomplished conductor and pianist from Vienna who fled the Nazis in 1938.
Once, Fred’s life was saved by his art: an American benefactor, impressed by Fred’s musical genius, sponsored his emigration to the United States. He escaped just one month before Kristallnacht.
Now, Fred has returned. Through AI and salvaged writing, Ray is building a chatbot that writes in Fred’s voice, and he enlists his daughter, cartoonist Amy Kurzweil, to help him ensure the immortality of their family’s fraught inheritance.
Amy’s deepening understanding of her family’s traumatic uprooting resonates with the creative life she fights to claim in the present, as Amy and her partner, Jacob, chase jobs, and each other, across the country. Kurzweil evokes an understanding of accomplishment that centers conversation and connection, knowing and being known by others.
With Kurzweil’s signature humanity and humor, in boundary-pushing, gorgeous handmade drawings, Artificial guides us through nuanced questions about art, memory, and technology, demonstrating that love, a process of focused attention, is what grounds a meaningful life."