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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | GRAPHIC 921 GOODMAN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | GRAPHIC 921 GOODMAN | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A sweeping, unique graphic memoir about an artist's year abroad in Paris and how it gave way to an all-encompassing love affair and crushing heartbreak as he wrestled with trauma, masculinity, and the real possibility of hope.
Renowned graphic artist Timothy Goodman planned to do what every young artist dreams of and spend a year abroad in Paris. While there, he fell in love in a way he never had before. For the first time in his life, he let himself be loved and finally, truly loved someone else. But the deeper the love, the more crushing the heartbreak when the relationship eventually fell apart, forcing him to look inwards. He confronted traumas of his past as well as his own toxic masculinity, and he learned to finally show up for himself.
I Always Think It's Forever is a one-of-a-kind graphic memoir that chronicles it all--the ups, the downs, love lost, and love found--all in the bold illustration style Goodman is best known for, with poetic prose and handwritten wording to accompany the artwork with a touch of humor added as well. It's a glimpse inside the heart and mind of a man, first focusing on the time Goodman spent in Paris, including diary entries relating his experiences learning about French food, culture, and language. This touching memoir also explores the painful break-up just six months later in Rome. Goodman artfully describes his attempts at learning to love himself in the end, his scars, cuts, warts, and all in a way no book ever has before.
Author Notes
Timothy Goodman is an award-winning artist, graphic designer, author, and public speaker. His art and words have populated walls, buildings, packaging, shoes, clothing, books, magazine covers, and galleries all over the world for brands such as Apple, Nike, Google, MoMA, Netflix, Tiffany & Co., Samsung, Yves Saint Laurent, Sundance, Uniqlo, Target, The New Yorker , and The New York Times . He regularly partners with not-for-profit organizations and schools to create art for communities in New York. He's the author of Sharpie Art Workshop and the cocreator of several projects including the viral blog and book 40 Days of Dating . His first solo gallery exhibition, I'm Too Young to Not Set My Life on Fire , was on view in Manhattan in 2021. Timothy's work often discusses mental health, therapy, manhood, race, politics, heartbreak, and love. He teaches at School of Visual Arts, regularly speaks around the world at creative conferences, and enjoys sharing his life on Instagram. He lives in New York City.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Artist Goodman (Sharpie Art Workshop: Techniques and Ideas for Transforming Your World) recalls a failed relationship in this tender if uneven illustrated memoir. After a year of neglecting his mental health, Goodman visited Paris, where he fell in love with a Frenchwoman named Aimée. Four months later, Goodman returned home to New York City alone, and the couple eventually broke up, which sent Goodman into a spiral of depression. After therapy and medication, he was diagnosed with attachment disorder, partially the result of his traumatic upbringing (his first stepdad physically abused him). Goodman makes no bones about his vulnerability ("Breakups take a big toll on me") as he plumbs the depths of his despair, but Aimée remains frustratingly opaque: other than her love of Britney Spears and astrology, she is solely defined as the object of Goodman's affection. The whimsical illustrations evoke Keith Haring's graffiti-like pop art, though they feel oddly buoyant in contrast to the melancholy material. Still, this emotionally raw narrative will resonate with anyone who has endured heartbreak. Agent: Jesseca Salky, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. (Jan.)
Kirkus Review
A graphic memoir about romance in Paris. In 2019, coming off a year of major depression, noted artist and graphic designer Goodman wanted to "do something big for myself--not for my career, not for someone else, not for some impossible facade I could never keep up with because of fear." He decided to move to Paris for six months, learn French, and eat "all the baguettes." While he was there, he met Aimée, who gave him a "tingly feeling I hadn't felt since I was a teen." After only a few months, the author committed wholeheartedly to the relationship. "I was thinking about wedding pictures," he writes. Unfortunately, the romance didn't survive Goodman's move back to New York City, and the challenges of a long-distance relationship proved too much for the couple. Eventually, they met in Rome and broke up. This book, illustrated in Goodman's characteristic Sharpie-based style, is his attempt to create "art out of my own heartache." The story of his brief but intense love affair is a jumping-off point for the author to excavate his own traumas and vulnerabilities, beginning with the departure of his biological father when Goodman was only 18 months old. The author also delves into some of his other unlucky relationships with women, and he includes a brief, post-breakup interlude. Goodman casts himself as the starry-eyed romantic of the book's title, a "sentimental" person who "cries to The Internon a two-hour-long flight to Chicago." He is overwhelmingly open about his emotions about the breakup, noting that when a rumor reached him that his ex may have been unfaithful to him, he got drunk and "wrote two intense emails to my therapist like I was 2Pac in his prime." Goodman's willingness to bare it all is touching, but the end result feels more like a blog than a cohesive book. An intermittently moving tale of love and loss in the City of Light. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
