Smahtguy

Starred review from October 4, 2021
Orner (The Completely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green) makes his graphic novel debut with an astute, richly detailed profile of political and gay rights icon Barney Frank. Frank emerged from humble beginnings to become a long-serving Democratic Massachusetts congressman. Though often gruff and impatient—adviser Jimmy Segel once said, “You gotta love Barney Frank to like him”—Frank was a passionate advocate for working-class people throughout his career, and popular enough to weather a sex scandal in 1989, during which he finally came out publicly as gay. Orner was Frank’s former press secretary, and he leverages this insider access to paint a witty, empathic portrait of a brilliant but lonely and conflicted politician who finally learns to reconcile his professional and personal lives, achieving something of a state of grace through coauthoring the landmark Dodd-Frank Act of 2010—and marrying his partner, Jim. Orner has a gift for capturing a sense of place, be it the halls of Congress, Boston streets on a sultry summer’s evening, or a depressed whaling town, all rendered in archly funny, colorful cartooning. He also clearly takes pleasure in caricaturing political villains, as in his deconstruction of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Orner achieves an exceptional balance of poignant biography, warts-and-all character study, and salty political satire. Political bios don’t get much better than this.

September 15, 2021
A pleasing graphic life of the longtime Massachusetts congressional representative. New Jersey-born Barney Frank (b. 1940) represented his Boston-area district for 16 terms in Congress, gaining renown for his financial savvy and, toward the end of his tenure, for co-sponsorship of what became known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He was also the first openly gay member of Congress, though it took him some time to accept and publicly acknowledge his sexuality. As Orner, a former aide, writes in this lively graphic book, Frank, like so many of his generation, was inspired to enter politics by the example of John F. Kennedy, who gave them the "notion that they could build a better America." He was already a "political polymath" as a Harvard undergraduate, with a special interest in human and civil rights. Frank was enlisted by the likes of Michael Dukakis and Kevin White, familiar names in Massachusetts politics, to help organize campaigns and public events, for which he had tremendous skill. Orner writes that all of this had the effect of drawing him away from the academia to which he seemed destined and pushing him instead into public life, starting as an aide to White, the mayor of Boston: "His political acumen, problem-solving skills, and outsider status (without a stake in all the Irishy clan infighting) meant he quickly became the mayor's most relied-upon aide." Orner sensitively depicts Frank's coming out and, at the end of his career, decision to leave Congress and settle with his husband in quiet retirement. But the best part of his book is the unquiet agitation that made Frank, eloquent and stubborn, a bulldog of a fighter on the Hill, representing not just his district, but great masses of disenfranchised, marginalized people in the LGBTQ+, ethnic minority, and labor communities. Fans of Frank will be delighted, and those who don't realize the extent of his political legacy will learn much.

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February 1, 2022
This astonishingly thorough and heartfelt journey follows the life of former U.S. House Representative Barney Frank, the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay--a decision not easily made nor without significant risk in 1987. Orner, a former aide, brings Frank's story to life: from his childhood in New Jersey to college and a never-finished PhD at Harvard; through his tenure in Boston politics to the passing of the infamous Dodd-Frank Act; and, finally, to marriage and retirement. By the end of the comic you may, like many of Frank's constituents, find yourself loving his unkempt, hardworking gruffness, and cheering when he finally finds happiness in his personal life. Orner makes clever use of color to highlight the changing times and moods and strikes a strong balance between accurate representation and caricature of easily recognized political figures. Bay Staters will appreciate the attention to local history and custom. Smahtguy is a smart pick for fans of political biographies.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.