Bibliofreakblog

The Sandman: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman

Barbie and Ken, from The Doll’s House, have split up, and now Barbie is living in another house full of weird folks.  

She hasn’t had a dream since she left Ken, which her friend, Wendy, the drag queen, tells her is abnormal.  But all of that is about to change when she gets pulled back into the dreamworld skerry she used to inhabit.  Thessaly the witch lives in the building and is determined to track down Barbie, not because she cares about her, but because the same thing threatening Barbie threatened her, and that she will not abide.  Thessaly rounds up the rest of the building in order to enter into the skerry.  

And you know, some stuff happens there.

But the really interesting thing about this volume is its discussions of gender roles and sexual orientation.  Is a man who lives as a woman really a woman?  What if he has undergone a sexual operation?  What does that make this person on a metaphysical level?  What about a chromosomal level?  And how should that person be remembered by others?  Can a lesbian have sex with a man and still be a lesbian?  What does that mean?  Are labels fluid or are they static?  

Unfortunately, I can’t get into these questions here without giving quite a bit away.  But it did give me a lot to think about.

 
Buy Sandman: A Game of You on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)

Watchmen by Alan Moore
Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham 
The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
Sandman Presents, The: The Furies by Mike Carey
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture by Randy Duncan 
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley
Buffy: The Long Way Home

Other works by Neil Gaiman:

The Dangerous Alphabet 
The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch
Black Orchid 
InterWorld 
M Is for Magic 
Signal to Noise
The Last Temptation
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions 
Death: The High Cost of Living 
Death: The Time of Your Life 
Midnight Days
Harlequin Valentine
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
Anansi Boys
Neverwhere: A Novel
Stardust
MirrorMask: The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture 
The Alchemy of MirrorMask 
Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Angels and Visitations: A Miscellany
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish 
The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes 
The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House
The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country 
The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists 
The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You 
The Sandman Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections 
The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives
The Sandman Vol. 8: Worlds’ End 
The Sandman Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones 
The Sandman Vol. 10: The Wake 
The Sandman: Endless Nights
A Walking Tour of the Shambles
The Books of Magic 
Adventures in the Dream Trade 
Creatures Of The Night
Violent Cases
Coraline Movie Tie-in Edition 
Coraline: The Graphic Novel 
The Graveyard Book 
Absolute Death 
Marvel 1602 Premiere HC
The Wolves in the Walls 
Mr. Punch
Odd and the Frost Giants
American Gods

With P. Craig Russel

Murder Mysteries

With Terry Pratchett:

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

With Stepehn Jones (editors):

Now We Are Sick