Jar of Fools - Jason Lutes
Graphic novel. On rereading it, I find that I admire it a lot. The accumulation of heartbreak is not melodramatic, just adds up to melancholy. I thought Lutes' crisp, meticulous graphic style might be too concrete for such a ruminative story, but in fact, he fluidly blends in thoughts and dreams, and seamlessly switches perspectives. Places are at once very real, and part of states of mind. And the graphics work in the service of the interactions between characters, too.