Review by Frank Plowright
Rather than finish the final few weeks of high school in 2007, a group of friends figure it’s better to leave home and become part of an island ecological commune. The idea originates with Oli, and although the details aren’t immediately revealed, it’s obvious from the start it’s an escape for her. Having laid that out Adam de Souza then winds back three years, but only briefly, a characteristic method employed several times, the flashbacks separating ongoing events.
De Souza draws in a loose, expressive style showcasing feeling and vitality, with the pages delicately tinted in faded colour for added effect. It creates a look of being rushed out in spare moments, a page at a time as de Souza is interrupted by customers at the hardware store, but any impression of amateur hour is nonsense as the page compositions display technique and experience.
That’s more than Oli, Milo and Alvin have. They possess the wherewithall to prepare with tents and to take the ferry, but not much beyond, and what develops is an exceptionally well observed coming of age story where adversity eventually draws out resentments, with a brief touch of magical realism and greater doses of actual realism.
The Gulf with its allegorical title excels at considering the concerns of some smarter teenagers, their anxieties and uncertainties. They see how life is around them and the pressures on their parents, so know they want something different without exactly knowing what or how to go about it, and don’t quite have the tools experience supplies. However, all too often in stories of disconnected teens the point is made by exaggeration, by portraying all adults as unlikeable, but de Souza evades that trap. ln almost every instance adults care. Some, like the teacher at the start, may be patronising, but they care.
The journey is plotted as a complete disaster, not just physical, but also emotional, yet challenges evaluate the person one is, and de Souza has that emerge just as smoothly. Alvin, the tagalong who wasn’t supposed to be there, proves surprisingly good company, and someone dismissed on first sight has a wealth of outsider experience to offer. Song titles are frequently quoted, both as songs and chapter titles, and occasionally in the dialogue, and though they fit, it seems more a private game than a link to greater meaning.
Everything de Souza relates transmits as true to life, circumstances that could happen, and some that probably did, if not to him then to people he knows. Yet the naturalism has consequences. No-one likes doing the washing up, but what can that cause? The Gulf is sensitive, human and touching, and the temptation to drop convenient easy answers is avoided, with the only messages being be true to yourself and live for the moment. All in all, what a book! It’s The Catcher in the Rye for the 2020s graphic novel generation.
