'The Awkwardists' by Emma Rendel
Book Launch 26 October 6-9pm

“The Awkwardists” is in the well-established tradition of handmade artists’book art. It is a possibly tragic yet humorous picture story book for grown-ups. There are two short stories, both dealing with the delicate subject of social awkwardness.

In the first story, we encounter a hapless shop assistant who, after an accident at a well known amusement park, and subsequent operation - curiously carried out by the park’s doctors and lasting some 24 hours, suffers a slight change of personality, to the bemusement of those around her.
The second story features two lucky astronauts chosen to go to the moon to service an advertising sign there. Everything goes well, but when they fall for one another and embark on a relationship, things go sour…

Emma Rendel illustrates these stories with a wry sense of the social discomfort of tricky social situations. The visual characterisation of the protagonists underlines their social ineptitude. We feel they are inferior, however confusing and fanciful as characters they are. By blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality, she shows us a mirror of our own inclinations to see ourselves as superior to others less able to cope with life.

Her “well-known amusement park” places the story in
the here-and-now - a commonplace setting, so that the actions of the characters are explicable - even given that they are clearly fantasy. We might well find The Awkwardists’ bizarre life and adventures reflect something of our own social peculiarities. The book is the first in a series under
the same title.