This. Was. Amaaaaazing. Seriously, I felt so connected to all of the women and I really love the concept of the book as a whole.

There's a reason why I wished to read this book, besides the lovely cover, and was wondering how this writer will portray what femininity is, what a deep meaning this word has in his life and...well, my conclusion is: women are boobs, boobs are women. Point, Finito. End.

Good point for the art,

I really wanted to like Fragments of Femininity a lot more but other than decent drawings from Olivier Pont I felt let down.

I can certainly appreciate minimalist stories (I am speaking strictly of the narratives here, not the art) and, when done well, they can create as much or more impact than a story that shows every single emotion. But even a minimalist story needs something to hold it together, usually character, maybe scene or action, just something for the reader to then fill in the space around. The characters were supposed to be the glue but each one was largely a caricature being put through a scenario to elicit a response from the reader. I did, in a couple of the stories, find enough individuality in the character to care more than the base level we all care about people. But the story did little to help me fill in the spaces. I tried and even created some interesting back stories of my own, but these were not from what the story either offered or withheld but rather from my desperate attempt to find more to care about.

I think the ideas behind the book and the stories was interesting but perhaps Pont would have done well to get someone else to write the copy and stick to the drawings for his contribution.

I would refrain from making any recommendation to someone about this book. I think there will be people who will both appreciate the book more than I did and connect with the women better than I did, but I have no idea who those people might be.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

This book had so many wonderful examples of strong women fighting for their well deserved recognition, and it looks gorgeous. The execution of the stories and the way they are illustrated is truly fantastic.

This collection of short stories about women and their breasts wants to have it both ways. It aspires to be both a very French, very male appreciation of topless women in all their variations and a thoughtful exploration of the feminine soul.

Doing that combination well would be a tall order for just about any writer, and this book isn’t really up to the task. Instead, it’s too self-serious to be smutty and too shallow to be insightful.

The art is pretty decent, though. I would probably be willing to read another book drawn by Pont, but his writing just isn’t up to to the task.

These stories are uniformly slight and wan, and the overall impression is almost entirely superficial. Which is, perhaps, unsurprising for a book of stories about women’s breasts written by a man.

Interesting piece of work. It would have been better if breast sizes were a bit different in each story - Chloe is practically flat-chested and everyone else seems like size DDD. Still interesting piece of work.

Story 1: Some girls talk about their boobs. Another girl with small boobs hits a girl with big boobs.

Story 2: Woman leaves husband and burns bra, showing boobs.

Story 3: Actress known as 'Perfect-Breasts' (guess this got lost in translation) doesn't want to do a topless scene (don't worry, we still see her boobs).

Story 4: Woman suffocates cheating husband with her boobs.

There are more stories, but I'm not reading them as I've already had my fill of male-illustrated boobs for the year. 2 stars because the art is lovely - just a shame it's mostly boobs.

In summary: boobs boobs did you know the most important thing about women is BOOOOOOOOOBS

Short stories about different women, and what it means to be a strong and feminine woman in the world.
From a 1960's housewife who finds the courage to leave her stifling and un-loving husband to the cancer survivor who takes her empowerment into her own hands these stories cover a huge variety of women in such a short span. I really loved the way the stories were told, and the beautiful art was a great enhancement.

Oliver Pont does a phenomenal job with these vignettes, each offering a glimpse of a woman's life.

A book I enjoyed far more than I thought I would. Some of the stories within are better than others, especially the last one.

Seven stories about women and how they view their breasts, and how they think others view them.
Chloe: Women can be ever more vicious in the locker room than men. The protagonist is not who we think at the beginning, which is a clever touch. Easy to see how she lost control when even other women buy into the myth of bigger is better. Still, you have to figure something happened earlier—that this had to be the culmination—for her to blow up so big.
Mathilde: Middle-aged woman leaves her boring husband and kids to be with her lesbian lover and ends up in a bra-burning nude protest. Despite her long letter to her husband, there wasn’t enough background to really get how she so quickly moved on.
Alison: Famous exploitation actress wants to do serious movies. Rather than let the director screw her over by forcing her to do yet another nude scene when her contract says it’s not supposed to happen, she quits not just the movie but her career. This one’s my fave.
Sylvia: Older woman sees photos of her husband with a much younger lady. But rather than go for the divorce, she takes care of him in a fitting way, though I have to say it wasn’t all that much of a surprise.
Faith: A woman goes to an art school to see if she can pose nude, forgoing payment in favor of keeping a few of the results. At this point—being a photographer, I’ve been asked to do this before—I knew where it was going, but it was still a sad realization at the end. Of all the stories, though, I think this one is the most fitting with the topic.
Elikya: Woman in Northern Africa escapes her arranged marriage and gets lost in the desert until saved by an apprentice sculptor/witch doctor. The town is dying and badly needs rain, so he uses her to model a new talisman. If you like anthropology at all, this is for you.
Fleur: She runs a lingerie shop, insisting that her customers are more like friends. She has a diverse clientele, including a stripper who tests out all the new merch. In the end all those friends come in handy when her store gets firebombed.
Obviously some were better than others, but all told intriguing stories. What makes this book all the more interesting is it was written by a man.

I liked the idea of this book but I felt the execution was not strong. It didn't really represent the 5 women well and I am not sure it translated well since it felt like the focus was very heavy on the physical forms of women and my guess is the original writing in French may use words that aren't easy to translate and move beyond physicality.

This was an interesting graphic novel. Not quite for me, but I'm sure there's an audience for it.

Better than I’d hoped, but still an objectification of women. Various women bare their breasts in this skillfully illustrated series of short stories about women and woman’s conflicts with men and society at large.

A very mixed bag, this graphic novel tells the story of seven very different women, of different ages and from a variety of backgrounds , including a young student, an older woman who is being cheated on by her husband and a housewife who is literally burning her bra. Each woman's story is different, but the unifying element in the collection is the focus on breasts, in all their variety and glory. The first couple of stories really didn't blow me away, but the story of artist's model Faith was so poignant and moving, and I also thought the story of actress Alison was particularly timely in the current climate. The illustrations and color palette used throughout was another element that added to the cohesion of the book as a whole.

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Women are beautiful beings. Dynamic and strong, they represent strength in all they do and endure. Women have had second-hand power and are slowly making their way to the top of the ladder. When speaking of women, one needs to be educated, vulnerable, knowledgeable, and imaginative. There has to be an elegance in the narrative. One needs to feel the punch in the gut when one takes on the challenge of writing a graphic novel that focuses on a woman's breasts. The entire novel is touted as a celebration of coming of age, breaking rules, and becoming yourself. However, it is anything but that. 

Fragments of Femininity by Olivier Pont and  Laurence Croix  is a sorry attempt at showing women in various situations in their life and taking charge of their lives. The graphic novel introduces us to seven women who are on their way to discovering themselves, and all stories fall terribly short. 

There isn't a moment of recognition, nor resemblance. All the women are 'bold'. That's it.  They aren't vulnerable, nor dynamic. They almost seem robotic in their approach to life with no concern for consequence. The women are almost childish in that sense. 
The storylines have a melancholy to them. No punchlines, no climax. Two of the stories try to surprise you, but leave you hanging by the lack of any emotion involved. The stories get boring after a certain point, almost compelling you to leave the novel all by itself. But, since I got an ARC from NetGallery, I knew I had to finish the novel book to give an honest review. 

This book gets 2/5 stars from me. 

If you're new to reading, are looking to just dip into familiar territory, or finding a gift for someone you're not particularly fond of this book may be a good pick for you.  However, if you're looking to get challenged, surprised, and excited, this is the wrong novel.

It's alright for a woman to be flat-chested, or if she's an ex-porn star getting into mainstream cinema, to turn down the enforced topless shot she refuses to be demanded to do. Oh, and if you ladies want to be a bra-burning rioter, or to actually go through life without being ignored by your husband, that's OK too, nowadays. That's right, this is a horrendous effort at mansplaining womanhood to women. Women these days' don't you know, can do everything - become judges, coppers, mayoresses, if they have the right bras on. The only story here worth bothering with was the fifth, a patently obvious but lovely-to-look-at, tale of a woman sampling life modelling. Some of the artwork here - strong palettes, lovely poised and natural poses of women in states of undress - is lovely, but a lot isn't. It's the risible politics of the piece that will turn many off, however.

This is the first graphic novel I've read this year and it's all thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher because femininity is not a topic I'd easily broach in writing because of how diverse our understanding is. What I'm certain of is that any woman who reads this novel will relate to one or two or all the characters because we've experienced what they experience at some point in life.
I applaud the author for tackling a topic that we should be talking about. There are written works and discussions about hair, the vagina, uterus, lips, female body shape but very little about our buttocks- and no, I am not referring to trap music or hip hop with all the video vixens. I'll be on the lookout for Olivier's works, this was certainly thought provoking.

The title of this collection of short stories is the first thing that is lost in the translation of this French collection. I'm not sure why it is called "Fragment of Femininity" in the English version. If anything, it insults the stories themselves. The original edition, was called <em>Dessein</em>, Intention, which actually makes more sense, as each of these stories is about what the woman intends to do.

Now granted, the thing that she intends to do has to do with her breasts, but then again, this is a steries of short stories written by a French man, so what do I expect.

The first story in the collection almost made me stop reading. The second, not much better. The third, really. If not for the last two of three stories, I would have rated this collection much much lower. I mean, really, killing your cheating husband with with breasts? Give me a break.

The first of the two that I liked involved a woman who was having a radical mosectomy, so decides to pose as a model one last time before she has her breasts removed, and asks the artists for their drawings, so she can see how she used to look. Not that I know any women who would do that, but the thought was sort of sweet.

The last story, about a woman who sells bras and panties to the women in town, and listens to them, and makes them feel feminine, was again, sweet, but rather odd. I am not that much into lacy bras, but perhaps there are women out there who are, and find it gratifying to wear them.

But, mostly this book is an excuse to see women shirtless.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.