Adrift

French cartoonist Mardon lovingly recounts the life of his grandfather, Adolphe Hérault, in this graphic biography that shows how even the most ordinary life is extraordinary. At 16, “Dodo” resolves to leave his life working in a butcher shop in the small French town of Douai and enlist in the French navy. He sails the seas, working in the galley on board ship and getting up to assorted high jinks. Life for him and his shipmates takes a drastic turn when World War II breaks out. When France surrenders to Germany and the British give the remaining French vessels an ultimatum, Dodo ends up in North Africa. There he marries and begins a career at a bank in Tunis. Mardon shifts between his experience of Dodo and the stories that Dodo tells him, fanciful or factual; his grandfather comes off as a fun-loving guy, just the sort that might make a good pal or grandpa. Mardon’s loose black-and-white art captures Dodo’s energy and zest for life and the details that stand out in memory. (Nov.)