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Cancer in childhood is devastating enough without also living in a dysfunctional family. Stitches is illustrator David Small’s memoir of surviving these, told in snapshots of formative incidents before and after getting diagnosed. In particular, his mother’s lack of love had a profound effect on him, and he hinted at her personal pain, a pain he didn’t yet know the depth of, co-existing with his own. Stitches is a grim read that left me impressed by the author’s resilience; after leaving his unl...
If it were up to me, all biographies and memoirs would be written in graphic novel form. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, The Complete Maus, The Complete Persepolis, Blankets ; these are all near-perfect expressions of personal and familial experience. The power of imagery saves the subject matter from being bogged down by the excessively wordy, self-justifying tendencies of some, and the oblique, pseudo-poetic drivel of others. The best graphic novel memoirs and biographies seem to combat these t...
Whoever would've thought I'd be so deeply moved by a graphic memoir? My bibliophile buddy Lindy, that's who! I am grateful for the recommendation, as I'd adopted a rather snooty attitude towards graphic novels, etc. While I don't expect to start reading them all that much more regularly, I certainly get it now that they can convey powerful narratives like this one. Just wonderful!
When a young boy looses his voice after an operation we watch as he tries to make himself "heard."
This is officially my favorite graphic memoir! Loved it so much!
As part of my 2021 quest to complete reading at least two graphic novels, this unusual work from children’s illustrator, David Small, caught my eye due to its story content. I have been lucky so far in my graphic novel quest, as this book kept me involved from beginning to end.It’s the story of the author when he was a boy, living in Detroit with his uptight parents and uptight brother. They are a very uptight family. The father is a renowned radiologist who doesn’t seem to like his family. His
I am not going to tell you anything about this book. I'm sure you're thinking that's an odd way to begin a review, but that's how I went into this book, and it worked for me. I was doing an interview with Booklist last weekend and I asked the interviewer what he thought was the graphic novel of the year so far. Without even having to consider, he said, "STITCHES." My publicist picked an advanced review copy up for me at ALA and I am thrilled that she did. I didn't know anything about it except t...
I read this graphic memoir in one sitting. David Small’s childhood and family life were horrifying to say the least. Not to sound smug or self-righteous, but it’s parents like these that have me wondering. Honestly, some people should seriously consider whether they’re emotionally and mentally prepared before considering marriage and/or children. At the very least, I wish that they would put some thought into these major decisions. Some people shouldn’t be parents. Although reading this was emot...
My Goodness. Horrendously cruel and unloving parents, a nasty grandma, lies and a shocking surprise lead to a nightmare of a memoir and rather disturbing, but powerful work of graphic art.STITCHES is aptly named with creepy book cover and illustrations to match dipicting a horror of a family and a sad child turned troubled teen. "When you have no voice, you don't exist." Interesting and unusual medical reveal about David's mother at the conclusion.
Wow! What a heartrending look at children's book writer/illustrator David Small's sad and miserable childhood!We see him first as a small boy, lying on the floor, happily drawing pictures.His dad is mostly absent, and his mother, well, let's face it...she's HORRIBLE! Verbally and physically abusive, she's a monster. But as this graphic novel, done in muted shades of gray suggests, not everything is black and white. After spending some time with David's grandmother, his mother's mother, we get so...
book #6 for Jugs & Capes!! Holy motherfuck, this book is intense. It's a real fast read, despite its intimidating heft. And it's just terribly devastating—powerful and aching and sparse and horribly beautiful, and oh also did I mention that it's terribly devastating? I mean, not devastating in an irredeemable way, like those maudlin mass-market bestsellers where everyone dies slowly & tragically while staring meaningfully into their loved ones' eyes and gently speaking words of unbearably sad an...
"Mama had her little cough...Once or twice, some quiet sobbing, out of sight...Or the slamming of kitchen doors. That was her language. Dad, home from work, went down to the basement and thumped a punching bag. That was his language. My brother, Ted, beat on his drum. And I, too, had learned a way of expressing myself wordlessly...Getting sick, that was my language.Stitches is a poignant, sometimes tragicomic memoir of David Small, best known as the author and illustrator of numerous picture
David Small's childhood wasn't a happy one. His mother was cold, emotionless, and brutal toward him. His father was distant and barely spoke to him. His brother was around but just barely. Nobody spoke to one another. Then we find out about their tormented inner lives. His mother was a closet homosexual while his father was numbed by the knowledge that he had given David cancer through x-rays. His grandmother was an insane person who tried to murder her husband by burning the house down and his
Understated and elegiac inkery. Strictly from the misery memoir staple, grainy and grotty, but not gratuitous. Cinematic panels opening up wistful wounds and profound childhood emptiness. The graphic novel is almost alone among contemporary art/fiction in capturing that peculiar form of youthful Weltschmerz.
Back in the 50's, people did NOT talk about issues. Everything was internalized - unhappiness, anger, resentment were all swallowed. When illustrator David Small was a boy, he felt all those repressed feelings, even though they weren't spoken. His mother's little cough, his father's absences, all spoke volumes.He internalized his own feelings, of not feeling loved or wanted, but they manifested physically as asthma and sinus troubles, exacerbated by the smoke from the nearby factories, and his o...
Wow. David Small’s graphic novel Stitches is unlike any graphic novel book I have ever read. There are no zombies, no superheroes and no arcane or occult subjects at all, and yet my jaw dropped more than once. It took me about an hour to get to the end and it was riveting. This reminds me of what a storyboard for an Augusten Burroughs film might look like. Very much worth the very minimal investment in time to experience.
This book was an interesting graphic novel. There weren't many words, so I got through it very fast! I enjoyed his picture la and the fact that this was a memoir! He had a very hard life!!However, I struggled with the transitions between fantasy and his dreams and reality and the true story. This left me, at many times, confused and that is why I only gave the book 3 stars.
Not sure how David Small's Stitches passed me by when originally published back in 2009 - I guess there are just too many fascinating comics coming out these days for me to keep up. Luckily, a few days ago I came across the title in a GR list of comic-book memoirs and finally ordered it from the library: what a revelation! Told in a sparse and subtle yet fluid and emotionally charged style, Small's coming-of-age memoir is as devastating as it is cathartic - the kind of book that stays with you l...
I'm enjoying my TBR Explode project because it's reintroducing me to books I added to my TBR ten years ago. This one was added the day after it came out in September 2009, so I must have been looking at some kind of new releases list.This is a graphic memoir about the author’s childhood illness and surgery and upbringing. It is DARK. He uses a lot of black and white which makes the entire situation seem bleak (and to be fair, it is,) with depictions of fear and scary and judging faces. David's p...