Stitches**1/2

By David Small.
Published by 2009
by W.W. Norton & Company, New York.
330 pages,

The illustrations are nice if not a bit dreary.  It's done in gray washes and for the most part simple lines.  Some of the better, more detailed illustrations have some nice variations in gray, but most of the shading is simple in that there are only 2 or 3 varieties of gray.  The dreariness does fit the story though.

This is the memoir of the author/artist.  Being a memoir, it's episodic in nature, though the main narrative revolves around his non communicative parents and the cancer he obtains in his pre and early teens.
It takes place in the fifties when every one was ultra conservative and conformist.

Mom's a housewife, but she's very bitter.  She comes off as the heavy in this book.  She rarely smiles.  She also turns out to be gay.  The conclusion one draws is that she's bitter because she stuck in the marriage.  In those days there were not many alternative to leading the typical " married and 2.5 kids" lifestyle.  At one point she censors his reading selections (including Lolita) and tosses them n the garbage.

Dad's  a typical 50's dad.  Jolly when around, but never home.

So they discover a bump on David's neck and they go to the hospital to have an operation,.  They don't tell their son he has cancer.  He later discovers that fact while sneaking around in his mother's stuff and finds a letter that tells him the truth. He is understandably angry with his non communicative family.  Obviously, he survived to write this book so the rest of the story has to do with his feelings toward his parents.

Also there are many of dream sequences, which I think graphic novelists use too much.  I know it's an opportunity to have fun with their illustrations, but to me they are quite often a distraction and don't lend, or lend very many, important elements of the plot.  He uses approximately three in a book that tends to be dominated by illustrations already.  So there is not too much text to begin with and he uses facial expressions to tell the emotions of the people.  I like the art work but I do have a hard time concentrating on it when the art alone is trying to tell a story.  It's like silent movies (one critic in the back of the book compared it to a silent movie) and I/we are not accustomed pictures telling stories anymore.  My daughters have a hard time sitting through a silent movie.  I think they have an aesthetic of their own, but they are dated and old fashioned.  People today prefer more language (written or spoken) oriented narratives. I suppose I am that way to a degree also.   So maybe it's my fault for not being more patient with the illustrations and giving them more time and attention that they really do deserve.  But his illustrations are so simple, it's easy to fly past them.

As a narrative , it's dark and disturbing and I think the story needs to be told.  David Small is an older author - born 1945 - that makes him in his 70's.  I am not aware of his other work, but I think he's worth checking into some more.  I just would like to see more detailed and lengthier narratives.

Apparently the book was nominated for the National Book Awards. Apparently I don't know what I am talking about - but that's not anything new.



And some excerpts from the book.