Stitches: A Memoir
By David Small
W. W. Norton & Company
Publication Date: September 8, 2009
ISBN: 9780393068573
ISBN: 9780393068573
I read so much buzz about Stitches earlier this year that I had to check it out. Nominated for a National Book Award and one of the best books of September 2009 on Amazon, it had to be good, right?
The buzz was right. It WAS good.
A graphic novel, Stitches illustrates David Small's life, from six through 30. With an incredibly active imagination (and a penchant for blondes who travel through Wonderland), Small lives in Detroit and has an average life listening to his mother silently fume in anger, waiting for his father at the hospital - where the father works, and being slightly bullied by his older and musically talented brother. He deals with this intense and destructive family life as he constantly scribbles and draws in notebooks. That is, until he's 14 and goes through a rather traumatizing event. Told through images illustrated by Small, this memoir is blunt, staggering and incredibly powerful.
The graphic novel/memoir genre has come alive recently, and this book adds to the list of ones to be remembered. Sometimes funny, yet always honest, the memoir shows what it was like growing up in 50s, in a time when high-power x-ray scans told everything and the mentally ill were thought to be sane. When secrets were kept from children and being an artist was a faraway dream. The images, black and white drawings, were lifelike and honest. Small has an incredible talent at showing emotion through one changed pencil stroke, one raise of an eyebrow. They were dark, yet with bouts of light to create hope. Strong, vivid and incredibly intense. And the story was something Burton could have came up with; what makes it that much more amazing is that it's true.
I really enjoyed Stitches, and not just as a graphic novel, but as a book - one that should proudly be displayed among other notable memoirs. In all honesty, it's more truthful and more gripping than many.
This summer Small is speaking at the ALA's annual conference. As a recent member of the association, I'm furiously saving up to make it out to D.C. to attend!
Videos of the graphic novel on Vimeo
Interview with David Small
2 comments:
This book looks intriguing and clever. I'm going to check it out!
I've never in my life read a graphic novel, but in order to expand my horizons I signed up for the challenge this year. I've been compiling a list of ones I want to read, and this one was included. One of these months, I think I'm going to read nothing but graphic novels.
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