Oct. 16th, 2009

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Stitches: a memoir by David Small deserves the National Book Award nomination it received this week.  When I first read the blurb on the back of the book:

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had throat cancer and was expected to die. Small, a prize-winning children’s author, re-creates a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. Readers will be riveted by his journey from speechless victim, subjected to X-rays by his radiologist father and scolded by his withholding and tormented mother, to his decision to flee his home at sixteen with nothing more than dreams of becoming an artist.

...I thought Yeesh, don't wanna read this don't wanna.  But it's less grim and more pragmatic than you would think, as things from a child's perspective often are.  So well done and not overly emotional.  It doesn't hit you over the head with the horribleness or unfairness--most of that is conveyed subtly in the illustrations, not in the text.  The story alternates between anger and pain and a child's longing.  The illustrations are almost abstract in places but always identifiable.  Fabulous 50s tone to it all.  David's face is often a taut mask--wary, apprehensive and filled with defensive anger.  Perfect.  But his pain is obvious.  One page, at a critical part in the story, has a shadow that caught me--is it a Rorschach inkblot?  One of those optical illusions that change perspective as you look at it differently?  Nothing is emotionalized, but the story is raw and bizarre.  That's one whacked-out family.  Highly recommend this one for HS and adult.

Cairo: a graphic novel by G. Willow Wilson and M. K. Perker--I'm not sure yet how I feel about this one.  I'll need to think about it for awhile.  It has a complex story that includes several sets of characters and story lines that overlap--characters who include a drug-smuggler, a would-be suicide bomber, a clueless, spoiled American, an Israeli soldier, and a jinn who lives in a hookah. 

The details of Cairo and the politics, history and religion of the area are well done--you are immersed in the setting.  The story is part fantasy, part current event and this mix works.  It's action-packed and thought-provoking.  The art is great--black and white, realistically done.  It reminded me a little of the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies and would appeal to teens who like adventure stories.  The book has quite a lot of swearing and violence.  Definitely HS. 

Ack, tired.  More tomorrow.

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