Pre Post
Sandy 7.5 7.5
Letitia 7 7
Artie 6.5 6.5
Michelle 5.5 6
Becky 7 7
Pat 7.5 8
K’Lynn 7.5 8
Miles 5.5 6
Carolyn 6
Maggie 8
Many of us wondered whether or not Alison’s dad indeed committed suicide. Most of us thought no. The general consensus being that he was far too finicky a man to leave suicide up to something as blasé and unsure as jumping in front of a truck. One other thing I thought of while typing up the notes was this makes for an inordinate amount of books that we have chosen in which suicide is a main topic. Weird.
Sandy – has wanted to read a graphic novel for a long time. She connected with many parts of it. A childhood friend of hers owned a funeral home where her father lived for awhile. Sandy also grew up in a small town and shared that funerals were huge social events and one of her mother’s favorite things. How the corpse looked was a great topic of conversation for her mother and her friends. She told the story of a man saying a few kind words about the deceased, and then dying himself on the spot. Sandy identified with the dysfunctional family relationships. The line about the permanent scars on the linoleum that could tell a story rang true with her as she recalled the day her dad read her diary (which was also coded) and how things went flying. She appreciated the author’s artistic talents and intellect. Sandy, “Didn’t know who Camas was,” didn’t feel smart and had to look up who Proust and Camus were. She loved the line about the kids not being able to compete with the furniture. Sandy wanted to know more about Alison’s brothers, and was slightly distracted that we didn’t hear more from them. Sandy would like to reread and look through the drarrrings.
Letitia – Thought it was unusual, but a great pick that she never would have read otherwise. At first she found the graphic set up weird and hard to read, but after five or so pages she had no trouble. The sub-title A Family Tragicomic fit as she saw the father’s rage and family dysfunction, but thought it was told with an ironic and humorous tone. Although it wasn’t her type of book, she found it an easy and entertaining read. She paid careful attention to all the literary references and what they had to say. She was amazed by Alison’s artistry. She felt sad for her and thought her parents were emotionally disconnected.
Michelle – Had never read anything like it and was excited to read it. She read it as a novel and thought that it flowed well. Alison’s dad was always trying to make everything perfect, and reminded us that dads can often be that way. Exhortations of, ‘Don’t go into the living room!’ ‘Don’t touch anything!’ were familiar to Michelle and didn’t sound too different from a lot of families. She didn’t suspect Alison was gay until the repeated visual clues of butch haircuts and clothing choices. After all was said and done she was a bit irritated with Alison and wondered if the book was a result of a therapy session. It was a bit too graphic in some parts. She read that Alison’s mom said we all have different versions of conversations from the past. Michelle reminded us how this matches exactly what we’ve been saying about every memoir we’ve read. She read three reviews on Amazon before our meeting to refresh her memory and didn’t understand any of them and figured the book might be deeper than she originally thought.
Artie – had a hard time reading it for first half hour or so and then got into his old comic book flow. He thought it was courageous of her to write and that it was historically accurate. Artie wondered how the mom was able to deal with everything. He found the picture of the mile and a half circumference of the father’s birth, life and death to be very telling. He liked the way Alison and her father were able to communicate to each other through books about their homosexuality. Artie thought there were a lot of very good things in the book, but in the end wondered what it all meant, and he really didn’t know. Like Sandy, he too wanted to know more about Alison’s brothers. The picture of her mother's passport was very powerful and he enjoyed the tiny caption squares that could evoke an extra bit of insight or emotion into the story.
Becky – Unlike many, Becky hated the idea of reading a graphic novel and liked it even less when she found she had to buy it. She didn’t expect to like it and found it at times a very graphic graphic novel, but thought that it was well done and easier to read than she thought it would be. She was happy and impressed with herself whenever she would recognize a book that was referenced, for example The Sun Also Rises. She thought that the book occasionally dealt with Alison’s mom, but was primarily a way for Alison to deal with her dad and his indiscretions. She found him to be a predator and thought it must have been crazy for Alison to have realized/discovered all this about him. Like Artie, she also found the literary connection Alison shared with her father interesting, along with their many similarities, i.e. the photograph of them at the same age. She recalled how controlling her dad was with taking over the coloring book, and the comment about how grief takes many forms with Alison laughing hysterically when telling someone about her father’s death.
Pat – The thing that stood out most to me was not the story itself, although I enjoyed it, as its medium. The pictures were so well done and so completely cemented a sense of time and place that the narrative was able to be just that, a pure, almost stream of consciousness recollection that was free of having to describe scenes because there they were already in front of me. It was a very different reading experience, one that I wasn’t expecting because of graphic novels’ association with things that go bump in the night. It put me ‘right there’ in a way that was almost disconcerting at times. I also liked all the cultural touchstones that were evident in the pictures. The TV would have an episode of Sesame Street or The Rifleman in the background. She would mention the Bicentennial or some other historical event and I would be able to place where I was in reference. I don’t know why I liked this, I guess it made it all seem more real to me.
K’Lynn – Has been wanting to read a graphic novel for over two years. As she has mentioned before with autobiographies, her rule for them is that they have to make you care about the character. K’Lynn did and was immediately engaged with Alison and her story. She too identified with a lot of the dysfunctional parts. She found it a page-turner and read it in about two days. She liked the story and her characters. She thought Alison’s dad was a predator and wondered how her mom could have stayed with him, and then recalled seeing somewhere that in the 1950’s when you married it was a contract for life. She loved the last picture in the book with Alison’s dad about to catch her in the swimming pool and said, “no matter how flawed you are you want someone to catch you.”
Miles – had mixed feelings about the book but he thought it was a great pick and original. It’s something he never would have read on his own. The sequence of the whole story is revealed within the first 25 pages or so: gay, abusive father jumps in front of a truck, family left to deal with it. So there was nothing left but a few gleaming little climaxes to reveal here and there, to which Becky replied, “I think there were more than a few gleaming little climaxes”. Miles was reminded of how little in high school he understood, or even recognized homosexuality. Alison’s realization that she was gay was the story to Miles. He saw no humor in it and felt the tragedy was thrust up front throughout. The drawings reminded him a bit of the Doonesbury strip, but even those characters usually had a smirk or hint of an emotion behind them, whereas everyone in this seemed to have a rather tortured face. He understands the need for catharsis with the shock of her father’s type of death, but wondered if it was fair to do this to him, this one-sided perspective with no way for him to defend himself. He thought the drawing had great angles, scopes, and gave a unique perspective, so much so that he felt almost voyeuristic at times while reading it.
Maggie - wrote: Sorry I won't be there, would love to hear what everyone has to say about the book. I give it an 8, I really enjoyed everything about it, the writing, the graphics and the humour. A bittersweet story of a daughters love for a flawed father. It was a great pick Sandy, I would never have picked up a graphic novel, thank you for widening my horizons. Have fun.
Allison describes her writing/drawing process
Next book: Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks
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