Stitches – a review
In the hands of a less capable artist, David Small’s Stitches would have failed. Much of what doesn’t work in the novel is why I didn’t want to read it in the first place. Yes, that’s right, I really did not want to read one of the most talked about books of the year (incidentally, I also don’t want to read The Photographer or Asterios Polyp either – so, maybe it’s just me). I didn’t want to read Stitches because, for the most part, memoirs bore and annoy me. It’s a rare memoir that manages to be honest. Often time I feel like the author is trying to hard to be damaged or pull some memory from toddlerhood that inevitably involves some metaphor like a dangling spider or a grinning Jack-in-the-Box or something.. Small does this. His prose and story is overfilled with parents who are little more than monsters, a crazy grandmother who is every southern Indiana stereotype and weird dreams.
Not that I think Small is lying. I’m sure he’s not. However, it does, or should I say would, read like a formulaic childhood from hell turn to adult success if it weren’t for the artwork. Small recognizes that he tells better stories when he’s silent. He’s been silent a long time. A ragged surgery for a cancerous tumor leaves him without a vocal cord. At 14 he is physically trapped in his own mind, unable to express himself. He becomes his family’s quiet observer, an inconsequential scapegoat for his mother’s anger.
Small is at his best when his character don’t speak. When his mother thwaks shut a cabinet, or his 6 year old self literally dives into his artwork. His drawings carry their expressions so perfectly that often I could just skip the text. I didn’t need to be told that the boy was angry, depressed and intrigued by his new speechless life- I could see it and in just one panel. In fact I wish I could draw this review just to really give the sense at what art can do that a stumbling, rambling bunch of akward text cannot.
So, thanks Bill for forcing this one on me.
Stitches Nominated for NBA…
which isn’t all that surprising. What’s causing all the controversy is the category it’s been nominated in – Young Adult.
I haven’t read Stitches yet so I’m not going to comment on whether it’s adult/YA or not. If you’ve read it what do you think?
Young Adult is such a strange little category anyway. Having served on an ala committee for the Young Adult Library Association, I can tell you that many many hours are spent discussing just what young adult means. Usually I try to clarify it for myself by asking if the writer intended his or her book to be for teens. Because if that’s what the writer intended than he is accepting all the responsibility that goes along with writing for this audience. If it turns out teens just like an adult book that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be excluded from an award but it makes me pause.
Then there’s the issue of teen books appealing to adults which is happening more and more often. Practically all of my friends loved Harry Potter and we haven’t seen a 1 in front of our ages for some time. But even beyond the bestsellers, I see a lot of adults picking up teen titles. So what happens to a teen title that appeals to adults – should it have a shot at the adult award?
The article suggests that maybe the publishers felt the graphic novel had a better shot at the young adult prize – that the adult category wasn’t ready. I don’t know about that but it’s a possibility I suppose.
Everyone seems to be in agreement about one thing though. Stitches is a great book. I’ll definitely have to check it out.
Reading Over Shoulders
Whatcha readin?
I’m not into autobiographies, mainly because I find them to be heavy handed and weepy but David Welsh may have convinced me to try Stitches.
Forbidden Planet rates the The Photographer as one of the best books of the year. (link via Journalista)
The Anime News Network has a review of a yaoi book that has potential but, sadly, never quite lives up to it - Where Has Love Gone. (link via MangaBlog)
Here’s a fall manga preview! I want so much on this list but especially, GoGo Monster, AX, A Distant Neighborhood, Cigarette Kisses, Age Called Blue, Nighthead Genesis and MariaHolic. Dang! I need a raise.
The Occasional Superheroine loves lists as much as me! Here’s her Top 7 Unsexy Vampires.
