Stitches
Posted by: misha
I just finished Stitches: a memoir by David Small, which was all the buzz at BookExpo. This graphic novel memoir cinematically captures Small’s horrific childhood and adolescence with his parents in 1950s Detroit.
His father, a taciturn doctor rarely home for dinner, and emotionally repressed mother, who slammed around the house for no discernable reason, ruled the house with their silences and outbursts. But as the secrets deepen and young David lies in the crosshairs, the images and striking revelations build to a deafening cresendo.
Stitches is powerful in its spare, black-and-white approach to a painful past. The book gets its title from a surgery that David receives that leaves him nearly speechless, a surgery that his mother put off for three years so she could buy a new car and house appliances.
I don’t want to give too much away, because the story and the accompanying images speak much better than simple prose. This is a book to experience, whose shocks you need to read and absorb for yourself.
Since Stitches doesn’t come out until September, you can watch this book trailer for a sneak peek.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
I couldn’t put it down. Beautiful and scary in all the right places.