Healing
Judging from David Small’s award-winning children’s books illustrations, it’s hard to imagine that the same man is behind the dark tale recounted in the graphic novel memoir Stitches. Best known for his work with wife Sarah Stewart and his Caldecott Award-winning artwork in So You Want to be President?, Stitches reveals a painful past, yet one that Small somehow weaves a sense of hopefulness through with his art.
It’s no easy feat. Small grew up in postwar Detroit, the son of an oft-absent radiologist and an emotionally cold mother. A sickly boy with sinus problems, his father treated him with repeated doses of x-ray radiation. By the time he was in his early teens, Small had a lump on his throat that had developed into full-blown cancer, although his parents made a point of never telling him the true nature, or cause, of his condition. Waking up after an operation, Small discovers that not only does he have an ugly row of stitches down his neck, but one of his vocal chords was entirely removed. He was almost completely mute.
Small always found solace in drawing as a child, and his ink-washed artwork captures an extraordinary range of emotions, especially in capturing the subtleties of facial expressions. His use of lighting to strategically shade features and the inclusion of nightmare sequences lends a quasi-Hitchcockian cast to the story. It’s apt for this very internal story, filled with the effects of repression and silence.
Stitches was recently nominated for the National Book Award in the Young People’s Category, a choice that has generated some controversy given the dark subject matter, and the fact that graphic novels rarely get recognition by major awards. It is a haunting story, but there’s nothing that would be objectionable in Small’s story compared to many other modern-day young adult novels. In fact, anyone who hasn’t picked up a graphic novel may find Stitches to be the perfect way to get into the genre. Along with recent graphic memoirs such as Fun Home and Blankets, Stitches demonstrates brilliantly how image and text can blend into a powerful, captivating experience.
(Publisher’s Weekly article via Powell’s)
Entry Filed under: Graphic Novel, Memoir & Biography
4 Comments Add your own
1. Dennis | November 17th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Here’s another enthusiastic vote for this book. I found myself comparing it with themes presented in the television series Mad Men, also set around this time period (Call it post World War II, pre-Vietnam War). So much repression going on in the life of this family. Small made a comment at the end of this book about how it could easily have been a story told from his mother’s point of view, and that’s certainly true. Really an excellent piece of work. I also read the linked article (thank you for that, Katie!) with the discussion about the nomination for a National Book Award in the Young Adult category and I can see how troubling this nomination in the category for that age group can be. I also don’t think young people are the primary audience so I question the motivation of the publisher who placed it in this category. But I’m not surprised that teen readers can recognize the quality of the work. But I think people who grew up in that time period will find much to enjoy in this.
2. Rebecca | December 4th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Ok, after reading your collective comparisons to Blankets, Fun Home, and Mad Men (could you appeal to my tastes anymore??), I finally picked this off the coffee table and read it. Wow. Phenomenal!!
Small’s ability to capture adult faces from a child’s perspective is really incredible. The story is utterly heartbreaking–but I agree, Katie–ultimately hopeful.
3. katharine | December 4th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I’m not a GN fan but this book is amazing. The illustrations are so moving and capture the emotions of childhood so well. I would probably only recommend this one to adult graphic novel readers though and can see why there was some controversy with it being a YA nominee.
4. Molly | December 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I am always very perplexed about the criteria used by publishers to decide what is YA and what is adult, usually about books that I think should have been YA that are published adult. But I was surprised that this was nominated for a YA National Book Award. This story is very adult, told from the perspective of an adult looking back on his childhood. Some twelve-year-olds might understand that something is wrong with a family member, but not that they are mentally ill, and what that means, for example. Those were the details that I picked up on immediately in this book and was like, uh oh. This is a seriously messed up family. That this was all captured in illustrations is amazing.
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