The Impostor's Daughter - Laurie Sandell

Title: The Impostor's Daughter
Author: Laurie Sandell
Published: 2009 Pages: 245
Genre: Memoir/Graphic Novel
Rating: 3/5

I read this book about five weeks ago, but I wasn't really sure how to review it. Then BBAW and Europe happened and it got put on the back burner. I even asked around on Twitter for some advice on how to review it and Bookfool was sweet enough to give me some starter questions. Last night, though, I flipped back through the book, quickly re-reading, and think I finally have a better handle on my feelings.

Summary:
The Impostor's Daughter is mostly a memoir about Laurie Sandell's relationship with her father growing up. Her father was an amazing man with even more amazing stories to tell, and Laurie, the eldest child, was always the apple of his eye. That is until she grew to be older and began seeing some discrepancies in her father's stories. Laurie began to piece together some oddities in her father, including his taking out credit cards in her name and incurring debt, finding out her father did not have the degrees or military background he said he did, and other inconsistencies.

As Laurie grew into adulthood, she struggled to come to terms with her relationship with her father. In many ways she was lost herself and began experimenting with sex, aimless travel, ambien, and other destructive pastimes. As she landed a position in journalism, she began to use her father's stories as a backbone for a piece outing him as an impostor. But could she really out her father? And at what cost to her and her family?

My Rambly Thoughts:
Sorry for the long summary, but because this book is two-fold, it is hard to summarize quickly. And perhaps that's where my problems with this book stem from. On the one hand, this is a book about Sandell's relationship with her father and on the other about Sandell's finding her own self amongst all of the uncertainty. I personally believe that we are products of our environment, and so these two story-lines are in my opinion very related, but I'm not sure that Sandell makes the connection herself in the book. She's lost and can't settle on a relationship and begins taking pills and-and-and, but even through some of the things that happen in the end I don't think Sandell truly comes to terms with what her relationship with her father means to her and her well-being. Perhaps a closer second read would give me more insight into this, but the ending of the book left me feeling really unsettled as it just felt so unresolved.

I wish I had more to say about this book, but if you'll read through the reviews below they say many of the things I would say anyway. The sex--yuck. Couldn't relate to Sandell (actually, I could relate in many ways to her relationship with her father but not to the self-destructive way in which she reacted). Wanted to continually compare this book to Fun Home, which I loved.

One plus about the book is that I really liked Sandell's illustrations. Most of the comics I've been reading have been in black and white (which I prefer), but The Impostor's Daughter is all in color and I loved how much depth it brought to the story. Sandell is great at capturing emotion in her illustrations. I really hope you can enlarge the illustration below to see the conflicted feelings Sandell has while listening to her father's stories:


In the End:
All in all, I liked this book better than my review comes across. I just wish there would have been a little resolution to Sandell's story. But since it's a "true memoir" I don't know how that could have been different unless she did find resolution. I'm not sure writing this book will give her what she's looking for, but I hope she does eventually find closure to her relationship.

Bookfool asked me "If you had a choice, would you happily let your cat shred and eat it or recommend it enthusiastically to your friends and neighbors?" Luckily Maggie doesn't tear/eat/chew books, but I wouldn't let her shred this one. The illustrations are too beautiful. Not sure I'll be recommending it to my friends and neighbors either. Good news is that there are many people who liked this book better than I did. And I didn't dislike it--just feel kind of wishy washy towards it. Definitely go check out Laurie Sandell's website, though!

Do you think we are products of our childhood? How can we overcome that to become our own person--or will those experiences always color our future?



For a balance of opinions:
Claire from Kiss a Cloud ~ Bermudaonion ~ Alyce from At Home with Books ~ Bookfoolery and Babble ~ Nymeth from Things Mean A Lot ~ Avisannschild
(let me know if I missed yours)

The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman

Title: The Complete Maus
Author: Art Spiegelman
Published: 1986/1991 Pages: 295
Genre: Graphic Novel/Memoir
Rating: 5/5

This is the type of book that I hate writing about—the one that I loved so much that I simply can’t do it justice or organize my thoughts in a coherent manor. So, here we go:

Go read it. The End.

Ok, I guess I’ll go into a little more detail. I’ll be honest, I was pretty resistant towards this book. I had some prejudices that were holding me back a little bit. What prejudices? Well, mostly the talking animals. I know, it’s weird, but talking animals are sometimes a turn-off for me. It almost seemed childish that the author would choose to portray the Holocaust using mice and cats and Jews and Nazis—part of me even though this was a children’s literature book. But I’m glad I finally read enough reviews to convince me to get this book. I waited patiently until my 40% coupon for Borders arrived so I could rush off and buy a shiny new hardcover edition—the complete edition.

The Complete Maus is a combination of biography and memoir—the story Art Spiegelman’s father's survival of the Holocaust, particularly his imprisonment in Auschwitz, and Spiegelman's own experiences with his father as he works on the book. I loved both parts of the book equally, but the dynamics between Arty and his father, Vladek, created such an intimate texture to the story. I can't say I particularly cared for either Arty or Vladek as characters--Spiegelman often shows them with all their faults in plain view--but the creation of Maus gives the two common ground and helps each other understand one another better.

Spiegelman's father's story provides the meat of the book. It begins during Vladek's youth and his increasing success in both his personal and business life. He marries into a wealthy family of Polish Jews and quickly rises in his various occupations. This all quickly halts, however, when the Nazis begin imposing laws and regulations aimed at denigrating the Jews. Vladek and his wife, Anja, are successful in keeping from imprisonment for a long time due to Vladek's industrious nature and the strong ties they have to wealthy Jews, but eventually they are forced to enter Auschwitz along with hundreds of thousands other Jews.

Like any other book about the Holocaust, Maus is incredibly heartwrenching and oftentimes unbelievable. I was constantly angered and sicked by the crimes committed and the atrocities millions had to endure. What makes this book especially poignant is its illustrated form. I can't imagine a more effective way for Spiegelman to share his father's experiences. I'm constantly amazed at what authors can accomplish in the illustrated form--the emotions the drawings can portray, the multi-layered dimensions of the story, the action, the misery, the joy, the love. There is a lot to be said about words, and I am a lover of words, but the drawings in this book continually speak for themselves--conveying things that words simply cannot accomplish.

As I mentioned above, I have a weird thing about talking animals, but I love how Spiegelman chose to portray the different races in the book--mice for Jews, cats for Germans, pigs for Poles, so and and so on. I don't know for sure what Spiegelman's intentions were with these depictions, but on the one hand I saw the stereotypical cat chasing mouse theme, but on the other--and more importantly, it showed the ridiculousness of distinguishing between different races. I don't think I'm making sense with that thought, but it's there in my head.

This review is already far longer than I wanted it to be and I still feel like I haven't said anything at all. We've all read Holocaust stories before. We know the history and we know what happens. But this is different than anything I've ever encountered before and I can't recommend it enough. I couldn't be more glad that I put my prejudices aside and read this book. Although I'm haunted by what I read and saw in this book (what was I thinking children's lit??), I am grateful that Spiegelman was persistent enough to get his poor stubborn father's story to share with us all. It is not one that should be overlooked or forgotten. None of them are.

So what do you say? Are you going to read it? If you have read it, what did you think?

Watchmen - Alan Moore and a Baby Quilt!

Title: Watchmen
Author: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Date Finished: Feb 27, 2009 #9
Published: 1985 Pages: 416
Rating: 4.5/5

Wow. What to say, what to say. I went into this reading with a little bit of excitement and a whole lot of fear. The only graphic novel that I've read is Persepolis, and this, to me, seems far more intense. Just flipping through the pages left me greatly overwhelmed. But what can you do--just take it one page at a time.

I became curious about this book when I first saw the movie preview. I have to admit that I hadn't heard of it before then. But now that graphic novels are all abuzz I started to see it listed more and more. Someone actually suggested it for the "future" classics list last year--I still hadn't heard of it then.

What is Watchmen? Watchmen begins with a murder and then an exile. It appears that someone is targeting heroes (most of whom retired when the US banned vigilantes) and killing them one by one. A few of the old Watchmen group get together at first to save themselves, but it may not just be themselves who are in danger. You know I hate summarizing...and really, the less you know, the better. :)

Several things surprised me about this book. First, I am astounded at the complexity that the author and artist achieved. The book contains twelve volumes, and at the end of each volume is a little snippet of secondary information. Sometimes journal entries, sometimes bits from a retired hero's book, sometimes interviews. But even though those few pages at the end of each volume added needed background information, the actual picture text part is where the depth comes from. The book is multilayered, switches points of view, is at the same time poetic and frightening. Really--compelling.

The most difficult thing I had to overcome while reading the book was my impatience. I couldn't decide if I should read the text first and then look at the pictures or visa versa--it was very difficult for me to take in both at the same time. This sometimes created a choppiness that I didn't really like (because I was impatient for more!), but on the other hand, it was hard not to get caught up in everything single little thing that was going on. One of the things that I loved about the illustrations was how a picture would focus on something small, then the next frame would zoom out, and finally it would zoom enough to get the entire shot. Words are failing me while writing this review...but there is just so much!

The other thing that really surprised me was how interested I was in the content. I don't read action books. I don't like conspiracy. I don't like end of the world type stuff. I don't like unrealistic, science fictiony, hero swoops in to save the day, etc etc. Really--if that dang movie preview hadn't been so fantastic, and if I hadn't seen this book around the blogosphere, I probably would never have given it a second glance. But once I started reading, I was hooked. This was not fast reading for me. Each volume took me about an hour to read (28 pages plus 5 of non-picture text). But, I loved everything about this book except for the story within the story, which I found most of the time distracting and way over my head. :)

Is it for you? I don't know. It is absolutely, completely, utterly different from anything I have ever experienced before. I don't know that it has universal appeal, and there is a little bit of s*x and a lot of gruesome violence. But none of that "Pow!" "Bam!" "Holy Jeepers, Batman!" stuff one might expect from a comic book. Am I even allowed to call it that? Pick it up and read the first volume. You'll get a pretty good idea if you'll like it or not. I know that I'll read it again one day and gain an entirely different perspective.

*****************************************************************
In other news...

Last night we welcomed to the world my niece, Emma Cathryn. She's absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Both she and my sister are doing great. Below is the quilt that I made for Baby Emma. It took me about a month, but I'm thrilled at how it turned out. I hope Emma will love it one day as well. I machine sewed and hand tied the quilt. It is about 3.5x3.5 feet. The checked pattern is actually little butterflies (I think you can click on picture to enlarge).


And now...off to Hawaii (Oahu) for a week! Aloha Aloha. :)

The Complete Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

Title: The Complete Persepolis
Author: Marjane Satrapi
Date Finished: August 22, 2008 #49
Pages: 341
Rating: 4.5/5

Dear Book Blogosphere Friends,

Thank you for reading such wonderful books and posting about them so that I can say that I want to read them in my comments to you until I leave enough comments saying that I want to read the book that I actually have to breakdown and get the book to read it so that I don't have to keep saying I want to read that book and instead I can say I read and loved that book, too!

Love,

Trish

I promise--no more intentional run-on sentences for the rest of this post. :) I admit it, I was really reluctant to read a graphic novel. I was incredibly prejudiced and shame on me! I really have no good excuse so I'm not even going to bother trying to make them up. After seeing them everyone on the blogosphere, I decided I need to stop being such a whiner and at least try one. So, I went to the bookstore, used my lovely gift certificate that I've been hording for months (I don't know why I will use cash when I have a gift card, but I do) and got The Complete Persepolis--taking the chance that if I liked the first book so much I'd probably want the second book as well.

What a surprise (and why should I be so surprised when my trusted book friends have all raved about this book! Silly me!). I read this during my trip to Toronto, mostly in the car to and from Niagara and downtown, and my sister was so intrigued that even she was reading over my shoulder most of the time and has asked to borrow it.

Persepolis is about a young girl, Marji, and her world turned upside down during the Islam Revolution in Iran during the late 70s and early 80s. When Marji is 14, she is sent to Austria to live, and the second half of the book focuses more on her time there and her struggles to come to terms with her true self. In many ways it is a classic bildungsroman, but what makes Marji's story so special is that we can also see how the revolution affected a little girl who doesn't really understand what is happening around her but wants to with such intensity. The first page (hopefully you can enlarge it to read the text):

The illustrations contain so much emotion that it was easy to laugh and cry along with Marji during the different events and trials of her life. And because there is so little room for words, everything written contains such a strong punch--nothing is wasted. While it seems as though it might be "easy" reading, I read this book very slowly, pouring over the pages and examining each illustration and re-reading and absorbing the words. It was such a different experience reading this book, but I highly recommed it. In terms of the actual book--the first half of the book was fantastic for me. There were a few sections of her teenaged years (I presume in the second volume?) that I didn't care for as much, but in the end the book came back around full-circle and ended strongly. Not only did I come to care so much for Marji, but I also learned so much about the Iranian culture and the revolution. This book has it all!

What do you think about graphic novels? What would you recommend next? Have you seen the movie?

They've also read it: I=first volume; II=second volume; I and II=both reviewed separately; Complete=both reviewed together (like my review)
Valentina (Complete)
Joy (I)
Bethany (I and II)
Corinne (I)
Raidergirl3 (I and II)
Nymeth (Complete)
Dewey (II--but contains link to I)
Rhinoa (Complete)
Marg (II--but contains link to I)