French Milk

by Lucy Knisley

A place where young Americans can seek poetic magic in the winding streets of a beautiful city. The museums, the cafs, the parks. An artist like Lucy can really enjoy Paris in January. If only she can stop griping at her mother. This comic journal details a mother and daughters month-long stay in a small apartment in the fifth arrondissement. Lucy is grappling with the onslaught of adulthood. Her mother faces fifty. They are both dealing with their shifting relationship. All the while, they navigate Paris with halting French and dog-eared guidebooks.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Memoir, Nonfiction, Travel, Comics, France, Food

179 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2007

About the author

Beginning with an love for Archie comics and Calvin and Hobbes, Lucy Knisley (pronounced "nigh-zlee") has always thought of cartooning as the only profession she is suited for. A New York City kid raised by a family of foodies, Lucy is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago currently pursuing an MFA at the Center for Cartoon Studies. While completing her BFA at the School of the Art Institute, she was comics editor for the award-winning student publication F News Magazine.

Lucy currently resides in New York City where she makes comics. She likes books, sewing, bicycles, food you can eat with a spoon, manatees, nice pens, costumes, baking and Oscar Wilde. She occasionally has been known to wear amazing hats.

She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

(copied from http://www.lucyknisley.com/about on 12/31/08)

Reviews

[Mary Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I suppose I was expecting something more substantive when I picked up this book. What I found instead was a collection of drawings and photos of what Knisley ate and bought while living in Paris for 6 weeks with her mother. And she ate and bought a lot (I'm pretty sure that if I could, I would, too.) The thing is, that doesn't make for a gripping or even an intriguing read. The comic became an inventory of consumption and anecdotes.

This was all the more frustrating given her projected scope for the book. On the first page, she wrote a sort of mini-intro regarding how the title relates to her work. Her FRENCH MILK aims to get a deeper understanding of how the French appreciate life, even to the smallest details like dairy, and how that affects her, the artist. She also wanted to delve into the changing relationship between her and her mother. Do you end up getting any of that? No, not really.
Occasionally, there was an attempt at showing an event but those attempts were of seemingly trivial events and then abbreviated at best. So I was confused with the disparity between what the book wanted to be and what it was, as well.

A better choice if you're looking for a travel memoir in the form of graphic novel is CARNET DU VOYAGE by Craig Thompson. In it, the artist visits friends in a few European countries, as well as Morocco. The whole shebang is lyrical and cohesive. Or perhaps even A YEAR IN JAPAN by Kate T. Williamson. Williamson's book really is a collection of Japanese vignettes through the eyes of a young American but with more thoughtful prose.

[Angi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eat. Shop. Complain. Eat. La fin.

[PorshaJo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew of Lucy Knisley's work for years but avoided it due to it being a 'graphic novel'. I finally dove in with her book Relish: My Life in the Kitchen as I needed a food pickme-up. I found the graphic novel part was quite interesting so I wanted to read more of her works.

French Milk is a diary tale of her trip to Paris with her mother. They rented an apartment and spent five weeks walking around, seeing the sites, eating lots of food, in the city of lights. When I say this is her diary tale.....that's it. The book is part graphic drawings and part photos that she took on her trip. It's a book that she can pick up in years and remember what she did on her trip. I keep travel journals, but they are probably a bit more detailed and have no drawings. I guess I would have liked a bit more than just tid-bits from her trip. It just did not seem that cohesive to me. But, it's a travel journal in graphic form.

This book was all black and white drawings. Sometimes the print was so small, as if it was just a photo copy of her actual travel journal notes. (I have reading glasses but man, there were times I really had to work at it). I missed the wonderful color drawing that she did in Relish (which is a newer book). I enjoyed reading about the various places in Paris that she visited. Made me think of trips that I made to Paris and recall them fondly. I have another of Kinsley's books ready to read and will give it a shot at some point. I liked this one, but could have had more.

[Courtney Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book 14/52 for 2012, review cross-posted to my blog.


I've tried to like Lucy Knisley's work; really, I have. My main issue has always been that, while she often states that she's going to explore an concept and make meaningful observations, she rarely delivers. For example, her Kickstarter-funded Here at Hogwarts comic promised to be "about our experience [going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park], and how Harry Potter as a cultural phenomenon has shaped fan society, British/American consumerism, literature and our own lives", but turned out to be more of a "then I did this then I did that oh and we discussed this important issue but I'm just going to mention the fact we did and not give any details YAY BUYING STUFF" affair. I know it's a travelogue, not an academic paper, but a little substance - particularly if it's a promise you exchanged for seven thousand dollars' worth of pre-orders that paid for a glorified holiday - never goes amiss!

Sadly French Milk doesn't depart from this disappointing pattern. It's a travelogue of Knisley's month in Paris with her mother, a joint twenty-second/fiftieth birthday present, predominantly focusing on the food she ate. While the back cover promises a great exploration of the mother/daughter relationship, the challenges of young adulthood and French culture, the reality is far more shallow, and actually quite distasteful at points. I do wonder if some of the reviewers only read the cheesy (pun unintended) final page, which makes the rest out to be far more than what it is.

The book started annoying me on the very first page with this gem: "I started smoking to prepare for smoky Parisian cafés". Maybe this is the bitterness of an asthmatic who's had one too many trips into town spoiled by people blowing cigarette smoke in her face speaking, but it made me take an instant dislike to her. You can take up smoking, but you can't take a basic French course?

She then goes from complaining about being "too poor" to afford a Vespa to showing off her Christmas presents, including a new DSLR camera - a "little present" (emphasis mine) because of the holiday. What planet was she living on? I understand that if you can afford these things then there's no reason you shouldn't, but it makes me so angry when rich people fail to acknowledge their privilege, are oblivious to it or, even worse, pretend that it doesn't exist or that their successes are nothing to do with being lucky. I know enough people like that in real life, thanks!

I make an effort not to dismiss anyone's troubles as whining, since I know depression can manifest itself as such, but it's hard not to in this book's case. Reading about the execution of Saddam Hussein she comments, "the world news is too harsh in its stark intrusion on our Parisian holiday", then says some especially nice cookies mean "humanity [has been] redeemed". Curious how that works when a free, all-expenses-paid holiday to Paris didn't make her stop whining about wanting to have sex with her boyfriend, not fitting into shoes causes a strop and the Moulin Rouge not living up to her expectations made her "depressed" - I hate when that word is trivialised by people who think their non-problems are comparable to serious mental illness.

Her air of superiority is pretty obnoxious too, whether she's looking down on "the idiots at my school" or being "shocked by how ugly and huge Americans can be". She seems to put herself in a category above mere tourists, which is odd considering how she doesn't really explore beyond the tourist attractions, interact with Parisians or even bother to learn French. This is illustrated by an encounter with a group of American students leads her to wrinkle her nose at their "Pringles, Oreos and Seventeen magazines", their "talking loudly" and "their conversation [...] full of 'likes'" (because students living abroad should never enjoy home comforts... or talk). Even worse is an incident on the plane home: Knisley and her mother were asked to stop watching a DVD without headphones because people were trying to sleep, and responded by having a conversation loud enough to be annoying. She actually says, "take that, 'other passengers'"! Interesting how it was distasteful when those American students were doing the same in a much less rude fashion. Also, if interviews with her are anything to go by, she isn't innocent of crimes against "like".

I'm only a little younger than Knisley was when she took her trip, so any excuses regarding her age don't fly by me. It has been said that I'm a bit too mature for my age, but I do think Knisley was especially immature for hers. She mentioned watching "Arrested Development" a few times, which is nothing if not apt. Treating youth as a get-out-of-jail-free card with regards to published works is something that irritates me anyway - if a book is published, it should be held to the same standards regardless of the author's age. Age especially shouldn't be cited to absolve a grown woman of her responsibility to not act like a brat.

There were a few other examples of her immaturity. Her weak defence of eating foie gras, along the lines of "being force-fed to death is a relatively pleasant way to go", irritated me quite a bit. If you're going to do something that's morally questionable, at least own that decision without attempting to spin it into kindness via inaccuracies. (Poor logic is another pet hate of mine.) She mentions her favourite painting, Courbet's very-NSFW "L'Origine du monde", but doesn't give any reasons why she likes it beyond a "tee hee" - she even looks for it in the wrong museum at first. For all her posturing about Oscar Wilde being a huge inspiration, she doesn't really talk about why she admires him so much (she also misquotes Wilde's last words). Her shallow response to seeing the film "Marie Antoinette" contrasts with the disapproving French people sharing the cinema with her: "it did what I wanted it to do: be pretty, and fuel my imagination of what it might have been like at Versailles at that time". Again this response wasn't explored at all - I can instantly see a comparison with her opinions about Paris in general. There was very little exploration of the difference between the real Paris and the idealised, Americanised version - except, that is, where it could be complained about. Most of the book is spent buying stuff, which made her angst over money feel disingenuous - what happened to being too poor to afford a Vespa?!

Another thing: for saying Knisley has degrees in cartooning, she's not especially good at it. I only counted one especially nice picture. The food pictures in particular are often indistinguishable without a label and her cartoon self looks nothing like her in real life. The writing isn't very compelling either. It may just be me, but I don't think it's a coincidence that my favourite comics artists don't have degrees in any form of art. I guess it ties in with my concerns about creative writing courses - while the feedback, deadlines, prompts and connections are obviously valuable, it won't turn a mediocre writer into a great one (I have first-hand experience of this), and an aspiring writer may be better served by a course that trains them to think in a way that transcends their own work (I can be pretentious too!).

There wasn't much to recommend this book. At least one huge bonus of this being traditionally published was that it didn't contain quite as many spelling mistakes as Knisley's work usually does - I understand some people have difficulty with that, but that's why you get a more orthographically-inclined friend to look over important documents before you put them online or sell them to people.

I spent most of French Milk spotting opportunities for depth and growth and being disappointed when it didn't surface. I would have liked some actual exploration of their relationship (apparently the book's title is a reference to mother's milk, another empty affirmation), as well as some examination of her obvious privileges beyond blaming "feeling" like a spoiled brat on being an only child. Even a bit of Paris-related musing beyond "ooh pretty", "nom nom nom" and "not all Frenchmen seem very nice" (the last being a direct quote) would have sufficed. It didn't even make me want to crave French food or a trip to Paris. I don't really think the book's quality merits the opportunities it was given: Knisley's mother being able to publish her book, making it easier to pass onto bigger publishing houses - not when there are more talented cartoonists and story-tellers out there.

It must be fun having other people pay for your holidays and then getting paid to document them (actually, I can vouch for that, having received £100 for an article on my EUCYS prize trip to CERN!), but it does not necessarily a good book make, particularly when the author has some serious growing up to do. Knisley's Twitter feed tells me she's just returned from a trip to Tanzania and is working on a travelogue (she's also currently in South Korea and went on a cruise earlier this year). I hope to goodness she's done a better job of it this time and has gained a little more self-awareness in the years since French Milk was created. This is one diary that would have benefited from staying locked.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Knisley's travel journal from 2006/2007 when she and her mother rented a Paris apartment for a few weeks.



They ate yummy food, shopped at flea markets and book stores, and visited museums - my idea of the perfect vacation.



Those used to Knisley's more polished cartooning style may be disappointed, but I enjoyed the feeling of immediacy the scribbled toons offered.

Warning - don't read on an empty stomach.

[aly ☆彡 (on holiday, will be back soon) · Rating 2 out of 5]

One word to describe the book: Mediocre

I like the illustrations fine but too many words, too much talking. Nothing remarkable.
Love the insertion of real photos pertaining to the events in between the graphic photos though.

Other than that, this took me too long to finish for a graphic novel. Some stories are cool, some are just full of grumbling and tiresome.

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comic tells the story of a young woman in her early 20s who spends a month in Paris with her mother. There wasn't really a plot to the story; this was the journal and sketch book of her day to day life. I liked that. I liked getting a glimpse of what this woman did in Paris, where she went, what she ate.

I was a bit bugged by money. The author/artist mentions several times that she is worried about her finances, can't afford to buy things, yet does manage to buy things and is spending a month in Paris, for goodness sake. My guess is that her parents are picking up the tab, but how do they afford it? She also mentions just getting little presents from her parents for Christmas because the trip is a big deal, which also leads me to believe that her folks are footing the bill. However, one of the little presents she gets is a brand new digital camera. Not a little present at all where I come from.

Ah, class issues. They can't be escaped, even in comic books.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

for some reason, i was really obsessed with finding this book & reading it, even though i am not a huge fan of graphic books or books where spoiled 22-year-olds go to paris & spend half their time there crying because they miss their boyfriends or are worried about their finances. i think i liked the idea of the book more than i liked the execution, even though i knew on some level that of course the idea was bound to be better than the execution. but i put a hold on it at the library anyway, & when i finally sat down to read it, i blazed through in an hour or two.

the whole thing is about six weeks that lucy spends living in paris with her mom. they are staying in a little apartment where they share a bed & they spend all day strolling around paris, eating lots of food, going to art museums, & shopping. honestly, it doesn't sound like a bad way to spend six weeks. i gather from context that the trip is an xmas gift from her parents to lucy, & that maybe her mom is thinking of getting an apartment in paris & living there part-time. so you can discern that these people are loaded. not a bad gig if you can get it, i guess, but i definitely failed to relate, which probably sucked some of the pleasure out of the book for me.

lucy turns 22 while she is in paris, & spends all day moping about being old. HA HA HA! all 22-year-olds thing they are old. & just a few years later, they are horrified & embarrassed that they ever thought such a thing. but that knowledge failed to make lucy's angst any more tolerable. she also kept dropping little asides about all her great france-related literary loves, such as oscar wilde, anais nin, & david sedaris. oh yes, how very obscure. she must be the most sophisticated 22-year-old art student the world has ever seen, to be aware of these luminary lights of the literary establishment! oh wait. these are the same peeps that every slack-jawed 22-year-old art student with pretensions of relevancy idolize. i am always so embarrassed for people when they make a big fuss about their obscure interests, & it turns out that their interests are neither obscure nor interesting. moving on...

probably my greatest disappointment is that the art didn't even do much for me. it was very derivative of lynda barry & tintin, with an occasional splash of julie doucet, but not any of the doucet trademarks that actually make julie doucet's work interesting. lucy is a better artist than i am, so i'm not going to cast too many stones here, but considering that this was a fully-illustrated diary documenting a trip to one of the most visually sumptuous cities in the world...i was a little bummed with the end result, i will admit. i'm sure she can knock a nice detailed architectural drawing out of the park when she really wants to--there were hints of serious talent in here. but because it was essentially a diary, there was a dashed-off thrown-together quality to the art that didn't do much for me.

oh, & also. the book opens with this whole song & dance about how lucy wants to explore the manner in which the french appreciate life, & she wants to explore her changing relationship with her mom...was that an intro for a different book? because neither of those things happens here. unless maybe she & her mom have never shopped together before or something. i don't know.

[Ferdy · Rating 2 out of 5]

No strong feelings for this, it was average in every way. Average drawings, average thoughts, average everything.
The food was probably the most interesting part, mostly because it was all kinds of disgusting (nothing but foie gras and oyster). Lucy was meh, she wasn't very likeable or engaging, all she did was moan about everything despite having lots of great opportunities. Also, she made Paris seem rather boring.

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was set to give this book two stars. it's really not very good: it reads like a 16-year-old's livejournal in which they post inane lists of the crap they bought and stuff they ate (even though the stuff they ate is THE SAME THING EVERY DAY) interspersed with drawings of inconsistent quality (the humans and places look good but the food looks like disgusting unrecognizable lumps) and blurry, weirdly-framed photos. when her boyfriend criticizes her for being a sad sack/being ungrateful about getting to live in paris for a month, she gets mad at him (though he is really just trying to give her some perspective). she has a couple pointless & short-lived identity crises about whether she wants to be an artist and the nature of adulthood, but even those are kind of just the inane ramblings of a spoiled brat.

but here is why I gave the book one star instead: on the plane ride home to new york, she and her mom watch a dvd with no headphones. the flight attendant asks them to stop because it is disturbing other people on the flight. they get so mad that they talk really loudly to punish everyone. seriously? it is not unreasonable to ask you to WEAR SOME FREAKIN' HEADPHONES. in spite of what you have spent your whole life believing, the world DOES NOT revolve around you. and then like a page later she talks about how americans are all fat and ugly and how that's a culture shock for her. they may look a way you don't like, but YOU, lucy knisley circa age 22/23, have an ugly CHARACTER.

[Maia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided I wanted to read through all of Lucy Knisley's books, and went back to this first one, which I had never read before. If she had never published another work, I think this one would largely have been forgotten- especially in today's era of indulgently abundant free diary comics online. This book stands up, and is remarkable partly because so many of the relationships, thoughts, and themes of her later books can already be seen brewing here. It's impossible not to read this one with the later books in mind, and in that light it offers a satisfying peek into Lucy Knisley's beginnings. You can easily see how far she has developed, both as a writer and an artist- but she developed precisely because she spent time making this early work. No one skips ahead directly from novice to master. Sometimes it appears that artists do, because none of their early or student work is published. But Lucy's was, and I'm grateful that this public record of her learning curve is available for anyone to discover.

[Brown Girl Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so pleasurable to read. I loved reading about Lucy and her Mom's 6 week stay in Paris. If anything you could use this book as a list of things to do, see, and eat in Paris. It made me laugh and smile. It made me reminisce over quite a lot of things I love about Paris. I loved the idea of mixing photography and comics. Lucy also has just the right comments about the different situations they she and her Mom went through. If it would have had a few recipes it would have a perfect 5 stars for me. All in all it's a nice fast summer read and hope she has some comics in the making.

[Miss Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started out alternately hatin' on (WTF? Her parents are paying for her to live in Paris for a month?) and liking (pages after pages of "This is what I ate and it was soooo good,") this book. I heard about it from my absolutely favorite young adult literature blog Readingrants.org so I had high hopes, despite my extreme jealousy of her City of Lights living. Hrmph. The book's cover says something about exploring the relationship between mothers and daughters. Well, I must have skipped the page that explored said relationship because I missed it. I remember one sentence where Lucy says, and here I'll paraphrase, "Isn't it super weird that I feel like an independent adult when I'm alone but when I'm with my ma I regress and become akin to a wee infant?" You know, I think I would also feel like that if I went to Paris WITH MY MOM and MY MOM PAID FOR MY TRIP. Plus, despite what I said above about liking the food lists, it gets old real fast. The book is essentially this stuff over and over (and over...). "We got up late and then we went to an art museum and then I drank some milk - OMG THE MILK IS SO GOOD IN PARIS - and then I ate some foie gras because I totally don't feel guilty about how they treat those geese and then we bought stuff at a market and then we ate more foie gras and cornichons and then we went to sleep. And Americans are so fat and ugly compared to Parisians. The End" Lame-o! And she never tells the reader what a cornichon is, nor can you tell from her sparse drawings, though her drawing of a woman's large buttocks on the final pages is not sparse - it's just plain mean. Boooo! Thank goodness I checked it out from the library and didn't spend my money.

[MB (What she read) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically, this is a travel diary in comic format. I suspect that the reader's reaction to this book depends on how much YOU identify with Lucy. I.e. if reading this brings back happy memories of college days and travel and such butterfly-like self-explorations, then you will probably enjoy this. On the other hand, if your background was much less privileged; then I estimate Lucy will likely come off as annoying, whiny, and self-absorbed. In that case this memoir may be grating to you. (It was to me.)

I'd be interested to see what other readers think about this hypothesis...? Feel free to comment.

If you enjoy travel memoirs mixed with food, may I recommend to you A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg? It is not a graphic novel. She is comparatively young but (I think) has more depth. (Maybe that is just a consequence of the format difference?) In this book, she writes fairly lyrical essays about food, life, some travel and quite movingly (imo) about her relationship with her parents. And, for oldies but still goodies, try M.F.K. Fisher or more currently, Ruth Reichl.

[Nahree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. This is basically what the book is about so you won't have to read it: "My parents gave me an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris and I griped about everything. Then drew 193 pages of things I bought on my many shopping trips, ate my weight in foie gras and drank my weight in whole milk. I consistently call macarons "cookies" though I try to speak in "franglish" to use the French words I DO know and though I was only there for a month, I eventually come home and proclaim that Americans are so fat and ugly compared to the Parisians since I now have the "street cred" to say something like that. I then publish my "work" with a lofty preface that my "travelogue" is about the struggle towards adulthood and the profound relationship with one's mother when in fact my book does not even touch the surface of either of these topics. I then make a shallow and unsuccessful attempt to compare Paris to Chicago as a metaphor to give all of this a meaningful ending. The end."

[Aloke · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a series of postcards than an actual novel. Maybe useful as a travel guide.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Lucy Knisley's since probably around 2007, actually, which is when she published this travelogue of her time in Paris with her mother, when both of them were celebrating special birthdays. Lucy was turning twenty-two, just on the verge of graduating from college, and her mother was turning fifty. They spent five weeks living in a tiny Parisian apartment, going to see museums, and eating mounds and mounds of French food.

Honestly, I don't even remember where or how I found her blog, but I'm so glad I did. It's been so much fun following her evolution as a cartoonist from back in the good old days before she was a published author, to now when she's written so many beautiful graphic memoirs. If you haven't checked out her stuff, you might try her website, or just pick up Relish, a memoir of "her life in food". I've been meaning to read French Milk, her first published book, for quite some time. I'm glad I finally got around to it. Her writing and cartooning as always is a delight, but it was actually really interesting to see the differences in her style from back in 2006 when I'm so used to her later stuff.

The whole thing is in black and white, first of all, and one of my favorite parts of her art is her use of color, so that was an automatic downside. The second thing I noticed, besides the differences in her actual drawings, was that there was less of a thematic throughline in this book than in her later ones. She's gotten much more skilled at tying together random parts into a whole than when this was published. It really is just a record of her time and feelings during her journey. What still shines through is her emotion, though. I love the way she uses the medium of cartooning to convey such non-cartoonish feelings and experiences. In this case, she touches on growing up, the transition from youth to adulthood, mortality, family, her relationship with her mother, and friendship just to name a few. It's a little scattered because she herself was scattered at the time she wrote it.

I'm so excited to finally dive into her latest two books, both of which I checked out at the same time as this one for a mini-Lucy Knisley binge. I'm also SUPER excited about her book coming out later this year, which will cover her experiences with the whole process of getting married.

Seriously. Check her stuff out. She's funny, she's honest, she loves food and cats. Once she designed a hot dogs of different cities t-shirt and I bought if for my roommate. She is the real deal.

[3.5 stars]

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three stars is actually an average. If I were basing the rating on the story alone, I would've given it two stars. Nothing happens to the author other than she spends six weeks in Paris with her mother shopping, eating, reading and visiting museums. Don't get me wrong- that sounds like a dream vacation, but the author's personal experience didn't translate into an amazing reading experience for *me*. It's kinda like you had to be there, you know?

On the other hand, the pen and ink drawings (and the side commentary on the drawings) are absolutely charming, nad I can honestly say this is the first comic book/slash graphic novel that I have really, truly enjoyed. Based on that, I'd have to give the book a solid four stars.

[Ashley M · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not care for this. Drawings were neat but I have no interest in what this whiny, smoking, insolent teen had to say. Just not worth my hour & a half.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Knisley's drawings are nice. She has a great line quality and ease in rendering people, especially their faces. I also like the layout and the use of photos in this book. On the other hand, I felt the content was rather boring and the author/main character was a bit pretentious. Yes, this is a diary and so some self-indulgence is par for the course, but once it's published it becomes a book that other people are expected to read and enjoy.

How can Knisley write about a month of shopping sprees and art museum going without a hint of irony that what she is doing is just extended tourism, which is 100% acceptable, except when she starts looking down on the American students she finds eating Oreos at the laundromat. She reveals very little about these students and why their eating of American junk food and their use of the word like is so offensive. Does she really think she's that different?

Another thing that I find disingenuous is the defensive and thin excuse in favor of producing and eating fois gras, as well as, the page upon page of drawings of this pate on the author's plate, but when she encounters a restaurant's use of brass (yes, brass. not real) pig hooves for door handles she has the nerve to be disturbed. Is she kidding?

The biggest gripe I have though is with the discrepancy between the back cover's description and the book's actual content. I decided to read this because of the supposed examination of Knisley and her mother's relationship. Can someone please tell me where this was explored in the book?

I get the feeling this book was not started as a travel journal to be published (I hope), but as a personal travel log and I think this is its biggest flaw; the audience was not a real consideration during its creation. It feels like I'm reading my own travel journal (I went to Paris with my father when I was nineteen), but the difference between rereading my travel diary and Knisley's is that I actually care about the trip I took and I did not make my journal into something more than it is.

There is personal value in keeping a diary. There is also value in knowing the proper time and venue for sharing the information within one.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would be a little more introspective, especially since the author herself mentions early on calling it French Milk as a reference to, well, French milk, but also to mother's milk and what's passed on by a mother to daughter. But there was no discussion of their relationship at all, and even the milk shows up late in the book -- strange for something that is, after all, the title image. I'd been hoping for something more along the lines of Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home."

I liked the drawings, but not being a foodie (or 22) I didn't find the story especially gripping, and I wasn't grabbed by a desire to see Paris, either. Overall I felt like I was reading through a stranger's Facebook page: here are my cool friends, here is my boyfriend, here's what I ate/bought/saw today. But nothing deeper about her relationships or, really, about her development as an artist -- which would have been an interesting angle (I happen to be reading David Michaelis' biography of Charles Schulz now, so maybe that's biasing me). As it became clear that nothing more substantive was going to be discussed, I wondered whether the earlier rhetoric about mother/daughter relationships was added on later in the publishing process. It really didn't line up with the content of the book which, overall, seems very superficial.

I'd give this one star for content -- the extra star is for the drawings.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is totally up my alley. Lucy is 3 years younger than I and looks to be heavily influenced by Craig Thompson's awesome Carnet de Voyage. This is Knisley's sketchbook/journal from a month in Paris with her mother in January of 2007. Her illustration style is very accessible and reminiscent of Thompson. I enjoyed this window into her life. Unfortunately, I felt like she didn't go as deep as Thompson. All they did was go to museums, eat, and shop. She angsts about money, but eats foie gras every day. Her lifestyle is very different from mine. And so I became a bit disenchanted with this. It's a nice addition to my graphic novel travelogue list, but that's it.

[Meghan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A diary written by a 21-year-old girl about a totally unremarkable trip to Paris, cataloguing what she ate and what she bought. I need things to be at least a bit reflective or have at least a bit of adventure to them - this was boring even though the drawing style was good. It was all "I went to the bookstore and bought some books, we ate dinner at ... "

[Ru · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am giving this the full five stars for several reasons. the first is the potential it showcases. knisley is young, seems to know a lot of the right people (bryan lee o'malley, hope larson, etc), has a wonderful way with a brush/pen/ink (her sketch style is very reminiscent of craig thompson's carnet du voyages). several reviews i have read seem to take offense that a visual diary from a young woman in her early 20s appears to be written by a young woman in her early 20s (whiny, self-indulgent, not really cognizant of her social and class position). since the last time i was in paris, i too was a young woman in her early 20s (that trip kicked off a period in my life of which i am not particularly proud!), i can recognize a lot of the cultural landmarks knisley identifies. whether or not she realizes it, she seems to be documenting what, for a certain group of people in north america, is a reasonably common (though not universal) experience. and for that, i am grateful to her. this is the second reason for the five stars.

it remains to be seen if knisley will look back on this work and think "oh my god, i was such an EMBARRASSMENT!" (which, again, from my experience would not be altogether unheard of!) but i hope that even if it eventually embarrasses her, she will also be able to read it and see it for what it is - the carnet that all of us who made a similar journey wish we could have made.

i am also giving it five stars for the postively visceral nostalgia it inspired in me. cheese! pastries! cafe au lait! modern chamber music! art! art! ART!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy's memoir of her five week stay in Paris with her mother as she nears the end of her college career. It's full of angst -- of the wondering what she'll do, where she'll go when school's over -- and it's also full of food, of travel, and of culture.

I really appreciated how much angst Lucy gives us without fear, too. She's very honest and realistic about having days where she just didn't feel like being present because her own mind space was begging her to lay in bed and do little else. There's a line she shares about how she only feels good when she's being productive, and I not only relate to that sentiment, but I think it sort of puts the book in a place that's not about showing off her travels but instead about exposing that sometimes you simply cannot "be" in the place you are.

What I didn't care for so much was the use of the photography scattered among the art. Most of them were blurry, and while I am sure that was purposeful, it made the book as a whole sort of look sloppy.

This is a book for readers who are looking for those "20-something" reads. It's the right mix of angst and hope and excitement and fear about the present and the future all at once. Bonus points for France, for lots of cheese and milk, and for Lucy's relatable and humorous voice.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was really, really sweet. It touched a chord with me, since I'm kind of in the same time of my life as the author, and her feelings about her friends & work & life & mom & "ack! what am I even doing?" resonated. I wished it had been longer, so that it wouldn't have had to end so soon :) I've seen a lot of criticism that this book's self-centered and entirely about shopping and food... while those are fairly true, it didn't bother me. It's a diary, and I actually liked that she seemed to say what she was really feeling, good OR bad, throughout the whole trip. I think without that honesty, the whole thing would've rung a little false.

Adorable and a fun read overall!

[brunch hashbrowns · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this. I haven't had a reaction this negative to a book for a long time.

I wish I were exaggerating. This "story" is mostly an unimaginative account of things she bought and food she ate. The drawings were interspersed with distracting (and often unfocused) photography, all of which completely broke the immersion.

Nothing interesting happens to anyone. It's as if the artist never stopped to ask herself if the story needed to be told at all. The closest we get to drama or character development is the artist acting completely and somehow uninsightfully self-absorbed, or complaining about wanting to have sex with her boyfriend. There is no conflict, no insight, no point. If this type of thing sells, maybe I can make a living selling graphic accounts of my dentist appointments.

On the last page, we're treated to an entirely textual epilogue including vague references to arguments with Knisley's mother, personal growth, and shifting relationships. Why did she choose not to show ANY of this in her story? It would've been far more interesting than pages like the one describing the ordinary contents of a sandwich she prepared for her return flight.

After all the above, this might seem like a minor point, but why the hell were there page borders? There didn't need to be page borders. Were they just to keep us from noticing that the book shouldn't have actually been printed in these dimensions? I noticed. Perhaps it was an attempt at providing a semblance of panel structure for convention's sake? Entirely unnecessary. Was it to remind the reader of a photo album? I can't imagine why that would be the case. For God's sakes, if you need the borders, let them quarantine the photos to extra-narrative supplementary material and let the drawings BREATHE. Or better yet, leave them out entirely.

If major cuts were made until it was edited down to a quarter of the present size, perhaps it could be worthwhile read. If you want to read a good travelogue, read Craig Thompson's Carnet De Voyage. Don't waste your time with French Milk.

[Suad Shamma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, lots of Debbie Downers and Negative Nellies out there.
I really enjoyed this, specifically because it was an honest form of travel journaling. There were no clean lines, no typed up words. It was like Lucy literally took her diary as is and printed it into a book, which I suspect is what she did.

I loved her scribbly drawings. I loved the way she viewed Paris. I loved how she went from being whiny to actually loving it and feeling sad about having to leave it. I loved how much she enjoyed the food. She made me want to go to Paris myself, even though I've been plenty of times before. But I wanted to go again just so I could walk those streets, try those cafes and restaurants, and eat all those delicious croissants and chocolate mousse and chocolate fondant and baguettes and fois gras and onion soup and my God...I hate milk, like HATE it, but she made me want to drink French milk!

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this so much is that it reminded me of my own travel journal when I spent a month road tripping around Europe with my family. I tried my hand at something similar, where I wrote less and drew more. I was never able to finish that journal, but she made me want to go back to that journal from 2013 and finish telling the story of that darned trip!

I appreciated this. It's not as easy as it looks, and it's not about a 20-something girl who was moaning the whole way through. Not at all actually, so I'm surprised why it was taken that way by many of the readers.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I heard a couple of friends recommend this book/comic artist to me, one in particular when I was expounding on my recent Lynda Barry obsession, but to be perfectly honest I didn't really care for it that much. The sketching was skillful and competent, but as a travel journal it rarely felt insightful or even introspective in any way. Maybe I came in with unrealistic expectations, compared to Barry it seems very shallow and frivolous. I know this was really an on the fly thing about living in Paris for awhile, but aside from listing different foods, things seen in museums, and shopping excursions, it didn't really delve that much deeper into the author's feelings. Especially considering it opens with some introduction about how the trip broadened her horizons and deepened her relationship with her mother (who she traveled with) or some such thing, and I rarely saw evidence of that on the page.

As other reviewers have complained, I also found some of the author's observations annoying. That seems like a low blow to take, but complaining about having no money when you are taking a two-month trip to Paris and eating what look like decadent meals and cookies all the time seems kind of silly, as does complaining about the state of modern art. All in all, this felt very guarded to me and the juxtaposition of text and image didn't really do too much for me, either.

[Beth Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this graphic memoir and feel like it would be a good "starter book" for people just getting into graphic novels/memoirs. The inclusion of actual black and white photographs was interesting, and to me at least, original. I read Lucy Knisley's "Relish" and realize I like her art style.

The book chronicles a six week trip to Paris, which she took with her mother. There's something in here for everyone to enjoy, as there's talk about museums and art, cafes and food (and drink), various kinds of markets and boutiques (clothes and bags!) and bookstores and books.

I'd recommend this book for anyone who's interested in Paris (and food and drinks and clothes and books). One of my favorite and most relatable passages occurred when they visited Versailles and took an audio tour of the King's and Queen's apartments and realized how little privacy there was in those apartments : "If I were to give a tour of such places, I would include info on the affairs, on what they wore, on the food and the party scandals, and where/how fucked, shat, and picked their noses." I laughed when I read this because I'd be wondering the exact same things. I'll happily read anything Lucy Knisley writes.