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I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time, and finally got around to it a few weeks ago. We were traveling, and it was a good book to read start-to-finish in the car — only took me about an hour. David Small’s story is rather sad. The second child of a pair of emotionally and physically distant parents, he spent much of his childhood entertaining himself and learning how to best maneuver with the least upset to anyone. When he develops a tumor on his neck, it becomes just one more thing to
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After his parents take him in for a supposedly routine surgery, David wakes up with a huge scar and no voice. Only later does he discover that he had cancer, probably due to the x-ray treatments prescribed by his radiologist father.
Memoir is one genre that seems to lend itself especially well to the graphic novel format. Haunting and powerful, David Small's memoir examines a dysfunctional family destroyed by repression and denial. He also illustrates the way that we all have the power to leave ...more
Memoir is one genre that seems to lend itself especially well to the graphic novel format. Haunting and powerful, David Small's memoir examines a dysfunctional family destroyed by repression and denial. He also illustrates the way that we all have the power to leave ...more
A thoroughly depressing but artistic graphic novel. I loved the art and the whole idea of presenting a life story graphically. But the story is so sad that I couldn't exactly LOVE the book. So I compromised and gave it three stars. It was definitely worth the very short time it took to read.
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Graphic novels *still* aren't my favorite format for a book, and I am not a huge memoir reader either. With that said, I think that my favorite graphic novels are memoirs. This is the case where the end result is better than the sum of its parts. The illustrations, combined with sparse text often creates something deeply personal and is more powerful than a regular memoir. I thought of this as I read Blankets and now Small's Stitches. This story is alone powerful, but the illustrations by Small
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Sad, beautiful, amazing. David Small's memoir is so powerful, illustrating a horrific childhood.
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This was a very quick read, but also very heart-wrenching. So sad to think that young David Small had a cancerous growth and that his parents decided to keep the truth from him.
"Stitches" is an incredible graphic novel memoir. I was sucked into the suffocating atmosphere by Small's stark images and spare dialogue and ached as I read about Small, a lonely boy who grows into a man scarred both literally and figuratively by his parents. "Stitches", like the renowned Art Spiegelman's "Maus", will leave you amazed at how truly powerful a graphic novel can be.
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So not remotely what I thought it would be (and I didn't read any synopses, so I had no idea what I was getting into) and so so so amazingly done, and so so troubling.
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I love this type of graphic novel memoir. Sad story. I'm glad he survived his cancer and persevered.
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Mar 08, 2010
Nicole
marked it as to-read
Nov 19, 2012
Karen Pirrung
marked it as to-read
Dec 27, 2012
Sarah
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May 05, 2013
Melissa
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Jan 11, 2014
Kit
marked it as to-read
Apr 29, 2015
Ama
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really liked it
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alex,
2015
Jan 18, 2016
Rachel
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Feb 09, 2016
Alison
marked it as to-read
Jun 03, 2016
Amy Richard
marked it as to-read
