French Milk - Book review

French Milk by Lucy Knisley - graphic memoir

I've fallen in love with graphic novels and memoirs the last two years and looked forward to this one that came highly recommended by...someone, I don't remember who. Unfortunately, I found this one to be boring, repetitive and sloppy.

Lucy travels to Paris with her mother to celebrate their birthdays - Lucy's 22nd and her mother's 50th (though she failed to mention anything about her mother's birthday in the story). They rent an apartment for a month and see the sights and eat. And eat. And eat. And every meal is drawn and written about in detail on just about every other page. It was like reading someone's food journal combined with the angst of a narcissistic young adult, which sometimes can be interesting and insightful, but not here.

In addition to the illustrations, which are fairly good, there are some not so good photos every few pages. I don't think they added anything to the book - most of them are of Lucy posing in front of a building or in a cemetary [sic] or of - that's right - food.

Fortunately, this only took a couple of hours to read. And I just can't recommend it.

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The Sunday Salon: Camping Out

I'm not really here today. I'm out in the woods camping with some friends - our annual women's campout. Sounds like the shady woods is one good place to be this weekend, with temps expected to be over 100. I don't think we'll be having any campfires! When I'm not talking, laughing, singing or eating, I'll be sitting in the shade of some tall Douglas firs and cedars reading. Hopefully I'll get to Olive Kitteredge sometime this weekend. I've read rave reviews of this book, with some comparisons to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. First, though, I'll finish The Madonnas of Leningrad - started it Wednesday night and so far I feel pretty lukewarm about it.

Books I've read this week:

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. This is a quirky little book! I feel like I need to read it again to take it all in. I would probably rate it higher on a second read. Written in 1961, it explores the influence of an unorthodox teacher on her students in an Edinburgh girls' private school. I was expecting laugh out loud humor, which this is not. Made famous by the movie starring Maggie Smith, which I've never seen (but plan to watch soon).

• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, "a totally unique memoir about growing up in Iran after the Shah left power." This is a powerful graphic memoir, and Satrapi and her family are remarkable people. Marji's parents were very open and honest with her about what was happening in their country and encouraged her to express her opinions and take part in demonstrations against the fundamentalist government - to a point. I learned a lot about the Iran-Iraq war and the civil war in Iran in the 1970s -- and the people of Iran -- from this book. I'm looking forward to reading Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return next week.
  

You can read more about this remarkable book and an interview with Satrapi, "On Writing Persepolis," at this website. This is another movie I intend to watch soon.

I've come to appreciate the graphic novel - or memoir - as a very effective way of conveying story and emotion. It's more than just a sophisticated comic book. One of my favorite books last year was another graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, brilliant author of Dykes to Watch Out For.

I hope you're have a wonderful Sunday wherever you are!

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