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i read the first chapter before it was released as a collected novel. it's dense artwork is gorgeous, and the story is emotionally intense. i'm trying to re-read the first chapter...
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Compulsively readable, in part because there are no chapter or section breaks in the story - just the relentless recounting of life with illness.
Similar to [b:Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic|38990|Fun Home A Family Tragicomic|Alison Bechdel|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eaVcRrbEL._SL75_.jpg|911368] in that both show how early family experiences led to becoming cartoonists, but much more repetitive than [b:Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic|38990|Fun Home A Family Tragicomic|Alison Bechdel|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eaVcRrbEL._SL75_.jpg|911368]. I wasn't all that interested in David's dreams once he became an adult, and I wasn't totally satisfied with the fact that he presented them as a kind of resolution to the story.
Similar to [b:Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic|38990|Fun Home A Family Tragicomic|Alison Bechdel|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eaVcRrbEL._SL75_.jpg|911368] in that both show how early family experiences led to becoming cartoonists, but much more repetitive than [b:Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic|38990|Fun Home A Family Tragicomic|Alison Bechdel|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eaVcRrbEL._SL75_.jpg|911368]. I wasn't all that interested in David's dreams once he became an adult, and I wasn't totally satisfied with the fact that he presented them as a kind of resolution to the story.
I can't decide if I really liked it, or just liked it. The art is fantastic and surreal, and being in David B.'s head is an adventure in itself. The entire story is uncomfortable and disturbing. It lags sometimes, getting bogged down in details that David outright says are important to him to include even if it means losing his readers for a few moments. In the end, I can't decide how I feel about David and his brother, each one sometimes infuriatingly childish and self-absorbed.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5 rounded up to 4 for the detailed drawings & immersion into his family.
I LOVED this book. It was intense, dark, sweet, sad, funny, and above all unnervingly honest. I could not put it down. It was the first graphic novel I've read in ages that made me feel as I might not be smart enough to read it. I love that feeling of challenge and a book that dares me to think. It's like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home on crack. Highly, highly recommended.
When the Largehearted Boy proclaims that something is his all-time favorite ever, I run out and consume whatever that thing might be. That’s what fangirls do. I am still waiting for him to proclaim Michael Cera his all-time favorite Canadian ever, but that’s beside the point.
The point here is that LHB proclaimed that David B’s Epileptic was his favorite graphic novel, even though it’s a memoir (why is it that graphic memoirs are always called graphic novels?). I’d have picked it up based on that endorsement alone, but the luck I’ve had reading graphic memoirs (see: Persepolis, Fun Home, and It’s a Bird) made me extra excited.
Holy crow! This is the kind of book that kicks your ass and ties your brain in a knot. It’s not for the faint of intellect or for those who cannot handle emotions laid bare.
Read the rest on MN Reads.
The point here is that LHB proclaimed that David B’s Epileptic was his favorite graphic novel, even though it’s a memoir (why is it that graphic memoirs are always called graphic novels?). I’d have picked it up based on that endorsement alone, but the luck I’ve had reading graphic memoirs (see: Persepolis, Fun Home, and It’s a Bird) made me extra excited.
Holy crow! This is the kind of book that kicks your ass and ties your brain in a knot. It’s not for the faint of intellect or for those who cannot handle emotions laid bare.
Read the rest on MN Reads.
Another great example of graphic-novel-as-memoir. David B.'s art is dark and menacing but also truthful and honest. We see the manifestations of his brother's epilepsy and family life as the author's parents try to find a cure or answers at the least. One of the most fascinating aspects of the book was his parent's experiments with different religions, sects, religious movements, and communes through the 60's and 70's. This book is a great entry for anyone starting to explore graphic novels as literature.