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A review by kidzikcan
Epileptic by David B.
3.0
A dense interesting read. I found myself feeling rather mixed about it, on one hand I can understand that dealing with an illness in a family comes with frustrations and challenges that many people often don't know how to handle, much less children. I can understand how resentment can build up especially as a child and it doesn't get any easier if the affected family member is prone to violence.
On the other hand, I felt it unfair we didn't get any insight into his brothers own feelings with having to actually live with his illness. The author and his family chides Jean-Christophe for being "lazy" and not wanting to grow up but I can absolutely understand why that might happen. Life is shown to be so much more difficult for him and he effectively lost a large chunk of his childhood, it's natural to me he'd want to hold onto it. He might not be the best type of person but I still feel he's deserving of empathy, and that their framing of his brother ultimately feeds into prejudices that many people with illness have to deal with. It definitely a very old-fashioned view of illness, if only someone were "stronger". If only it were that "easy".
Ultimately it's a sad complicated situation. As this is his recounting of his own family there's going to be much deeper things going on beyond what is presented in the comic. The art was incredible and I really enjoyed learning about his family though I found the more philosophical parts harder to parse.
On the other hand, I felt it unfair we didn't get any insight into his brothers own feelings with having to actually live with his illness. The author and his family chides Jean-Christophe for being "lazy" and not wanting to grow up but I can absolutely understand why that might happen. Life is shown to be so much more difficult for him and he effectively lost a large chunk of his childhood, it's natural to me he'd want to hold onto it. He might not be the best type of person but I still feel he's deserving of empathy, and that their framing of his brother ultimately feeds into prejudices that many people with illness have to deal with. It definitely a very old-fashioned view of illness, if only someone were "stronger". If only it were that "easy".
Ultimately it's a sad complicated situation. As this is his recounting of his own family there's going to be much deeper things going on beyond what is presented in the comic. The art was incredible and I really enjoyed learning about his family though I found the more philosophical parts harder to parse.