Viewing "Stitches": A Memoir by David Small

A few weeks ago I read a review on NPR about David Small's memoir, Stitches. Small is an award-winning illustrator of children's books and also published illustrations in major periodicals such as the NY Times, Washington Post, and New Yorker. His memoir is illustrated and reads much like a graphic novel. Last week I walked into our local library and saw it on the new books shelf, remembered the review, and decided to try it for myself.

First, I must say that I have little experience reading graphic novels and am not drawn to them, but the uniqueness of this book drew me. After reading, I began to think quite a bit about how to read and write this type of work.

How quickly should I be reading this book? It moves much faster than anything written traditionally with words--I found myself scanning much of the pictures and moving on without really stopping to think much about some of them. I was almost finished reading the book when I realized how quickly I was moving through it--should I have forced myself to focus more? Does the use of pictures facilitate my understanding of meaning in a way that I "get it" without having to process so many words/letters (themselves symbols)? My brain processes pictures and words differently--am I missing something with the pictures I would not have missed by reading it in words? Am I gaining more meaning by reading the pictures than if I read the words? He does use words, but many pages are only illustrations.

Small had cancer as a young boy and lost one of his vocal cords and his thyroid after surgery. I get the idea that turning to illustrating was a way for him to regain his voice figuratively as a teen and an adult. This book is another way for him to have his say, yet what he has to say is extremely personal. To say he portrays his family as dysfunctional is an understatement: his grandmother had to be placed in a mental institution, his mother struggled (and hid) her sexual identity as well as her own severe health issues, his father was never home (to avoid his wife) and his parents tried to hide from him that he had cancer. How does a writer/illustrator who chooses to write autobiographically in this fashion decide what to illustrate and what to leave alone? How does he know what his audience can handle? How does he write about such serious issues in this format and have his audience take them seriously? How does he avoid appearing narcissistic? I wish I could ask these questions to Small myself. He does choose his demons carefully, and demons they are. A narcissist would not write/illustrate a family in this way--he preserves their humanity, though they are deeply troubled and flawed.

I want to keep thinking about how he emphasizes in pictures his eyes, his parents' eyes; how he screams visually while having only one vocal cord; the literary allusions; his dreams. His book reminds me that our worldly experiences are dystopic; nevertheless, while these experiences are a part of him, he does not choose to choose to live the rest of his life defeated by them.