Richie's Picks: STITCHES: A MEMOIR by David Small, W.W. Norton & Co.,
September 2009, 344p., ISBN: 978-0-393-06857-3
"Oh, your daddy, he's the iron man
Battleship wrecked on dry land
Your mama, she's a bitter bride, she'll never be satisfied
Do you know? And that's not right."
-- Natalie Merchant, "Life is Sweet"
"Around that time Dad must have gotten a promotion or a raise. The lump
in my neck had to wait while he took mother on a shopping spree."
In an email this morning, a student in my Picture Books for Older Readers
class expressed gratitude that her participation in the course had
necessitated her reading graphic novels for the first time ever. She explained
that she'd come into the class thinking that graphic novels were only for
reluctant readers. Now, she says, "I am blown away by the amount of talent,
insight and emotional resonance some graphic novels have."
My response to her was this:
"If you want to see a graphic novel that does it all, contact W.W. Norton
and figure out some kind of story to tell them about the class so that they
will send you an advance reading copy of STITCHES: A MEMOIR by David
Small. I am writing it up this morning and it is the best graphic novel I have
read in 6 years."
In fact, David Small's STITCHES: A MEMOIR is the most moving tale written
in graphic novel format that I've encountered since being totally wowed by
Craig Thompson's BLANKETS back in my years on Best Books for Young Adults.
Between the spare text and the 1,400+ illustrations through which David
Small tells the story of a nightmarish childhood and his eventual escape from
his parents and his demons, STITCHES is a landmark work of literature for
young adults that is destined for core collection status.
David Small grew up in Detroit with parents who usually treated him as if
he were either invisible or a nuisance. He coped by turning to art and
escaping into books.
As a child, David was frequently sick. As he describes it:
"I was born anxious and angry. My sinuses and digestive system didn't
work as they should have."
His father, a radiologist, administered many a series of high-dosage
x-rays that were supposed to alleviate David's sinus problems. By age eleven,
a growth became visible on his neck. Even while his parents were buying
expensive new automobiles and home furnishings, and despite the fact that his
father worked in the medical field, David's mother would attack David for
saying anything about having the growth taken care of.
Finally, after three and a half years, he was sent in for surgery to have
the growth on his neck removed. It turned out to be cancerous, requiring
radical surgery that included the removal of his thyroid gland and one of
his two vocal cords. David was literally silenced.
"A crusted black track of stitches, my smooth young throat slashed and
laced back up like a bloody boot."
And so it is so fitting that Small's memoir regularly moves into wordless
segments in which the beloved Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator lets his
artwork do the talking. That artwork is composed entirely in black, white
and all shades of gray. I love how I came to intimately know of Detroit in
the nineteen fifties. I also love how Small does perspective in a
fashion that you, as well as young David, are repeatedly looking upward toward
the zombie-like adults in his life.
"With only one vocal cord the sound you make is...ACK."
My student wrote of being blown away by talent, insight and emotional
resonance in great graphic novels. If you want to experience an ultimate
example of such qualities in a soon-to-be-heralded graphic novel, then you
definitely need STITCHES.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Instructor, San Jose State University
School of Library and Information Science
Richie's Picks
_http://www.librarything.com/catalog/richiespicks_
(http://www.librarything.com/catalog/richiespicks)
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