Very Memoir

Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe

[Saint Louis, Mo.] : The Lion Forge, LLC, 2019.

239 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm. 

There's a lot to like and admire about Genderqueer.  This graphic novel memoir reveals with great honesty Kobabe's life of coming to terms with eir (Kobabe uses e/em/eir pronouns) gender identity. Assigned female gender at birth, this graphic novel follows Kobabe's intensely personal (often painful) struggle to figure out what eir gender/sexuality/identity is. 

The thing I like so much about this memoir is that it really opens up to the reader how intense and real the gender struggle can be for someone who does not fit into the more "normative" categories of gender and sexuality. Kobabe, a very sensitive person, is often tormented as e figures out what e thinks/feels about dating, coming out, pronoun use, clothing use, appearance, family dynamics, friendship, seeing the doctor, etc. A reader can learn so much about how many obstacles to self-realization exist in our society. However, the book is ultimately hopeful as Kobabe gets closer and closer to figuring out and embracing eir true self.

My only hesitancy about the book, is it's intense preoccupation with self. Of course, it's a memoir, but there were times when I just wanted the author to look beyond eirself and reflect on the lives of others who are in similar or even worse situations - but that's probably just me!

      

Talent and Ego

Drawing Blood by Molly Crabapple
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2015]
338 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 23 cm.

I added this book to our collection this year since it had received such glowing reviews.  Booklist in a starred review stated, "Jaw dropping, awe inspiring, and not afraid to shock....There's no one else like her; prepare to be blown away by both the words and pictures."

I was not so taken with this memoir.  Crabapple is a talented and hardworking artist, and she does have a lot of daring and moxie as she jumps into risky adventures of international travel and pushes and pushes to have her intense drawing-based artworks accepted in the competitive New York art world (and she works constantly at improving her drawing and painting skills). So far so good, but her tale is also one of a massive ego, and also one of ethical contradictions where she is both entranced with the debauched world of the super-rich, while at the same time disdainful of it.  It's interesting, but problematic.  

There is also her use of her conventional attractiveness to both support herself and gain access to the exclusive realms of the super rich.  She works as a nude model, works with strippers and burlesque performers - and writes about the interesting, hard, exploitative and dangerous work that entails, but also seems to accept and at times endorse the sexualization and commodification of women.  Again, it makes for interesting reading, but it is troubling in that it goes largely unchallenged.

So would I recommend this memoir?  Well, I'd definitely mention it to someone curious about contemporary bohemian life and about ways that people make it in the art world.  Did I find it inspiring or wonderful?  Not so much.

His Last Battle

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant
New York : Barnes & Noble, 2003.
xxx, 820 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I've been wanting to read this memoir ever since I saw a quote of Mark Twain's praising it as one of the finest pieces of American writing.

The back story of this book (which is told in the introduction of this volume) is also pretty amazing.  Retired from the military and from being President, Grant had lost all his money and so set about writing the book to raise money for his family.  About the same time he began writing he was stricken with throat cancer and so began his race against death to finish his work.  Like his campaigns in the Civil War, he was successful - dying three days after finalizing his manuscript, and making his widow and survivors wealthy with the royalties from his book which ended up being a huge bestseller.

But how is the book? I would agree that it is very well written, and reveals Grant's subtle, but sharp intellect.  It is also very interesting to see Grant carefully praising and criticizing some of the generals of both sides.  He also has a well argued discussion of why the war was so difficult for the North to win.  The only downside for me was that much of the book is taken up with detail after detail of tactics and troop movements.  The maps are not very clear or helpful.  But aside from these issues, I'm glad I read it and it made me curious to learn more about Grant's presidency - which is not covered at all in the book (and is considered to be one the most corrupt in US history).

Probably one of the most compelling aspects of Grant's life, is that he really was a "nobody," from a modest background and with no early signs of being successful as a leader or tactician.  His memoir can serve as a testament to the potentials that are often hidden within individuals - especially those who have not had great successes in their past.  In this vein, Ta-Nehisi Coates gives a spirited endorsement of Grant's Memoirs - especially noting the unfounded suggestions that it was written by Mark Twain.

A great historical read, but probably best for students with a keen interest in the Civil War.

Just Kids in a Lost City

Just Kids by Patti Smith
New York : Ecco, c2010.
xii, 278 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Have you ever wished you could travel back in time to New York City in the late 60s or early 70s? Wouldn't it be something to hang out with struggling artists around the Chelsea Hotel, or to meet with some of the successful artists of the time, such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Allen Ginsburg or Andy Warhol?

You can take just such a magic trip with renowned punk/rock/poet Patti Smith.  In her National Book Award winning memoir, Just Kids, she takes you with her when she was an unknown hopeful writer moving to the city from New Jersey

Her memoir is as much about her growth as an artist as it is about her rich relationship - as lover, collaborator, friend and confidant - with the late and famous photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe.

I would definitely recommend this autobiography to any student interested in the artistic life, in Rock and Roll, in the 60s and 70s, in women's history, in LGBT history, or in NYC.  I'd also recommend this book to any reader who enjoys a well written memoir.

Yum

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
New York : Scribner, 2010.
xvi, 240 p., [14] p. of plates : ill., ports., facsimiles ; 23 cm

I've wanted to read this book for a while, especially since I added this new "restored edition" to the collection about five years ago, to replace our very old edition that was first published posthumously in 1964.

It is not a single narrative (or meal) but more like a buffet of Hemingway's Paris between the wars with interesting sections touching on writers such as Fitzgerald, Joyce, and Stein; living conditions for expats, early marriage, fatherhood, and the work of a struggling writer moving from journalism to fiction.

Some might find the discontinuous nature of the sections off-putting, but I found it quite wonderful.  Each section is interesting in its own right, and the collection as a whole leaves you satisfied, but curious for more Hemingway.

I would definitely recommend this book for any student interested in Hemingway, or in literary Paris in the 1920s.

Potty Mouth Powerhouse is a Four-wheel Force of Nature

Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2014.
250 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

What's not to like about this rollicking, bawdy and well-written memoir by 21-year old Shane Burcaw who has SMA - Spinal Muscular Atrophy - a degenerative muscular disease which is likely to kill him?

Burcaw's book has been positively reviewed, and rightfully so.  Publisher's Weekly states: "His honesty, tempered by mordant humor and a defiant acceptance, is refreshing, even as he thumbs his nose at the disease that is slowly stripping him of the basics." Booklist notes, "Burcaw's smart, gracious, and funny take on his life is an object lesson in positivity, and this eloquently written and moving memoir would easily find a home in both adult and youth collections."

The thing I love about Burcaw's book is his ability to be both positive and life affirming, but also angry, cynical and unsparingly honest.  He also is really funny and at times raunchy in describing many situations he has found himself in.  He is not afraid to be blunt about his fears, his dislikes, and the painful and humiliating ways his disease has affected his life.

I would definitely recommend this book to students.  There is a lot to admire in this book and so much to learn.  

Schooled in Prison

A Question of Freedom by R. Dwayne Betts
New York : Avery, 2010, c2009.
1st trade pbk. ed.
 240 p. ; 21 cm.   

There have been some really good books out lately about mass incarceration - such as The New Jim Crow and the comic book format, Race to Incarcerate.  A Question of Freedom is a great addition to the literature - and especially for high school age readers - in that it personalizes the story in a compelling and finely written memoir by a young man who was sentenced as an adult to 9 years in prison at the age of 16.

Yes, he committed a serious crime - using a gun to carjack a man in a mall parking lot.  And yet under the relatively new draconian laws now on the books in many states, he was sentenced a a sixteen year old to serve years in adult penitentiaries in the state of Virginia.

In prison Betts underwent a transformation from a basically good student who was morally adrift - to a thoughtful and powerful writer.  His writing conveys - without melodrama - the really twisted world of the US prison system where who you are as a human being is lost in a bizarre world of regulations, danger, and violence.  I was especially struck by how much time Betts spent in "the hole" - solitary confinement for minor rule infractions, and how he ended up in Virginia's infamous Red Onion "super max" prison, supposedly for the "worst of the worst" - even though he never did anything more violent than push a rookie guard's hands off of his genitals when that new guard was over zealous in doing a pat down search.

Again and again, Betts also reflects on the sad racial facts of the US prison system where the majority of prisoners are Black and Latino, and on the draconian "get tough" sentencing that locks people away for decades.  He himself could have been sentenced to life in prison!

I really like how Betts does not try to shock us with violent or terrifying episodes from prison, but instead conveys the soul killing world of prison - and the redemptive nature of the decent human beings who were kind or protective of him.

I would highly recommend this book for reading in classes.  It is ultimately a hopeful book.  The author has gone on to be a successful poet in addition to this fine non-fiction memoir.  I will be recommending it to any students looking for something about prisons, biographies, young writers, and mass incarceration.

An Unsettling Run

Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2005
xix, 262 p. ; 22 cm.

After I read Rodriguez' memoir I told a friend that this book has one of the marks of great writing - it leaves you feeling disturbed, troubled and a little lost in that gray area between right and wrong.  On one had, as a reader I felt such empathy for the main character, young Rodriguez - stuck as he is in a world of racism, poverty, run down schools, and violence (from peers, strangers and police) - but also as a reader there is something truly disturbing and repulsive about the violence and misogyny that he participates in.  However unsettling the book, it is timely and important to read.  We watch the main character make better and better choices as he opts to be a force for organizing change in his neighborhood as he grows and matures (and, importantly, is offered opportunities to be engaged in positive change).

A reader hoping to see mainly the hopeful and positive humanity of gang-involved youths will be disappointed; many of the characters in the world of Rodriguez' memoir ultimately chose a life of predation and violence.  Likewise those looking to justify their belief in a punitive, zero tolerance law-and-order approach to youth and gang violence will also be disappointed; Rodriguez' journey from gang-banger to artist and community organizer passionately demonstrates that human beings can change for the better and leave behind violence and nihilism when they are treated with respect and love and have actual opportunities to better themselves.

I'm pleased to see that this book - originally published in 1993 - has been republished in 2005.  In spite of this book being the frequent target of challenges (most books that don't offer black and white versions of morality are subject to controversy), it is a thoughtful and well written glimpse into the lives of young people growing up in social situations that no young person should have to navigate - so like many of our young people today.

Scary Like an X-Ray

Stitches: a Memoir by David Small
New York : W.W. Norton, 2010, c2009.
329 p. : chiefly ill. ; 23 cm.

This autobiographical graphic novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and the critical praise it received is well-deserved.  If you are curious about the book, David Small's website for the book offers a excellent glimpse into what makes his graphic novel such a satisfying read.

Small is able to convey both the humanity of his subjects and also the really scary cruelty (and craziness) of the adults that peopled his young life.  Set in Detroit and south east Indiana in the 50s-60s, Small presents a rarely viewed glimpse into the world of the functioning/dysfunctional Midwestern middle/lower middle class family.  His book opens appropriately with a nod to the X-ray profession that his father practiced, and his book is like an X-ray of the time and place where he grew up.

For anyone looking for a subtle, yet powerful, graphic novel that is completely appropriate for classroom use, this memoir is a sure bet.