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An understated but surprisingly poignant portrait of dysfunctional family relationships, and how they affect our personalities and our lives even into adulthood.
I very much enjoyed how the author illustrated her personal experiences wrestling with some of the most difficult issues these situations create: How do you have a relationship as an adult with close family members whose toxicity had such serious and negative effects on your life? Is it even worth it to do so? Do you cut off contact with them? Do you accept them as they are, warts and all (after all, isn't that what you're supposed to do)? Does accepting them mean that you forgive them? Can you even forgive someone who absolutely refuses to acknowledge the serious wrongs they've done you?
I don't mean to indicate that this is a depressing read, by any means; one of the biggest things I appreciated about it was how it maintained a lighthearted tone even while dealing with some pretty difficult topics. I also very much liked the artwork; like the story itself, it tends to be understated and whimsical, and there are more than a few clever moments. I particularly liked a sequence where, while listening to her mother's irrational haranguing, the heroine curls into herself more and more, eventually turning into a hedgehog, while her mother becomes a lion, roaring and swatting at her ineffectually.
If I had one criticism, it might be that the telling of this story felt a little *too* understated. This is obviously a very emotional topic for the author, but one of the major points of her story is that, through the experience of growing up with her mother, she learned to handle emotional topics by distancing herself from them; and that definitely comes through as she recounts these events. Even the story's titular scene (which seems as if it should be a seminal moment, in one way or another) feels a little anticlimactic. The author tells us she was crying throughout it, but this particular telling has little emotional resonance. And it doesn't help that the event doesn't actually seem to change anything in her thinking.
Still, speaking as someone who's had to wrestle with some similar issues regarding toxic family members, I found this to be a remarkably honest and insightful portrayal of a subject that's all too often ignored or dismissed as "personal matters". I especially appreciated the openness of her ending - issues like these are ongoing, and rarely have tidy places of resolution.
Bravo, Ms. Georges, and thank you for your bravery in sharing your story with us. A-
I very much enjoyed how the author illustrated her personal experiences wrestling with some of the most difficult issues these situations create: How do you have a relationship as an adult with close family members whose toxicity had such serious and negative effects on your life? Is it even worth it to do so? Do you cut off contact with them? Do you accept them as they are, warts and all (after all, isn't that what you're supposed to do)? Does accepting them mean that you forgive them? Can you even forgive someone who absolutely refuses to acknowledge the serious wrongs they've done you?
I don't mean to indicate that this is a depressing read, by any means; one of the biggest things I appreciated about it was how it maintained a lighthearted tone even while dealing with some pretty difficult topics. I also very much liked the artwork; like the story itself, it tends to be understated and whimsical, and there are more than a few clever moments. I particularly liked a sequence where, while listening to her mother's irrational haranguing, the heroine curls into herself more and more, eventually turning into a hedgehog, while her mother becomes a lion, roaring and swatting at her ineffectually.
If I had one criticism, it might be that the telling of this story felt a little *too* understated. This is obviously a very emotional topic for the author, but one of the major points of her story is that, through the experience of growing up with her mother, she learned to handle emotional topics by distancing herself from them; and that definitely comes through as she recounts these events. Even the story's titular scene (which seems as if it should be a seminal moment, in one way or another) feels a little anticlimactic. The author tells us she was crying throughout it, but this particular telling has little emotional resonance. And it doesn't help that the event doesn't actually seem to change anything in her thinking.
Still, speaking as someone who's had to wrestle with some similar issues regarding toxic family members, I found this to be a remarkably honest and insightful portrayal of a subject that's all too often ignored or dismissed as "personal matters". I especially appreciated the openness of her ending - issues like these are ongoing, and rarely have tidy places of resolution.
Bravo, Ms. Georges, and thank you for your bravery in sharing your story with us. A-
