A unique book with more than a few profound philosophical moments that evoke peace and foster emotional healing.
Readers see the many faces of adult orphan grief in Garwood-Jones’ adult picture book.
The five stages of grief, as conceptualized by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, get an expansive remix, complete with renderings of subjects in the throes of various distilled moments of coping mechanism flux. In this cleverly conceived book, faithfully nuanced caricatures, or stagers (a term taken from Shakespearean theater protocol and a play on Kübler-Ross’ stages), mirror the ways grief manifests in our actions across 41 chapters with titles that are sometimes familiar (“The Shell Shocked,” “The Pity Partiers,” “The Addicted”) and other times unexpected (“The Dog Moms,” “The Closeted,” “The Narcissists”). Over a dozen stand-alone quotes on grief by noted people are interspersed between, as well. An eggplant-purple color scheme is used purposefully to unify the sweeping range of emotions between disparate poles of intensity, associated with red, and calm, associated with blue. To “capture how we are coping, moment to moment, year after year, after a big loss” is the author’s mission statement, and for the most part, it is easy to draw a connection between the coping mechanism attributed to the various stagers. In some chapters, however, the correlation between the subject as portrayed in the accompanying text and the person’s stage of grief is tenuous. A chapter entitled “The Dicks,” for instance, includes a portrait of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and two other men, all espousing questionable ideologies. They may well be orphaned adults, but their personalities can’t be boiled down to a reaction to grief. Midway through, a quote by writer and actor Amy Sedaris, “Assume everyone is grieving,” reorients readers in light of such less apparent examples of how an adult orphan might be grappling with loss. Finding oneself, family, friends, or others within these pages makes it a perfectly contemplative coping tool.
A unique book with more than a few profound philosophical moments that evoke peace and foster emotional healing.Pub Date: May 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781738267422
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Pen Jar Productions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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