A dazzling portrait of a complicated writer.
A full-color illumination of the intersection between the renowned writer’s creativity and sexuality.
In her latest book, which serves as a kind of psychobiography, Brussels-based Swiss cartoonist Bischoff captures both the inner and outer lives of her fascinating subject Anaïs Nin (1903-1977). The narrative opens with Nin’s stifling marriage to a banker with his own creative aspirations, a tolerant man who was unable to help his wife unleash the sexuality she knew was within her. In the text, Nin often describes herself as “innocent,” and the combination of art and text reflects that side of her—the initiate, the explorer—while a second voice inside her, perhaps the voice of her diaries, urges her to be true to herself. “On the surface, I am calm and secure,” she says. “But few know how many women live inside me.” During the course of Bischoff’s chronicle, Nin encounters a kindred spirit in Henry Miller and becomes even more deeply enraptured by his wife, June. However, it’s clear that Miller wants to edit Nin’s work to make it more conventional, to have her, she fears, write like a man. Later, a psychiatrist tries to help her with her tumultuous emotional journey while also succumbing to her seductive lure. Then she travels further into forbidden territory with her cousin. Throughout, the illustrations are graphic and sensual without being pornographic. They are at their most powerful when they address Nin’s stormy inner life. As she becomes consumed by her dedication to a very daring sort of artistic truth, she defies the conventions of monogamy, heterosexuality, and domesticity. Bischoff effectively demonstrates how Nin splits into different incarnations with the different people who enrapture her and discovers a way to turn her personal truths into celebrated art: “I will make of my life a masterpiece and invent a language to tell it.”
A dazzling portrait of a complicated writer.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781683967590
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A memoir for those who want to laugh through the free fall of their own emotional roller coaster.
A humorous take on dread.
In her amusing graphic memoir, cartoonist Correll turns her emotional roller coaster into a literal, visual experience with her own amusement park of worries that she calls Anxietyland. Within this playful framework, she guides readers through her lifelong struggle with severe anxiety—there are attractions like the “worry-go-round,” “booze cruise,” “downward spiral,” and more, all culminating in finding the help that not only helps her manage the anxiety, but pushes her to do the work in confronting and living with it. To her credit, Correll uses the amusement park concept to dissect points in her life where her anxiety was holding her hostage from leading a fulfilling life. One panel shows Correll’s whimsical approach, as when her cat, Oliver, goes missing. “Why hasn’t he come home?” she thinks, her eyes full of worry, her mouth downturned. “What if he’s dead?” The subsequent image shows her pet peeking into the panel; the accompanying text reads, “Oliver (very much alive).” It’s one thing to read a memoir that breaks down episodes with the benefit of time and knowledge; it’s a completely different experience to see someone living through their depression while hanging on for dear life in “anxie-tea” cups. Readers who hold season passes to Anxietyland will be able to laugh along with the author, but this book will also benefit those coming to terms with a new or future anxiety diagnosis. These readers may, for the first time, be able to put their swirling emotions into a tangible context that makes more sense to them and others. That’s the beauty of Correll’s memoir: The book provides a comical medium lens that can open doors to understanding—rather than a door to the house of horrors.
A memoir for those who want to laugh through the free fall of their own emotional roller coaster.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781668004159
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.
Immersion journalism in the form of a graphic narrative following a Syrian family on their immigration to America.
Originally published as a 22-part series in the New York Times that garnered a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, the story of the Aldabaan family—first in exile in Jordan and then in New Haven, Connecticut—holds together well as a full-length book. Halpern and Sloan, who spent more than three years with the Aldabaans, movingly explore the family’s significant obstacles, paying special attention to teenage son Naji, whose desire for the ideal of the American dream was the strongest. While not minimizing the harshness of the repression that led them to journey to the U.S.—or the challenges they encountered after they arrived—the focus on the day-by-day adjustment of a typical teenager makes the narrative refreshingly tangible and free of political polemic. Still, the family arrived at New York’s JFK airport during extraordinarily political times: Nov. 8, 2016, the day that Donald Trump was elected. The plan had been for the entire extended family to move, but some had traveled while others awaited approval, a process that was hampered by Trump’s travel ban. The Aldabaans encountered the daunting odds that many immigrants face: find shelter and employment, become self-sustaining quickly, learn English, and adjust to a new culture and climate (Naji learned to shovel snow, which he had never seen). They also received anonymous death threats, and Naji wanted to buy a gun for protection. He asked himself, “Was this the great future you were talking about back in Jordan?” Yet with the assistance of selfless volunteers and a community of fellow immigrants, the Aldabaans persevered. The epilogue provides explanatory context and where-are-they-now accounts, and Sloan’s streamlined, uncluttered illustrations nicely complement the text, consistently emphasizing the humanity of each person.
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-30559-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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