Valet Reader

If someone had asked me yesterday if I read graphic novels my answer would have been “no.” I like to think I’m open to all sorts of books no matter what genre they fall into. For the most part I am, but I’ve never really considered a graphic novel to be a “book” per se. I’ve always managed to put them in the comic book category (please don’t yell at me), until now.

My family is lucky. My mother used to own a bookstore and my sister is now a librarian. Thanks to both of them we have access to books galore. Thanks to my sister, my whole family was able to get their hands on Stitches due to the fact that her library branch didn’t have the proper plastic cover for it. I would not have read it had it not been for this fortunate circumstance.

Even though it may have only taken me an hour to read the book, I was thoroughly moved and impressed. What takes some authors 300 pages of text to impress on a reader, Small has accomplished using illustrations and very little text. But I will forewarn anyone who chooses to read this upon reading what I have to say, it is difficult and the images stay with you long after you have finished reading it.

If you are unfamiliar with David Small it would not surprise me. But, you should be. He is an accomplished illustrator of not only children’s books but has also done work for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire and The Washington Post. He knows what he is doing. But do not be fooled, this is indeed his memoir and it is very different from his previous work.

The reader is introduced to David when he is a quiet six year old. In his household, each family member, his mother, father, brother and he, each have their own means of escaping the realities of their lives. His mother slams cabinets in anger, his father beats a punching bag, his brother bangs on the drums and David, well David sleeps and gets ill. David is who this story is all about.

Small has provided us with several visuals perspectives in the story, from above, through David’s eyes, and David, looking into his own reflection and seeing deep into himself such as in the scene where he lays on a gurney to receive radiation treatment to ease his illnesses.

As David grows up in a world of deceit and abuse (verbal, physical and emotional) it is hard to not feel a great deal of sympathy for the small boy portrayed. If not, then surely the reason for the stitches and scar running down his neck will. And once David, himself, realizes why the stitches and scar are there, your heart will drop.

The silent nature of the illustrations provide depth which words could not describe. David’s dream/nightmare sequences and his flashbacks to early moments of his life provide different angles on things the reader may have already been privy too. And lest I leave out the psychiatrist David see’s, who is characterized by a large white rabbit. The allusion to Alice falling down the rabbit hole here is not to be mistaken, as it is a theme which is repeated again and again throughout the story. And in the end it is this rabbit who provides David with the salvation he seeks.

At the end of the story it is hard not to sit back and say to yourself “whoa.” Or at least that’s the word I would say. Small’s utilization of art and the idea of silence are punctuated throughout this story and more than anything it makes a strong story stronger and a loud story, louder.