Can of Worms by Catherine Doherty

Although she does not use her real full name (the character's name is Catherine Margaret Flaherty), this is the autobiographical story of Catherine Doherty searching for her birth mother.

This was a mostly wordless graphic novel.  Catherine discovers she's adopted as a child and much later as an adult she begins the search for her birth mother.

One of the things I enjoyed about this was seeing the process Catherine went through in her search.  She began her search in the mid 90s, and it took her three years to track her birth mother down.  It involved hours or research at the library looking a microfiche and library indexes and phone books.  Now, you'd search for people on Facebook or spend some money to do a classified person search and done.

I did find the story a little confusing at some points because it was wordless.  There were some frames that I wasn't totally clear what was going on or what Catherine was thinking about.  When Catherine first contacted her birth mother, the woman denied she'd ever had a child, then a year later she contacted Catherine and they met.  At the end, there was a letter that seemed to suggest that she wasn't eager to meet again, but maybe that wasn't true.  Again, it just wasn't clear what was going on with the birth mother.

Overall though I thought it was a good story and fascinating to follow Catherine on her search.  The art was sketch like and not very detailed, which I think was part of why some frames were unclear.

Dotter of Her Father's Eye by Mary M. Talbot, art by Bryan Talbot

Mary Talbot remembers growing up with her father, a renowned James Joyce scholar.  Talbot draws parallels between her own life and the life of Joyce's daughter, Lucia.

An interesting story.  The main parallel between Mary and Lucia was that they both had fathers who were praised and admired, but when it came to their own families, they were sadly lacking.

Mary's father had moments of kindness and fun, but most of the time he seemed emotionally abusive.  He was focused on his work and writing about Joyce, which did not bring in much money for most of Mary's childhood, leaving Mary's mother to not only provide for her family, but also care for all the children.

I thought Lucia's story was fascinating, and I felt absolutely awful for her.  I didn't know anything about Lucia Joyce before reading this.  She was an incredibly talented dancer, but both her mother and her father discouraged her.  It was so sad to see her so excited after a performance, being praised by critics and other dancers and to have her parents say, "Yes, very nice dear, but when are you going to stop this?"  Her father's moving around and insisting she come with her ruined her career.  When she lashed out in anger after giving up dance at the request of her father, her brother had her put in an asylum.  The poor woman.  If she was actually crazy, it was completely the fault of her parents, but she probably wasn't.  She was finally expressing what she felt and she got shut up for the rest of her life.  Yikes.

Mary got pregnant young and she and her then boyfriend, Bryan, got married.  And they're still married to this day.  That made me happy.  They have two children and are making books together.  Lucia's story did not have a happy ending, but I think Mary got one.

Dotter of Her Father's Eye come out February 8, 2012.

Marzi: a memior by Marzena Sowa

Marzi was born in Poland in 1979.  For the first ten years of her life, Marzi grows up under Communist rule.  Waiting in long lines for food is the norm, and Marzi doesn't really understand why things are the way they are.  She can tell the adults are unhappy, but no one will bother to explain what's really going on.

This was excellent.  The story is told through a series of vignettes.  Marzi recalls many different events from her childhood, and they all blend together to give us an excellent picture of what life was like.  The confusion of a child is perfectly captured, as Marzi struggles to understand what is going on in her country and what her parents are talking about.  Marzi is draw with huge eyes, which reflects her innocent understanding of everything that's happening.

Aside from what's happening politically, we see Marzi's difficult relationship with her mother, and what was expected of children in Poland during the 80s.  It was so interesting for me, because Marzi is only a few years older than I am.  As I was reading about her standing on lines for food with her parents, wishing for color television, working on farms with her grandparents and chewing window putty because she couldn't get gum, I was thinking about my childhood in the 80s in the United States and how incredibly different it was.

Marzi notes that no one really talks about the fall of Communism in Poland, because it was done quietly.  There was no dramatic breaking down of a wall.  But it was the first.  I love how the stories are seen through a child's eyes, but the voice is of older Marzi looking back and remembering.  So there was a mixture of innocence and wisdom.

Since I had an ARC, it wasn't finished being inked, so only the first few pages were in color. Having the illustrations in black, white and gray certainly gave the stories a certain feel.  I'd like to read it again when it comes out in full color.  Will it make things feel less desperate and lonely?  It was kind of effective like that actually.

I didn't want the story to end.  At the end, Marzi is only 10, and Poland still has a long way to go to being completely free.  Tell us more!

Marzi will be available October 25.

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi

The author of Persepolis creates another wonderful autobiographical book, with the focus on the important women in her life and their stories and opinions on love, sex, and marriage.

I enjoyed this book and it's honest perspective of sex and Iranian female culture. It has such a funny honest outlook on what many women go through: the troubles of marriage, the power struggles between the sexes, and keeping up appearances for family and friends. It was so well done that it felt like you knew these women, or at least knew their incarnations in your own life. Their discussion is earthy, lively, and has the intimacy that only happens when a group of women who have known each other for a very long time get together. Fabulous.