In20T (In 20 Tweets) – the road to god knows…
Autobiography can be the most compelling and most repelling form of story-telling. When Von Allan announced in 2007 that he had just finished a graphic novel about a girl and her schizophrenic mother, it made sense. He grew up with a mother who had the illness (she died when he was 20) and has never hesitated to admit how profoundly it affected him: never being sure what was going on or how to react. It must have been hell for a young man. So his full novel on the subject was a huge leap of faith. In a great interview just after the completion of the road to god knows… with Katherine Keller, Allan explained that he made it fictional because this gave him more freedom to develop the characters. And then he serialized it on GirlAMatic. The story is about Marie and her mother Betty.
Von Allan
In mid-March this year he launched the book in print, I picked up a copy to read all at once. Allan says all he wanted to do was tell a compassionate story with believable characters. He’s done that in previous work, and a new story so close to his heart should be even-more absorbing. I wondered how he would portray Marie’s teenaged embarrassment about her mother and the foreboding that had to come with the inevitable decline in Betty’s mind:
1 – First view of Marie, in front of her decrepit home, eyes slightly downcast – certainly worth 1,000 words.
2 – Loving relationship between Marie and Betty is clear. Just like the hopelessness of Betty’s mind. Sigh.
3 – “I thought most old, French guys loved wrestling.” Marie about her dad. What a great line.
4 – Really enjoy the song lyrics Allan occasionally throws in as dialogue buffer.
- the road to god knows…
5 – Don’t like Marie’s friend Kelly. Nice girl, but sort of plastic, a best-friend cliché.
6 – Marie’s budding sexuality treated very gently. Nice.
7 – The grammar of youths is much too coherent. Has Allan ever listened to teenaged girls?
8 – The first of four commercial intermissions. One page only. No bother. Gotta live.
9 – Like Marie’s dad, a sweet, caring but totally useless man.
10 – Allan is very compassionate when slapping Marie with the reality of her own life and her mom’s health. How autobiographic is this?
11 – -A coming-of-age story, but maybe happening a bit too fast.
12 – Marie’s explanation of her mom’s condition to her friend is emotion-perfect.
13 – Betty’s unpredictable volatility has me worried, and I’m just watching.
14 – Marie in fetal position on her bed – worth 10,000 words.
15 – Still don’t like Kelly. Why won’t she tell Marie how much money they’ve earned?
16 – Hopelessness of Marie’s school life mirrors hopelessness of mom’s decline. This has to be autobiography.
17 – Incisively sardonic when people expect Betty to cure herself.
18 – If one can’t feel deep compassion for this family, life would be so poor.
19 – No unexpected crisis or catastrophes, just good storytelling.Very high value and worth the time to read.
20 – Happy-ish ending. Thank goodness.
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