Saturday, April 12, 2014

Breaking up can be cute to do

Book: Good Riddance: An Illustrated Memoir of Divorce
Author/illustrator: Cynthia Copeland
Published: 2013 (Abrahms)
Pages: 222

This is a graphic novel about divorce that is drawn in a cheerful newspaper comic style and written in a personal way that doesn't distinguish it from everybody else who has written about the same thing.

 Universal emotions are a great thing to harness, especially for stuff like divorce that affect a whole messton of people even if it's not their decision, and the last ten months or so have been my own exercise in realizing the truth in the cliche of painful feelings that everybody shares, but - something, guys. Latch on to some detail that capsulizes your very own experience with pain, and use it to show people why your own story matters and how it's worth their examination over the thousands of other generalities they can find vague comfort in.



 That doesn't happen here, and while the author/illustrator does manage to tap rather well into the fear and aftermath of emotional upheaval, a lot of times it lands somewhere between Girl Power and Hallmark (while still managing somehow to be less annoying than it should be considering its place on that spectrum).

 I didn't really feel like I got anything new from this one, and since that's the whole point I seek from reading, this is non-recommended. And it's going back to the library no matter what I think (I ain't no library fool, yo).

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