naimfrewat's review against another edition
3.0
It's a nice, entertaining read. I want to take it more seriously but somehow the comic book format does not yet fully engage me.
It's a nice flashback to the 40s, 50s & 60s seen through the writer re-discovering his parents, the dynamics between them, snd what this all means to him.
We travel along through letters that the writer was discovering for the first time about his mother and her secret affair.
I suppose it wasn't easy for him talking about her affair, particularly as he seems to have been quite close to her and in good ties with his extended family.
Therefore, I wonder if choosing the comic book format wasn't an easy choice on the details, as it spares him to reflect more about how the affair happened and how it later affected his mother; that's on the one hand. On the other, I suppose it mustn't have bern easy for him to draw his mother in love with another man, while still married. I even suspect it should be harder to execute.
I recommend this book; it's entertaining and a nice read.
It's a nice flashback to the 40s, 50s & 60s seen through the writer re-discovering his parents, the dynamics between them, snd what this all means to him.
We travel along through letters that the writer was discovering for the first time about his mother and her secret affair.
I suppose it wasn't easy for him talking about her affair, particularly as he seems to have been quite close to her and in good ties with his extended family.
Therefore, I wonder if choosing the comic book format wasn't an easy choice on the details, as it spares him to reflect more about how the affair happened and how it later affected his mother; that's on the one hand. On the other, I suppose it mustn't have bern easy for him to draw his mother in love with another man, while still married. I even suspect it should be harder to execute.
I recommend this book; it's entertaining and a nice read.
missjazzage's review against another edition
3.0
~ 3.75 ~
Love the sections of Bill talking to his wife
Love the sections of Bill talking to his wife
cjordahl's review against another edition
3.0
Rounding up to 3. The main people in the story make for unappealing characters, and the primary love affair wasn't very interesting. Points deducted for a multi-page retelling of the author's dreams. I would have preferred more time with the slightly quirky nice guy uncle.
counterfeitchocolatecoin's review against another edition
5.0
This memoir hits all the right notes: a tangled family history, secrets, unanswerable questions, rumination on things that could have been, all grounded by Griffith’s frank tone and pitch perfect art. His reproductions of works by Lawrence Lariar, the cartoonist referenced in the title (with whom his mother had a 16 year affair), as well as his experimentations with Lariar’s style, maximize the potential of the graphic memoir. He includes some real excerpts from his mother’s journals and an unpublished autobiographical novel she wrote, and the layers of storytelling create a thoroughly satisfying and touching work. Highly recommended.
glitterandtwang's review against another edition
4.0
A lot like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home -- really good, but it does veer closer to the author's own analysis of his issues than an exploration of his mother's affair.
pyrrhicspondee's review
3.0
This was a deeply odd book that lacked a functional story structure. We start off talking about all kinds of people in Griffith's family, then the vast middle is devoted to his mom and her affair--per the title--then the end wraps back to other people in the family. I'm not opposed to daring or idiosyncratic story structures, but this felt more like a lack of vision than a surfeit of it. Still compelling, though.
hamikka's review
3.0
The first part, with the tracing of his family history, seemed haphazard and confusing. An illustration of his family tree would've helped. It picked up when it focused solely on his mother's story, which was enigmatic and heartbreaking. Excellent art.
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