novelbloglover's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
3.0
Book Review
Title: Come Home, Indio by Jim Terry
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir
Rating: 3 Stars
I recently read Diary of a Part-Time Indian and loved the graphic novel element of that so I had to request Come Home, Indio which follows similar themes as the author as a Native American shares his journey from childhood, through struggles with alcoholism, to a spiritual awakening at Standing Rock. As this novel is told in graphic format my review isn’t going to be that long. The first half of Come Home, Indio follows Jim’s childhood and the beginning of his teen years. From the moment he was born he had a rough childhood as his mother had another child before him with another man who his father refused to take care so he lived with their grandparents and saw him only when they visited. However, he was diagnosed with leukaemia and died young which gave Jim many fears. Jim’s parents didn’t have the best relationship and that often showed during Jim’s formative year and his parents eventually separated with shared custody as neither child wanted to be with either parent. Jim’s father had a temper that Jim shared and his mother liked the drink especially after the death of their brother. His mother enters a new relationship and it quickly comes to light that Jim isn’t performing well in school despite his love of comics but that eventually changes when he is introduced to some classic fantasy novels but he does love fantasy and sci-fi movies like Star Wars. Jim also faces racism growing up and struggles to accept his Native heritage despite working on a tourist reservation. It is here Jim begins drinking for the first time and he believes he understands how his mother feels when she drinks but he also quickly learns the downside to drinking heavily.
As we cross into Part Two, we are beginning to see how Jim quickly declines into alcoholism which he will struggle with for a long time. Jim during these years doesn’t see his drinking as a problem despite the problems it is causing in all his relationships but as a way to blow off steam. In Part Three, we see this behaviour escalate out of control as the relationship breaks down between Jim and his father causing him to move out and start his own life. However, his drinking almost immediately takes over this new life and he is beginning to see its an issue especially after his marriage dissolves and he learns both of his parents are now sober and he wants to be like that too but he has no idea where to start or how to get there. He tries to do it alone as that is how he has been living for the past few years but he doesn’t make much progress.
In Part Four, Five and Six we watch as Jim struggles with becoming sober but he manages to get his life back on track, mend his relationships with his family and fall back in love with both reading and drawing which give him something to focus on. He has his hardest moments when he loses both his mother and father within the space of a year and he dwells on how much time he wasted being apart from them but he has his still and he begins the true journey of finding himself and coming to terms with who he is. Overall, Come Home, Indio was a very interesting, sometimes gut-wrenching read and I read it very quickly as it is a graphic novel. However, I did feel some disconnect as the story is so personal and there was very little I could personally identify with but I appreciated how hard it much have been from Jim to create and publish this story.
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