tangles a story about alzheimer's my mother and me

It’s not that I thought that the graphic medium didn’t (or couldn’t have) served the memoir well rather, it’s that I felt the potential of the cartoons for the story overall wasn’t exactly harnessed. Leavitt may have done the drawings this way to some specific purpose, a benefit of the doubt I’m certainly willing to give her, but to me they seemed simply to be evidence of a lack of effort or time or resources on her part to refine the visual aspects of the book. There were hardly any background or setting drawings, which made the large pages feel kind of empty. The people were little more than stick figures, and were roughly drawn. Maybe I’m spoiled by the density and complexity of Alison Bechdel’s two graphic memoirs or the lush colour and detail of the Y: The Last Man series, but I found Leavitt’s drawings sparse and unpolished. I’ll get what I liked least about the book out of the way first: the drawings. The memoir is, however, an impressively complex look at the issues that come with aging and ill parents, with a striking honesty and straightforwardness. If you’re looking for graphic narratives focused on queerness, Tangles isn’t that, although Leavitt’s sexuality does play a small part in the narrative.

At the same time though, it’s honest, beautiful, and important, perhaps because it’s so hard to read at times. It’s a powerful work, to be sure, but this power comes at quite a cost: Tangles is ultimately a heartbreaking and difficult read. Vancouver-based lesbian cartoonist, writer, and editor Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me is not for the faint of heart.

Tangles a story about alzheimer's my mother and me