Illuminating and heartbreaking.
In this adaptation of her memoir for adults, Smith, who died in 2017, chronicles life with cystic fibrosis from age 16 to 25.
For Smith, a Jewish girl from California, time is “the meanest of forces.” Inextricable from her accounts of sports, dating, Hawaiian vacations, college at Stanford, and post-graduation freelance writing is the fact that her future is altered and shortened by CF, a progressive genetic disease that affects the lungs and other organs, and Burkholderia cenocepacia, a deadly bacteria that further compromises her lungs. Though Smith’s stream-of-consciousness writing is sometimes difficult to follow, readers will glean thought-provoking insights as she matures. Readers navigating chronic illness will especially appreciate Smith’s candid, angry, and occasionally dark-humored anecdotes of coughing up blood in public, undergoing embarrassing and painful procedures, processing body image insecurities and physical limitations as her condition declines, and fielding hope and disappointment as she awaits a double lung transplant. Smith’s musings on her eventual death and its impact on her family are particularly poignant. Acknowledging the privilege of having supportive parents able to negotiate with insurance companies, Smith soberingly notes that “patients who don’t have that are the patients who die as a result of bureaucratic bullshit.” Heart-wrenching entries from her mother, aunt, and boyfriend, Jack, detail Smith’s grueling transplant recovery and complications that led to her death. In an afterword, Jack movingly explores his grief and his relationship with Smith.
Illuminating and heartbreaking. (“When I Die,” note on phage therapy) (Memoir. 14-18)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780593647479
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today.
A beautifully heart-wrenching graphic-novel adaptation of actor and activist Takei’s (Lions and Tigers and Bears, 2013, etc.) childhood experience of incarceration in a World War II camp for Japanese Americans.
Takei had not yet started school when he, his parents, and his younger siblings were forced to leave their home and report to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removal” due to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The creators smoothly and cleverly embed the historical context within which Takei’s family’s story takes place, allowing readers to simultaneously experience the daily humiliations that they suffered in the camps while providing readers with a broader understanding of the federal legislation, lawsuits, and actions which led to and maintained this injustice. The heroes who fought against this and provided support to and within the Japanese American community, such as Fred Korematsu, the 442nd Regiment, Herbert Nicholson, and the ACLU’s Wayne Collins, are also highlighted, but the focus always remains on the many sacrifices that Takei’s parents made to ensure the safety and survival of their family while shielding their children from knowing the depths of the hatred they faced and danger they were in. The creators also highlight the dangerous parallels between the hate speech, stereotyping, and legislation used against Japanese Americans and the trajectory of current events. Delicate grayscale illustrations effectively convey the intense emotions and the stark living conditions.
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today. (Graphic memoir. 14-adult)Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-60309-450-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Top Shelf Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2019
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