Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir

My only prior experience with graphic novels was with Dennis Cooper’s rather vulgar Horror Hospital Unplugged, so despite knowing about a number of critically acclaimed works like Maus, Fun Home and Persepolis, I still carried around a bit of a prejudice that they're mostly like the underground comix of my youth. Ralph Bakshi and Robert Crumb being two of the more well-known purveyors of a genre deemed “adult” simply because they were filled with naked women and rampant drug use. More juvenile than adult, if you ask me. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by Liana Finck’s tender and melancholy memoir, Passing for Human. It’s the story of a young woman who feels like a misfit in the world and her attempts to understand the show more origins of these feelings of “otherness” and whether to deny or embrace them.

Initially Finck focuses on her mother’s background for clues, but switches to her father because he seems more comfortable letting his freak flag fly. Ultimately, however, this is a woman’s story. We see how both Finck and her mother before her, in their desire to seem less threatening and more conventional, suppress the things that make them unique, smothering their own artistic essence in order to be accepted by men. I’m familiar with Finck’s work as a cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine and her unabashedly primitive style lends itself to a woman reaching back into her past and seeing the world through the eyes of a child.

This book really sneaks up on you. The ending is quite moving – both sad and hopeful at once. I was surprised that a graphic novel could have such power. During this new age of resurgent feminism, I think Passing for Human is timely and relevant. show less

"A story is like a coral reef,

You live inside of it

You add something,

You take something away

Eventually you die,

Becoming part of the story yourself."

I liked this graphic memoir. Spare illustrations, teamed up with an insightful narrative. There is also a magical element to it, as well.

graphic memoir - a creatively told story about a woman artist who is "missing her shadow" (possibly neurodivergent but also just generally never feeling like she fits in with other people).

a quick read (~220 pp.) with well-crafted storytelling. There is the sense that the reader is missing part of the story, but, like the protagonist, learns to be okay with not fully understanding or knowing what will happen.

I liked it. A sketchy rough art style perfectly fits the harsh grasping at relating one's deepest self on a page. Lots of pain, lots of growth. I need some time to ruminate on it.

This graphic novel tells the story of a girl who is trying to find identity. She is rather unsure who she is and what it means to lose her "shadow."

The format of the novel circles and criss crosses between the lives of her mother, father and love interest and how these people define her. This memoir graphic novel would be ideal in a classroom setting that was looking to teach symbolism and metaphors as there are numerous examples of it. The reoccurring chapter 1's make up this very abstract and sometimes challenging to follow narrative. Definitely not a title for a reader who isn't looking to dig deeper in their overall understanding.

Autobiography as creation myth. Hm.

It starts, restarts, spirals, crosses over and circles back around on itself. Full of metaphor, symbolism and other foofaraw and fiddle-faddle for which I've little use or patience.

Dreamy and sad. Transcends scratchy art. A memoir about memoir making.