´Forget Me Not´

 ´Too late´ are sooner than we think.

A grand-daughter is taking (literally kidnapping) her granny out of her nursing home to a journey to her childhood home. Clémence, the daughter of a single mother, is reconnecting through her Alzheimer-suffering grandmother not only to a past which remains at certain extents hidden, but with emotions and the family beyond the everyday dry family conventions.

I´ve read Ne m´Oublie Pas/Forget Me Not, a graphic novel recently published by Europe Comics, authored - both in writing and illustrations - by the Belgium artist Alix Garin in just one sitting. The content story and the way of expressing it is highly emotional. There are so many topics that are covered graciously in this novel, mostly as a gentle conflict between values and their social reason to be followed. 

The 85 years old grandmother suffering of Alzheimer may be stuck in a very distant past, and overwhelmed by the present realities, but is the bureaucracy of the medical system entitled to treat her as a body that rather should be controlled - through heavy medication - instead of being allowed to further enjoy a dignified life?

How the relatives of a person affected by this terrible disease may behave when they realize they are just obliterated from the sick person´s memory?

What is really worth in a family life? Connecting with your close relatives - parents, grandparents - in the spot of the moment, and considering fully the uniqueness of every second shared together?

What is life in general worth, after all?

Happily, this comic books is not a (boring and senseless) soliloquy about the meaning(less) of life, but a story where there is a bit of funny action taking place too - as granma haven´t forgotten to roll the dice though. 

The graphic is quality too, with pastel backgrounds and effable silhouettes. 

There is something I keep asking myself after reading this book. Indeed, I was emotionally involved in the book and was scribbling my own impressions, but I became aware that those impressions, in fact, were mostly connected with my own experience - extremely limited although - in dealing with coming to old age. I haven´t know any grandparents and my parents died fast. I did not grow up watching someone close to me losing their senses and being alienated from and expelled from their memory. Thus, my thoughts were in fact my effort - through reason and feelings - to understand what does it mean to be in such a situation and I bet it´s rather a kind of figurative set-up. The world of literature has this power that I am grateful to be part thereof.

I had access to the English translation of the book (originally published in French).

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Comics for Strange Times: I Saw You (on CraigList, obviously)

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon the `Missed Connection` section of New York City CraigList and I kept returning regularly for a couple of months. What an unique source of inspiration about our world of relationships, hopes and expectations - as well as creepiness - it is! The dream of seeing someone who is the one and only person only for a couple of seconds! The hope that he or she will see the announcement, but also the fear that one might be in fact stalked by a crazy one obsessivelly believing that they are meant for each other.

At certain extents, it reminded me of two of my high-school girlfriends who spotted some random dude on their way home and obsessed about him for weeks and weeks in a row. God forbid to see him again...Funnily, they never made anything else than eye contact.

CraigList announcements were therefore offering unique insights into the dating, communications and relationship psyche in the new millenium. Do you feel the desperate call of a line like this: ´I kept looking for you but I couldn´t find you anywhere´?

When I´ve seen there is a full comics inspired and dedicated by those some notes, it couldn´t wait to have it. I Saw You is a collection of graphic notes edited by cartoonist Julia Wertz who is also a contributor about people searching for people. In a less tragical note, similarly with the notes dropped in the newspapers after the end of WWII when people were looking for survivor relatives, friends or spouses.

As a collective work, not all the notes are equal from the point of view of the topics and style. Some notes are funny, some are hilarious, some are creepy, and some are borderline stalking behavior. Some drawings are really good, some not so impressive. But this diversity is the diversity of the ads as well and the diversity of the people that hope that CraigList might help them get in touch with a person they assume might be special for them.

I personally find very interesting the topic of the collection, a mundane yet inspiring topic to explore for the genre of comics. Now, I´m curious if there are other literary and non-literary works dedicated to such issues. What about real time stories, about people that actually met and fell in love like is no tomorrow by answering an anonymous call on CraigList? Or maybe a thriller about an unhappy situation...Should I check CraigList again? What does the ´social distancing´ issue to the already tangled web of curious and strange 21st style relationships?

Rating: 3 stars