Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me is a graphic novel by Vancouver author and artist, Sarah Leavitt. As the subtitle indicates, it’s the powerful and emotional (true) story of Midge Leavitt’s battle with Alzheimer’s and the effect on their family — specifically Sarah herself. Tangles is a memoir of Sarah’s experience and I think it is an important story to tell; while Alzheimer’s is undoubtedly difficult for the person living with the disease, it is equally hard on their family.

Tangles was a finalist for the 2010 Writers’ Trust of Canada Non-fiction Prize (the first graphic narrative to be a finalist in the category), was shortlisted for the 2011 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (BC Book Prizes), and has been listed in the Globe and Mail’s top 100 books of 2010.

In the introduction, Sarah Leavitt admits to a bad memory, and states “when my mother got Alzheimer’s disease, I knew I had to record what was happening to her and to our family.’’ Taking six years to complete, Tangles is Sarah’s first book and it is a raw, vivid, unforgiving, honest, humiliating, and yet compassionate, moving and humourous.

Combining simple illustrations with brutally honest narrative, Sarah shares the Leavitt family’s struggle with the symptoms, diagnosis, adapting and coping, and—inevitably—death. With a mix of childhood memories, significant events, and introspective narrative, Sarah takes the reader through each stage of Midge’s disease. The writing is very powerful and the sparse illustration is emotionally expressive. Tangles is not just a long and depressing story, but it certainly brought tears to my eyes more than once.

It was really beautiful to be granted the insight into Sarah’s relationship with her mother and her family: the love, dependency, independence, and pride was all immediately evident. This wasn’t just a memoir exploring Alzheimer’s effect on a family, it was a testament to the strength and beauty of Family.

• Canadian Comics’ review & interview
• BookMadam’s live-to-chat interview
• Sarah Leavitt on CBC Radio‘s The Next Chapter
• National Post book review

Warning: this book may not be appropriate for extremely sensitive people or those coping with depression; it is extremely emotional.

Off the Highway: Growing Up In North Delta is a memoir by local author Mette Bach and installment 18 in the Transmontanus Series published by New Star Books. The Transmontanus series, edited by Terry Glavin, are “short illustrated books about some of the more unusual aspects of life in a corner of the world currently known as British Columbia.”

About thirty kilometres south of Vancouver, just over the Alex Fraser Bridge and bordering with Surrey and Ladner, lies North Delta, a suburb replete with strip malls, single detached family homes and every–half–hour bus service. It was a sleepy suburb, one considered the boonies, until 1986, when as part of the Expo city–wide upgrades, the Alex Fraser Bridge was built to connect the two sides of the Fraser River.

Part social commentary, part personal memoir, and part history, Off the Highway is Mette Bach’s thoughtful examination of growing up in North Delta.

We learn about the valiant efforts of the Burns Bog Conservation Society volunteers who work tirelessly to preserve the Bog, North America’s largest raised peat bog and one of Canada’s natural wonders. We find out that her family rented a bedroom in their home to Expo 86 visitors and that her mother composted, a practice well ahead of current environmentally–responsible times. We also get a glimpse into North Delta’s storied settlement in the 1860s when Alexander Loggie opened the first cannery, Bach takes us on a grand tour of the landmarks that define the suburbia in which she grew up.

From the publisher, New Star Books

It was really interesting and sometimes shocking to read Mette’s memoir about growing up in the Lower Mainland. Some of the local-ish sentiments she expressed I had felt also (and sometimes in reverse) while growing up.

I was really excited to read Mette Bach contrast Canada and America with the same metaphor I learned in school: “America saw itself as a melting pot, an image that requires a level of assimilation. Canada, on the other hand, was supposed to be a multicultural mosaic, a place where it was okay to be from here and from other places, too.”

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I finished Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid by Evelyn Lau at least a month ago. I’ve had a bit of blogger-block and had difficulties pinpointing my feelings about this book.

It’s very strange to read a non-fiction/memoir that takes place in your city. Add that to the fact that Evelyn Lau is a local author with whom I’ve spoken with at work … and it was really strange to read her story. I admire Evelyn so much for sharing her story and I am very glad I read it.

At the age of six, Evelyn Lau already knew what she wanted from life—to be a writer. Frustrated and discouraged by her parents, who forbade her to “waste” valuable study time writing, Evelyn ran away at the age of 14.

Seduced by the freedom and independence that life on the streets of Vancouver seemed to offer, she was soon trapped in a downward spiral of drug addiction and prostitution. During her two harrowing years on the street, Lau’s writing ambition never left her; almost obsessively, she kept a written record of her days on the street. This record is Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid.

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I’m not sure if it was the melancholy tone, the lack of plot, or the fact that the main character is a writer writing about writing… but I had a lot of trouble getting into the book. Fortunately, I persevered and past the halfway point I finally got into Unless by Carol Shields.

“Unless you’re lucky, unless you’re healthy, fertile, unless you’re loved and fed, unless you’re offered what others are offered, you go down in the darkness, down to despair.”

Reta Winters has many reasons to be happy: Her three almost grown daughters. Her twenty-year relationship with their father. Her work translating the larger-than-life French intellectual and feminist Danielle Westerman. Her modest success with a novel of her own, and the clamour of her American publisher for a sequel. Then in the spring of her forty-fourth year, all the quiet satisfactions of her well-lived life disappear in a moment: her eldest daughter Norah suddenly runs from the family and ends up mute and begging on a Toronto street corner, with a hand-lettered sign reading GOODNESS around her neck.

GOODNESS. With the inconceivable loss of her daughter like a lump in her throat, Reta tackles the mystery of this message. What in this world has broken Norah, and what could bring her back to the provisional safety of home? Reta’s wit is the weapon she most often brandishes as she kicks against the pricks that have brought her daughter down: Carol Shields brings us Reta’s voice in all its poignancy, outrage and droll humour.

From the publisher, Viking Canada

I want to read more by Carol Shields despite my indifference with Unless. The writing is very introspective, forlorn, and I had trouble identifying with Reta. However, the prose is beautifully written and I often found myself smiling at a passage or nodding along in agreement.

Carol Shields gives Reta wisdom and philosophical musings which I found difficult to handle for more than a few pages. Shields, however, balances the mundane with the contemplative perfectly, immersing Reta in day-to-day life despite her distress.

And just to share a little nugget: I found this line particularly amusing, seeing as Carol Sheilds herself was a female writer too.

“I too am aware of being in incestuous waters, a woman writer who is writing about a woman writer who is writing.”

Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas is a new reading series curated by the Vancouver International Writer’s Festival and hosted by the Vancouver Public Library. It takes place every second Wednesday evening at 7:30pm in the downstairs rooms at the VPL Central Branch.

I attended the first two events and can’t wait to see more readers throughout the Spring. Some confirmed attendees include 2010′s Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Joanna Skibsrub, Lorna Crozier, Timothy Taylor, Susan Juby, Joyce Carol Oates, Jen Sookfong Lee, Evelyn Lau and more.

On Wednesday, January 26 I attended the inaugural Incite event with Amber Dawn, Michael Christie and Andrew Pyper. All three authors were incredibly charismatic, interesting, and amusing. Read the rest of this entry »