Special Exits
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.55 (533 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 160699381X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 208 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-05-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Joyce Farmer, best known for co-creating the Tits ’n Clits comics anthology in the 1970s, a feminist response to the rampant misogyny in underground comix, spent 11 years crafting Special Exits, a graphic memoir in the vein of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home or Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, and Frank Stack’s Our Cancer Year, about caring for her dying father and stepmother. Elderly parents Lara and Rachel, who have enjoyed a long and loving married life together, are rendered in fine, confident pen lines. Special Exits gracefully deals with the hard reality of caring for aging loved ones: those who are or who have been in similar situations might find comfort in it, and those who haven’t will find much to admire in the bravery and good humor of Lars and Rachel. A major, original graphic memoir in the vein of Fun Home. Joyce Farmer’s memoir chronicles the decline of the author’s parents’ health, their relationship with one another and with the
. The story is stunning for its antisentimental realism, as well as for the glimpses of fantasy (Lars's hallucination of Hades' ferryman, Charon, rowing by in the hallway) that flicker by like ghosts. From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Underground feminist comic artist Farmer's account of how she looked after her aging parents is a quiet wonder. As the years pass (the 1992 Rodney King riots threaten to make their existence even more perilous), Laura teases out small facts about her parents that she'd never kno
A true work of art Roberta Joyce Farmer's skillfully and painstakingly-drawn epic is a true work of art in every sense. It tells the deceptively simple story of a middle aged woman coping with the advancing age, increasing health problems and inevitable death of her parents--something almost all of us have faced, or eventually will--quite the opposite of the popular notion of "comic books" being all about fantasy and escapism. It is rich with so much detail, in the dialogue and interactions, "between the lines" and hidden in the detailed, well-drawn illustrations. We learn of the lives of these people as they are. MZ said Timely story, and not altogether dark. This graphic novel tells the story of the last years, and eventual death, of the elderly couple Lars and Rachel as they live out their declining years alone in their crumbling house in a shabby Los Angeles neighborhood. But they're not all alone: Lars's devoted daughter Laura attends them once a week, making arrangements to take this time off her business at some expense. She uncomplainingly--enthusiastically, even--cleans their house, bathes the bedridden old woman (her stepmother), does their shopping and cooking, takes their cat to the vet--basically keeps them going, and does so wit. Groundbreaking and momumental For the past few years I have been looking for this storya story about middle aged people dealing with aging parents. There was the movie Diminished Capactity starring Alan Alda that sounded like it might fulfill that need. That was just a silly comedy (and not all that funny.) Then Savages was released (with Phillip Seymore Hoffman) and that movie, while OK, just didn't come off as memorable to me. There was something missing from the movie.Then I came across this book and bought it because the two previous movies failed to fulfill me. This is the story that I was looking for in those