Rate this book

¿Eres Mi Madre? (2012)

by Alison Bechdel(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Random House Mondadori

review 1: Recommended only if you are very interested in the psychoanalysis process, and don't mind endless retellings of the author's therapy sessions and overly literal Freudian interpretations of remembered dreams. Not recommended if you are interested in learning anything about Alison Bechdel's mother (who seems like a really fascinating person!) Bechdel is a great cartoonist - the red and gray color scheme she employs for this book is striking, and she makes excellent use of the negative space provided by the gutters between panels. Her layouts are daring in a way that doesn't distract or confuse. Unfortunately, she smothers all this great cartooning in endless captions and annotations. She is the only cartoonist in the world who would draw a dream sequence - and then caption ... moreevery single panel of it with a literal explanation of what is happening in the dream. Long stretches of the book contain no speech bubbles - just caption after caption after caption and direct citations from Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, and a bevy of 20th century psychologists. It's more a well-illustrated doctoral thesis than it is a comic book. Reading this back-to-back with Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernandez was an interesting experience. Both books deal with fraught family relationships and repressed secrets. Both have their share of grotesque dream sequences. Both are clearly the work of hyperintelligent and well-read people. But Hernandez's book moved me deeply, while Bechdel's left me cold and vaguely irritated. Hernandez uses no captions, sparse dialogue, and never gives a literal explanation for what's happening on the page. That's trusting the reader and letting a comic be a comic. That's the opposite of what Bechdel does here. Side note: The annotations in this book did encourage me to learn more about Alice Miller, and they reminded me that I still need to read "To The Lighthouse." Let it never be said that I wrote an entirely negative review.
review 2: This time, Bechdel analyzes the relationship with her mother. Unlike in Fun Home where she relied upon literary allusions to create a framework for her memoir, this time she relies mainly on the psychoanalysis of Donald Winnicott as well as the novel "To The Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf.Some parts of the novel were very dense with psychoanalysis, but aside from that, I felt that this novel was even more powerful than Fun Home. The attitude Alison's mother has toward Alison is cold and unaffectionate. Alison analyzes the effects of this. She carefully transcribes superficial phone conversations with her mother in hopes of accurately characterizing her mother in the memoir. What sparks Alison's sudden interest in psychoanalysis is a therapist named Jocelyn who she experiences transference with and sees/idolizes primarily as a mother figure. It's unprofessional, sure, but infinitely sweet to see.If you liked Fun Home, I'd definitely recommend this one. less

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