On November 18, the theme of Definitely Not the Opera was “What do you find when you get lost?” I spoke with Sook-Yin Lee about the ways in which both my mom and my family got lost when Mom got Alzheimer’s, and what we found through that process. You can listen to the podcast on DNTO’s website.
Yay! Tangles mentioned under X for eXceptional in this month’s BC Bookworld.
The Jewish Independent published an article about the Memory Festival that includes a nice bit about Tangles: Investigating Memory by Olga Livshin.
… But her drawing is actually deceptively sophisticated. What might at a glance look like whimsical doodles are in fact controlled and nuanced compositions wringing maximum emotional impact from minimal visual information. The appearance of naivete, sneakily effective at first, grows increasingly appropriate as Midge’s mind regresses into something resembling a childlike state.
I’ve shown this book to two friends, both of whom initially expressed doubts as to whether its form was appropriate to its content; both were soon won over.
The fact that Tangles was short-listed for the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize could be taken to represent a new level of mainstream acceptance for the graphic-lit medium. I’d prefer to take it as given that graphic lit has arrived and say instead that Tangles is simply a fine and touching book.
As the rate of Alzheimer’s continues to increase as the population ages, Tangles joins Jeffrey Moore’s novel The Memory Artists and Sarah Polley’s film Away from Her at the head of a list of illuminating and much-needed artistic responses.
Read the full article on the Montreal Gazette website The link is broken to the Gazette review, but here it is on the National Post.
Lynda Barry was a guest on The Leonard Lopate show on WNYC today, and here’s a thrilling bit from the Guest Picks feature, where they ask guests about stuff they like …
What have you read or seen recently (book, play, film etc…) that moved or surprised you?
Lynda: Sarah Leavitt’s “Tangles,” a story told with comics about losing her mother to Alzheimer’s disease.
See for yourself on The Leonard Lopate show website. (No I am not cyber-stalking my idol Lynda Barry; I just have a Google Alert set up for my book is all.)
To see a couple short TV interviews I did in Lethbridge, go to the Global Lethbridge videos page. I’m in the November 3 episode of Senior Savvy with Elisha Rasmussen, and the October 28 episode of Scene and Heard. Thanks Global Lethbridge for putting authors on TV!
I also spoke with Brenda Finley of the Bookmark show on CKUA — I’ll post a link to that interview when it’s online; it’s scheduled to air on November 21. That was one of my favourite interview experiences; Brenda really connected with the book and asked me some perfect questions.
Vancouver writer puts mother’s Alzheimer’s battle in graphic memoir ‘Tangles’
By Victoria Ahearn, Canadian Press
… “Tangles” (Freehand Books) is Leavitt’s first book and the first graphic memoir to make the short list for the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize.
It’s up against “The Ptarmigan’s Dilemma: An Exploration into How Life Organizes and Supports Itself” by John and Mary Theberge; “What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son’s Quest to Redeem the Past” by James Fitzgerald; “Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven” from Ross King; and “The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das” by Merrily Weisbord.
Leavitt says she’s thrilled the jury considered a graphic memoir — a genre that is “still kind of on the margins and people aren’t totally sure” about.
“I know with my book sometimes a bookstore will be like, ‘We don’t have a graphic narrative section,’ and it’s like, ‘It’s OK, you can put it in “memoir,”‘” said Leavitt, whose non-fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies, including “Nobody’s Mother” and “Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease.”
“I think people are just kind of getting used to how to deal with them.”
Jury member Michael Mitchell says he and his fellow two jurors were all moved to tears by “Tangles.”
“I’ve read that book three times and it’s just flawless,” he said. “And it’s a wonderful advertisement for that form.”
This article was reprinted in a number of papers. Read it here in the St Albert Gazette.
Thanks 
so much to Kevin de Vlaming for the review and interview on The Fabler. It’s an interesting site where comics fans can network and post their own work. Kevin writes a column focusing on Canadian comics. He’s just one of the many warm and enthusiastic people I’ve met in Alberta this week. The more I meet and talk to people, the more I get the feeling that it’s exciting times for Canadian comics! There are so many great cartoonists in this country, and some dedicated people making sure that our work gets out there.
It’s not the easiest story to tell, but in Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, Leavitt shares her experience of her mother’s illness with tenderness and candid pain.
“This was something so big and so sad that was happening to me,” she says. It was beyond forgetting; Leavitt’s mother lost her “ability to navigate the world, to move through space.”
“She didn’t just stop recognizing me,” Leavitt explains. “She lost her sense of what a daughter is.”
Initially, Leavitt began documenting her mother’s deterioration so she wouldn’t forget it. “But then it was important to share it, kind of like a witness: this is the horrible thing that happened to me and I was there and I’m reporting back.” Read the full review on the Xtra! Vancouver website.
What an honour to be reviewed by Bernice Eisenstein, the author of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors. Reading this review was a very emotional experience — I read it out loud to my partner as best I could between sobs, and she was crying too. It’s great enough to get a positive review, but I also felt like the reviewer really understood what I was trying to do with the book, which is a gift. And to be reviewed by a graphic memoirist was amazing. What a strange and exciting time this is, watching strangers read my book!