but because it was essentially a diary, there was a dashed-off thrown-together quality to the art that didn't do much for me. Many of these sketches were also drawn while Knisley was on the move, so many are not as neat or clear as they could be. Par contre, c'est toujours amusant de voir la réaction des Américains face à certaines différences culturelles, notamment - mais pas que - dans l'alimentation. If this was a significant part of her emotional growth, it should have been discussed in greater detail.

Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved. My main issue has always been that, while she often states that she's going to explore an concept and make meaningful observations, she rarely delivers. Through delightful drawings, photographs and musings, twenty-three-year-old Lucy Knisley documents a six-week trip she and her mother took to Paris when each was facing a milestone birthday. I wish I were:) Lucy Knisley, however, was enchanting enough to lure me along on her adventerous journey. It's in black and white, most of it looks like abstract swirls, I know it was major part of the trip but it didn't really enhance the story.But Lucy's was, and I'm grateful that this public record of her learning curve is available for anyone to discover. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this so much is that it reminded me of my own travel journal when I spent a month road tripping around Europe with my family.

I would have liked some actual exploration of their relationship (apparently the book's title is a reference to mother's milk, another empty affirmation), as well as some examination of her obvious privileges beyond blaming "feeling" like a spoiled brat on being an only child. For more than a month, they toured the City of Lights from their fifth arrondissement flat, exploring museums and cafes, taking photographs, eating pastries and drinking French milk, which Knisley says is sweeter than its American counterpart; she compares it with the “influence we take in from our mothers. The closest we get to drama or character development is the artist acting completely and somehow uninsightfully self-absorbed, or complaining about wanting to have sex with her boyfriend.

What results is not only a sweet and savory journey through the City of Light, but a moving, personal look at a mother-daughter relationship. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. when her boyfriend criticizes her for being a sad sack/being ungrateful about getting to live in paris for a month, she gets mad at him (though he is really just trying to give her some perspective). I really liked the travelogue elements of this graphic novel, where the author visits art galleries and fairs. Another questionable choice was the fact that Knisley did not add a few finished pieces to the book.

UHT milk gets its name from the ultra-high temperature process it goes through to be sterilized, giving it a shelf life of up to nine months, without even having to be refrigerated before it’s been opened. These pieces are meant to be very descriptive and detailed, with language that rings heavily with verisimilitude. This would never happen in my divorced family, and it made me, briefly, jealous--again, this goes back to Walls's maxim; my life circumstances may not be the same as Knisley's, but hers caused me to reflect on my own. I'm not talking about her complaining or being unhappy in France - that's allowed and I don't know why people think it's not.

The sketching was skillful and competent, but as a travel journal it rarely felt insightful or even introspective in any way. Lucy was turning twenty-two, just on the verge of graduating from college, and her mother was turning fifty. Occasionally, there was an attempt at showing an event but those attempts were of seemingly trivial events and then abbreviated at best.