Review #12: Drawing From Memory

Bibliography

Say, Allen.  2011.  DRAWING FROM MEMORY.  New York:  Scholastic, Inc.  ISBN 9780545176866

Summary

Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Allen Say describes his childhood and youth in Japan in the 1940s and 1950s.  Despite a troubled family history, Say was able to get into an exclusive school and succeeded at the age of 12 in becoming an apprentice to his favorite comics artist.  This artist, Noro Shinpei, became the author’s mentor and a kind of surrogate for the father who had abandoned his family.  The memoir ends in 1952 when, at the age of 15, the author left Japan to join relatives in the United States.

Analysis

Say tells his story in a remarkable blend of text, watercolor paintings, pen-and-ink and pencil drawings, and photographs.  In several spots the illustrations form brief comics sequences; two such sequences even have word balloons. The illustrations are beautiful and complement the text perfectly.  In that sense the whole book may be considered a kind of graphic novel.

 The text is clear and lucid.  The overall tone is unusually objective by the standards of today’s memoirs, as if the author’s artistic training had made him able to step back and observe his own life as well as his surroundings.  At the same time the account of how he came to be Nobo Shinpei’s apprentice has a kind of fairy-tale quality—and makes one wonder whether perhaps some of the anecdotes have improved with the passage of time.

At any rate this is a lovely memoir of what was clearly a remarkable early life.  It is told without bitterness over the author’s childhood hardships, and with a great sense of warmth toward his kindly and wise mentor.  This would be an especially attractive read for fans of manga and anime, or for anyone interested in Japan and its culture.

Review Excerpts

“Throughout you can see canny artistic choices being made—color here, monochrome there, a cartoon, a snapshot—that reinforce content with appropriate form.”  Horn Book

“Aesthetically superb; this will fascinate comics readers and budding artists while creating new Say fans.”  Kirkus Reviews

Connections

Other artists’ memoirs:

DePaola, Tomie.  26 FAIRMONT AVENUE.  ISBN 9780698118645

Peet, Bill.  BILL PEET:  AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  ISBN 9780395689820