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An Illustrated Memoir
by Margaret Kimball
In the spirit of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Roz Chast's Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Margaret Kimball's And Now I Spill the Family Secrets begins in the aftermath of a tragedy.
In 1988, when Kimball is only four years old, her mother attempts suicide on Mother's Day—and this becomes one of many things Kimball's family never speaks about. As she searches for answers nearly thirty years later, Kimball embarks on a thrilling visual journey into the secrets her family has kept for decades.
Using old diary entries, hospital records, home videos, and other archives, Margaret pieces together a narrative map of her childhood—her mother's bipolar disorder, her grandmother's institutionalization, and her brother's increasing struggles—in an attempt to understand what no one likes to talk about: the fractures in her family.
Both a coming-of-age story about family dysfunction and a reflection on mental health, And Now I Spill the Family Secrets is funny, poignant, and deeply inspiring in its portrayal of what drives a family apart and what keeps them together.
"With scalpel-sharp writing and tidy drawings, Kimball takes on a detective-like rigor as she unthreads her mother's bipolar disorder and suicide attempts, her parents' divorce, and the family history leading up to these defining events...a riveting reality to inhabit." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Intensely candid...an extraordinarily honest look at life behind closed suburban doors—and with a sublimely redemptive conclusion. A welcome debut that will leave readers eager for a successor—and soon." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"An empathetic, uncommonly nuanced, and thoroughly brilliant family saga presented with real daring and true artistry." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Compelling and beautifully drawn…Margi Kimball sets out to unravel the complicated tangle of her family history with an architect's meticulousness, detective's curiosity, a writer's eloquence, and a daughter and sister's deep yet guarded love." - Ellen Forney, New York Times bestselling author of Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me
"Margaret Kimball's heart-wrenching memoir is proof that family secrets--once uncovered and embraced--can not only become art that wows us but art that moves us closer to empathy and understanding." - Rachel Beanland, author of Florence Adler Swims Forever
This information about And Now I Spill the Family Secrets was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Margaret Kimball is an illustrator and writer whose graphic essays have appeared in Ecotone, Black Warrior Review, Copper Nickel, DIAGRAM, and other outlets. Her work has been listed as Notable in Best American Comics and she's been in residence at both Yaddo and MacDowell artists' colonies. Her illustrations have appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Bravery, the Boston Globe, and many major publications. She lives with her family in Indianapolis.
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