French Milk

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This is Knisley's travel journal from 2006/2007 when she and her mother rented a Paris apartment for a few weeks.

I was never able to finish that journal, but she made me want to go back to that journal from 2013 and finish telling the story of that darned trip! An Age of License and Displacement are paired travelogues about youth and family, coming out this year (Fantagraphics Books, 2014). We got up late and then we went to an art museum and then I drank some milk - OMG THE MILK IS SO GOOD IN PARIS - and then I ate some foie gras because I totally don't feel guilty about how they treat those geese and then we bought stuff at a market and then we ate more foie gras and cornichons and then we went to sleep. I enjoyed this graphic memoir and feel like it would be a good "starter book" for people just getting into graphic novels/memoirs.If she had never published another work, I think this one would largely have been forgotten- especially in today's era of indulgently abundant free diary comics online. French Milk, from Touchstone Publishing, is a drawn journal about living (and eating) in Paris with her mother. She's gotten much more skilled at tying together random parts into a whole than when this was published. She also exhibits a particular pride and faith in her work (with the occasional doubts), one that I still struggle with in my early thirties. Staying in a small rented apartment with plenty of quirks in the fifth arrondissement, they surprise themselves by falling into their new surroundings with an unexpected ease, content filling their days with visits to the market, cafe, and museums.

She then goes from complaining about being "too poor" to afford a Vespa to showing off her Christmas presents, including a new DSLR camera - a " little present" (emphasis mine) because of the holiday. It may just be me, but I don't think it's a coincidence that my favourite comics artists don't have degrees in any form of art.Reading about the execution of Saddam Hussein she comments, "the world news is too harsh in its stark intrusion on our Parisian holiday", then says some especially nice cookies mean "humanity [has been] redeemed". she must be the most sophisticated 22-year-old art student the world has ever seen, to be aware of these luminary lights of the literary establishment! The photos are used sparingly, without comment, filling in gaps in her story, fleshing them out and creating what feels more like an intimate scrapbook than a memoir, albeit an accessible one. Après la lecture de "Délices", que j'avais beaucoup aimé malgré un dessin quelconque et une colorisation fâcheuse, je me suis jetée sur "French Milk", autre récit autobiographique de Lucy Knisley non traduit en français celui-là.