Memoir is another one of those genres that I mostly only read during book bingo. For the most part, it feels like there’s two main categories of memoir: celeb, and trauma. I don’t care about most celebs enough to read their memoirs (honestly I don’t trust most famous people to not turn out to be awful *coughneilgaimancoughcough* so I don’t allow myself to be a mega-fan), and with the current state of the world, I only have so much appetite for trauma.
That’s why I really like… GRAPHIC MEMOIRS. They’re usually shorter than their fully text-based counterparts, and it’s easier to decide how long to linger on the more traumatic scenes. Plus, the art style, use of color, and other creative choices can add some real depth to the story that makes up for the fact that the text isn’t as in-depth.
Diary of a Reluctant Dreamer by Alberto Ledesma is sort of a hybrid memoir. It intersperses essay-style text sessions with sketches, illustrations, and political cartoons, some depicting Ledesma’s life, others illustrating the more general experience of being currently or formerly undocumented.
I enjoyed this memoir because it was really focused. Rather than trying to tell Ledesma’s entire life up until the time of publication, this is a book about what it’s like to be a currently or formerly undocumented student, the drive to then become hyper-documented (ie, highly educated), and the author’s attempts to shine a spotlight on the undocumented immigrant experience, while still respecting the dignity and privacy of his own family and those like his.
Ledesma learned that he could harness the power of political cartoons, rather than longform narration, to start to introduce people to the stories he wanted to tell. Because we’re all so familiar with the style, it was easy to get complex ideas across in a single image, which he found easy to share on Facebook and reach a wider audience. His images are often simple, but moving. He returns to some themes multiple times, such as parents doing different forms of manual labor while saying some variation of “I want you to get an education so that you don’t have to break your back like me.”
There’s also an entire chapter titled “The Undocumented Alphabet” that illustrates the challenges, contradictions, and dreams of undocumented people.
I found this book to be an easy read, something I could pick up and read a few pages at a time between tasks. I think it’s very approachable, and is perhaps something you could share with a friend or family member who holds some bias against undocumented immigrants but is willing to have their opinion changed.
CWs and TWs: Discusses racism, police/immigration brutality, alcohol abuse, classism, and the rise of Trump.
Source and Format: I read a paperback copy of this book courtesy of Sno-Isle Libraries.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): Worth 1000 Words. I do think that a lot of Ledesma’s political cartoons do manage to express about a thousand words worth of ideas and emotions.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: Refugee/Immigrant Memoir. This fits the brief exactly and is a great choice if you’re looking for a quicker and easier read for what could otherwise be a very traumatic prompt.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 17 out of 25 prompts complete. 2 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 14 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: 10 out of 23 prompts, 0 bingos.