French Milk and Relish by Lucy Knisley

Every time I say how much I love Lucy Knisley I feel a bit like a stalker. I should rephrase that and say how much I love her work. But it’s through her work (that is primarily autobiographical) that I feel like I know her so well. Check her out through her LiveJournal, tumblr, Twitter, and other internet stalking methods.

A few years ago when Graphic Novels (not just comic books) were becoming the thing to be seen reading I picked up Knisley’s French Milk and first fell in love. French Milk is a travel journal (or as the French say, Carnet de Voyage) from a trip Knisley took with her mother to Paris in January. It’s a glimpse into the touristy things we all would love to do with our mothers in Paris, if we had the kind of relationship that Knisley has with her mother. There are lots of sketches of baguettes and cheese. All the ‘je ne sais quai’ of Paris is rendered into full page panels with little notes of what was seen and experienced.

What I like most about Knisley’s writing is that she doesn’t shy away from telling it how it is. Amongst the beautiful sketches of cobblestone streets in Paris there are anecdotes of her momentary meltdowns over turning 22 and not being financially responsible. (Oh, if only I could be 22 again, I’d tell myself to relax more.) We see how not all travel moments can be magical, that it can rain and be freezing in the most magical of places on earth. French Milk is a personal and wonderful story of a young woman’s journey through adulthood. It may sound cheesy but the more stinky the cheese the better.

You can imagine my excitement when I saw that Knisley was coming out with a new book in the Spring of 2013. As a bookseller I am lucky enough to be surrounded by books everyday but the biggest perk of the job is getting to read those books that everyone is waiting for first. I asked for an advance reader’s copy not expecting anything but hey, it never hurts to ask. And when I got approved and got the first look at the beautiful, full colour illustrations I nearly lost my mind.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (Published by First Second) which comes out in April is so cool. Just imagine the super fan girl (that’s me) with wide eyes clutching this book as I tell you how cool it is. First of all it’s in colour. Not that I mind reading comic books and graphic novels in black and white but when you see the work that you love so much in Technicolor, well there’s no going back after that. Not only is this book in colour but it’s all about food.

Good food is such a wonderful thing. We as humans can have such visceral reactions to food. Just notice what happens to you when someone bakes you a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. Or how nice you feel, if even for a moment, when you’re sick and someone makes you chicken soup just the way you like it. Humans can be very emotional eaters it’s only one of the many reasons we’re having such problems with obesity in North America. There’s always a valid excuse for that bucket of ice cream. And who hasn’t celebrated a momentous occasion with a good meal?

In Relish we see Knisley’s life told through the food that has helped her become the person she is today. It doesn’t hurt that her parents were total foodies even before she came into this world. Her mother worked in a cheese shop while she was pregnant with Knisley and thinks that perhaps the cultured dairy had an effect on the unborn artist? In French Milk the readers got to see the complex relationship that isn’t always perfect between a young, not yet fully adult woman and her mother. Being in your early 20s is still an awkward time and even more so in the age of “you can be whatever you want to be”.  But in Relish we get to see how Knisley’s relationships were formed not only with her mother but with her father and extended family, friends, coworker by the food they enjoyed together.

Scattered throughout the book are visual recipes for some of the special dishes Knisley mentions. I love how each ingredient magically jumps into the bowl. I hope Knisley makes prints of these recipes. This book is one part cookbook and 2 parts memoir.

The only trepidation I have about these types of autobiographical and deeply personal graphic novels is that the artists can sometimes go off on tangents. There’s a fine line between telling the whole story and going overboard. Food is clearly a very important part of Knisley’s life but I sometimes felt that there was only so much to be said about one’s nutritional history. Nonetheless I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves to eat and read comics. Or both at the same time!!