Small suffered from asthma-like sinus problems, which his father decided to treat with his favorite method: bombarding him with X-rays. Further, Small’s grandmother was mentally ill and abusive toward him the trauma she inflicted on him went unobserved. Small recalls feigning illness to obtain attention from his parents: his father, a radiologist, would try to diagnose him, forming a lopsided, transactional social bond. Often spending his days on the floor of his Detroit living room doodling, he now realizes that doodling originated in response to a reticent mother and father. Small’s memoir begins at the age of six, in the early 1950s. Looking back on his life, Small makes a case for the motivating function of trauma, arguing that it can serve to nurture the emotional resilience and personal depth useful in making art. In his graphic memoir, Stitches (2009), American writer and illustrator David Small, best known as an author of children’s books, reflects on his meandering journey to his current career, beginning with a difficult childhood and cancer diagnosis, through a Guggenheim Fellowship and National Book Award.
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