Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale by Belle Yang


When author and artist Belle Yang returns home to escape an abusive stalker boyfriend, she finds more than simple refuge. Her father, who named her "forget sorrow" in honor of his family's new beginning in the United States, regales her with tales of her ancestors' troubles in Manchuria during WWII. Belle rediscovers herself as her father dishes out doses of her family history, and eventually makes her way to China to reconnect with her relatives. FS has been compared with Maus and Persepolis, and fans of those books will find much to enjoy here, but Yang's earthy black strokes and dark-yet-funny storytelling mostly resemble David B.'s Epileptic , a book often left unmentioned in graphic memoir lists. An excellent addition to any memoir study. Grade 8+

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