Good talk : a memoir in conversations

Title:

Author:

Jacob, Mira, 1973- author.

Summary:

Like many six-year-olds, Mira Jacob's half-Jewish, half-Indian son, Z, has questions about everything. At first they are innocuous enough, but as tensions from the 2016 election spread from the media into his own family, they become much, much more complicated. Trying to answer him honestly, Mira has to think back to where she's gotten her own answers: her most formative conversations about race, color, sexuality, and, of course, love. Written with humor and vulnerability, this deeply relatable graphic memoir is a love letter to the art of conversation--and to the hope that hovers in our most difficult questions.

General Note:

"Originally published in hardcover in the United States by One World, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, in 2019."-- Title page verso.

Edition:

One World trade paperback edition.

Physical Description:

355 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 21 cm

Genre:

Graphic novels.

Comics (Graphic works)

Autobiographical comics.

Nonfiction comics.

Personal Subject:

Jacob, Mira, 1973--Comic books, strips, etc.

Subject Term:

Women authors, American -- Biography -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Asian American authors -- Biography -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Interpersonal relations -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Identity (Psychology) -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Racially mixed families -- Comic books, strips, etc.

East Indian Americans -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Publisher:

One World,

Publication Date:

2020

2019

ISBN:

9780399589065

Publication Information:

New York : One World, 2020.

Award Note:

The New York Times - Book Review - 100 Notable Books, 2019

Call Number:

741.5 JACOB

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003547042	Adult Nonfiction	741.5 JACOB	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "beautiful and eye-opening" (Jacqueline Woodson), "hilarious and heart-rending" (Celeste Ng) graphic memoir about American identity, interracial families, and the realities that divide us, from the acclaimed author of The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing .

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Chicago Tribune, The New York Public Library, Publishers Weekly * ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Literary Journal, Kirkus Reviews

"How brown is too brown?"
"Can Indians be racist?"
"What does real love between really different people look like?"

Like many six-year-olds, Mira Jacob's half-Jewish, half-Indian son, Z, has questions about everything . At first they are innocuous enough, but as tensions from the 2016 election spread from the media into his own family, they become much, much more complicated. Trying to answer him honestly, Mira has to think back to where she's gotten her own answers: her most formative conversations about race, color, sexuality, and, of course, love.

Written with humor and vulnerability, this deeply relatable graphic memoir is a love letter to the art of conversation--and to the hope that hovers in our most difficult questions.

LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/OPEN BOOK AWARD

"Jacob's earnest recollections are often heartbreaking, but also infused with levity and humor. What stands out most is the fierce compassion with which she parses the complexities of family and love." -- Time

" Good Talk uses a masterful mix of pictures and words to speak on life's most uncomfortable conversations." -- io9

"Mira Jacob just made me toss everything I thought was possible in a book-as-art-object into the garbage. Her new book changes everything." --Kiese Laymon, New York Times bestselling author of Heavy

Author Notes

Mira Jacob is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing . Her recent work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Vogue, Glamour, Tin House, Electric Literature and Literary Hub. She lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Jacob's sophomore effort (after Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing) is a graphic memoir about race and family, set against the backdrop of the 2016 election and told through a series of conversations. At first, the book riffs off questions that Jacob's biracial six-year-old son, Z, asks. Some queries are simple: "Who is better, Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan?" Others reflect the child's internalization of messages from media and require more complex answers: "Is it bad to be brown?" Z's inquiries prompt memories that push Jacob to dig into her own childhood and behaviors through interactions with her immigrant parents and extended family in India. The author and her husband, Jed, talk about his white male privilege as a Jewish man and his family's conservative politics. Interactions with Jacob's friends allow her to process out loud some of the discussions described in previous scenes. The narrative spans generations, drawing parallels between Jacob and her son but also highlighting the lack of social progress. Aided by the skillful story structure, Jacob's no-holds-barred vulnerability compels reflection and empathy. The unique art style combines photographic backgrounds with illustrations of characters framed in white, like paper cutouts. Characters smartly break the fourth wall, looking directly at readers and inviting them into the narrative. Scenes of Jacob's past relationships with men and women depict nudity but nothing explicit. VERDICT A powerful, multilayered exploration of racial identity development and complicated family dynamics. Timely and necessary.-Alec Chunn, Eugene Public Library, OR © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Snippets of dialogue between Jacob (The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing) and her family and friends form the basis of this breezy but poignant graphic memoir that takes on racism, love, and the election of President Trump. The bisexual daughter of Indian immigrants, Jacob effectively conveys how the 2016 election impacted LGBTQ folks and people of color in ways that were searing, personal, and often misunderstood (such as that awkward moment when the older gentlemen at her mother-in-law's dog's "bark mitzvah" think she's the help). As her Trump-supporting Jewish in-laws insist they still love her, her six-year-old son wants to know not only if he can turn white like Michael Jackson (and "Did he lose his other glove?"), but how to tell which white people are afraid of brown people. Jacob pastes simple character drawings, cut like paper dolls staring directly at the reader, over grainy photos of New York City, her childhood home in New Mexico, and other locales, emphasizing the contingency of identity. The collage effect creates an odd, immediate intimacy. She employs pages of narrative prose sparingly but hauntingly, as when she learns that a haughty, wealthy woman once lost a child: "in that place where you thought you would find a certain kind of woman... is someone you cannot begin to imagine." The "talks" Jacob relates are painful, often hilarious, and sometimes absurd, but her memoir makes a fierce case for continuing to have them. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.