Review: Almost American Girl

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am gradually finding graphic novels that I enjoy: ones with more content than fighting and magical happenings. This book is technically not a graphical NOVEL, but I am going to put it in my group for such, because that is where I would look to find it again. It is an "illustrated memoir".

I am almost always fascinated with the experience of going from one culture to another, probably because when I was 16, I went off to Germany, trading the American Vietnam War era culture for the German one. I spent a year in Germany and then returned to the US for more culture shock, trading German culture for East Coast American elite college, which was almost as foreign to me, an unsophisticated Mid-Westerner, as the German culture had been. Fortunately for me, I was, at that age, pretty good at learning languages and assimilating to different cultures, so I didn't suffer the same problems as Robin Ha did. But it is disorienting, still.

One thing I object to in the write-up of this book is that it implies that Robin discovered her love of the comic arts when she was in the US. She actually already had this interest, but her acceptance of American culture was aided by the discovery of people who shared her interests and, in some cases, shared her background.

Two other things I want to mention: in this book, the mother is front and center. In another recent review, I was comparing American writers to Aussie writers as far as the parents go. This book has another type of interaction: the occasionally contentious interaction with a parent alternating with support through eventual understanding of each other. Both daughter and mother have problems to address and much of the interesting content of the book has to do with how they each and together solve their problems.

Finally, the art work. I wouldn't say it is my absolute favorite style, but it does succeed in adding more emotional depth that some other books of this type lack.

The book was compelling enough for me that I stayed up much later than I should have to finish it. Recommended.

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