The Impostor's Daughter

[Stergios Botzakis]

A debut graphic memoir, The Impostor's Daughter tells two stories. One is how Laurie grew up with her larger-than-life father, a college professor who had a great many stories to share. He was quite accomplished and experienced in his tales, from his days dealing with political unrest in Peron-era Argentina, to his exploits as a Green Beret in Vietnam where he won two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, to his earning multiple Ph.Ds from institutions like Columbia and NYU, to writing position papers for Henry Kissinger. The second part is how Laurie dealt with such an overwhelming male presence in her own relationships, especially when she began to unravel that all of her father's stories were lies.

Laurie Sandell is an active reporter and a contributing editor for Glamour Magazine. A particular specialty of hers is interviewing celebrities. The impetus for her memoir can be found in this Esquire Magazine article. She has drawn all of her life, albeit not so much professionally. This work is her first foray into graphic novels, and her art style is very clear and simple.

Perhaps because of her publishing connections, Sandell's book has been widely, and for the most part positively, reviewed. John Hogan wrote that he "fell in love with this book and its raw honesty. It's gut-wrenching and compelling."Likewise, Bermuda Onion gushed that she fell in love with this book and could not put it down. Greg Burgas provides a different opinion, opining that he found the book "unfulfilling" because it was so shallow in its treatment of a potentially great story. For more opinions, a great number of reviews from agencies such as Kirkus Reviews to Publisher's Weekly can be found here.

For more information about Sandell and this memoir, check out this interview from ABC News or this interview with Doree Shafrir.

A preview is available here from publisher Little, Brown and Company.

More graphic novel links are at http://graphicnovelresources.blogspot.com

[John Isaacson]

I have to confess straight off, that I have not read this book. But I have picked it up numerous times in bookstores, only to put it down again, because I was put off by the art work, page design, and also because my intuition tells me that the recent rash of memoirs has picked up steam in the graphic novel genre. I'll try to give it a decent reading, but after reading graphic novel memoirs like David B's Epileptic, Ariel Schrag's Potential, and Allison Bechdel's Fun Home, I find it hard to believe that Laurie Sandell put as much work into her memoir as any of those authors. Glancing at a few of the pages, I fear she may have treated the graphic novel as a trend, rather than as a unique art form, with its own set of aesthetics and conventions.

[Stergios Botzakis]

I don't disagree with your feelings about the book. I think it suffers from a lot of the other pitfalls that plague autobiographical graphic novels, mostly because not everyone has an exceptional story and/or the artfulness to tell it well. I think Sandell's story is pretty intriguing though it devolves into self-help cliches toward the end. I don't know if it was just trend-following or if she genuinely seemed attracted to drawing (she does go on a bit about being artistic as a child) that made her choose this genre, but I can tell she is not horrible at it nor is she a masterful storyteller all of the time. I was intrigued by the book and only bought it when I found it at a used bookstore at a discount, and it does not rate so high when you compare it to the works you mentioned above. Get it, but don't pay full price!
Also, it may be interesting enough to include in a class library. It sure has an interesting hook, even if it does not remain consistently compelling.