Crenshaw's Books & Decks

Calling Dr Laura is a raw and honest memoir of graphic artist Nicole J. Georges from her childhood to this day and her life in Portland Oregon. The novel focus on her search for her natural father, her coming out of the closet as a queer, and the process of finding who she is as a person. The book has a good deal of her childhood memories and family related issues, which are not adorned or sweetened, but presented in a very naive straight forward way. She could have demonized her mother for the whole story related to her natural father, but she does not. She does not hide anything bad about her life, experiences or people she comes across, but she does not judge them and focuses more on how she felt or feels. How difficult to do and so well done! The narrative alternates the present with episodes of her childhood. The parts about her childhood are really wonderful but also a bit sad.

The reading is very engaging. That is so because the book is well paced regarding the subjects she presents and how she presents them, the u-turns she does but still coming back to the main road, so to speak. The story is never bland or boring. Although the mystery in the novel is resolved in the epilogue, it lingers throughout the whole book without being overpowering.

I liked Georges' style and versatility to use different graphic languages and even fonts to convey meaning and create atmosphere. Although most of the book is set in interiors, I love her road and urban landscapes. The drawings of her childhood episodes, which are very child-like, are just lovable, and very different from the more elaborate and arty ones done for the present day  narration. I think this is one of those books that would be been great in colour, as the book cover image is.

My favourite scenes are her story of her intestinal problems when she was a kid, the one of the boat when Radar dumps Nickie, and Nickie's fight with her mother in the car about she being a selfish brat. I also love the dog's language balloons she adds when she communicates with her dogs or they don't know what is happening - very cute.

My main complaint about the book is not the book, it is its rendering for Kindle format. I have read the book with a magnifying glass(no kidding) because the pages are fixed in size, so one cannot enlarge them. Vignettes can be individuated by double clicking, but the zooming is minimal. Amazon should be doing something about these issues because they affect the reading and enjoyment of this and other books and we are paying full price for them.