Simple and poetic scenes that speak to the brutal and the beautiful all in one.
Summary:
Dutch artist Ephameron chronicles her father's decade living with a rare form of dementia that deteriorates the part of the brain that understands speech. Through paper depictions, scraps of her father's journal, and some of her own writings during that time, Ephameron pieces together her father's mind and life from the first signs to the end.
Verdict: 9/10
This was beautiful. Not in the same way as flowery pictures or poetic language. This was beauty in it's most simple, tragic and bleak. The artist/author didn't shy away from the dismal outcome of the disease and she didn't try to put a happy twist to make the reader feel better. It was unabashedly honest about the reality of things and unlike any other depiction I have seen of alzheimer's/dementia.
I think what struck me most was the utter confusion. The novel's forward mentioned how many of the poems she featured from her father's notes didn't make sense at the time but did in retrospect. Some were very poignant, where the phrasing didn't make sense in itself you could still understand what thought he was trying to convey. Others left a complete blank of meaning to me. But that's what this disease is, there are some moments that you get and some that you don't. I'd say the same for the pictures. They didn't always hit home for me individually, but as a whole work, they wove a gray, grave masterpiece.
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