David B.

REVIEW OF EPILEPTIC DAVID B for librarything.com

David B.'s exploration of how a family member copes with epilepsy dives deep into the world of having an older sibling with the illness. Epileptic is a profound graphic novel in which the younger of two brothers narrates his life experience with unremitting candor. In this sense, 'graphic' refers both to the book's content as well as to its illustrated format. Before I present my review, I ask the reader to be very sensitive to the fact that Epileptic was copyrighted almost two decades ago (2005) when many victims and loved ones had starkly different life experiences than many, if not most, of their contemporary counterparts. The subject character suffers daily seizures during broad parts of his life which will naturally affect his cognitive life experience to a much greater degree than that of very many modern victims, the beneficiaries of far more effective second- and third-generation anticonvulsant medications. The likely difference in medical experiences is particularly assured if we assume that the author's outlook will have arisen deep in the 1990's. Cautious sensitivity becomes increasingly required as the illustrations of the sick brother distort him in a negative way as the book progresses. Some of the distortion has realism to it, however uncomfortable such realism might be.

The book is extraordinary in how many issues it brings up. The author tackles prejudice of violence; fear of surgery; non-medicinal seizure control; psychosomatic pitfalls in behavior; and many others. The author quickly calls attention to how readily people might stigmatize victims. Even as a graphic novel it wields more intellectual impact than ordinary texts might do.

The 2nd half of the book requires the most sensitivity to the time of publication as I've mentioned above. More and more, Jean-Christophe behaves in an agitated, antisocial manner. At the same time, his artistic portrayal becomes darker and larger than life. In illustrating his brother's resentful image of him, the author visually portrays him as a veritable monster in his brother's mind. The imagery discomforts a reader for its stigmatizing visuals, and for this reason the fact that it reveals the brother's psychological state is critical to bear in mind. The book, in fact, is more of a treatise on the healthy sibling than on the ill one.

So as not to be a spoiler, I will not detail the end of the book other than to say it is one of the most creative endings that I have seen in literature. It's not at all majestic, heroic, damning, or name your extreme. Rather it is creative and as profound as a miserable, humiliating disease permits. Epileptic is essential to a complete library of anyone with interests in the topic.… (more)