Phenomenal. Instant favorite. It’s hard to articulate all the feelings that reading Good Talk by Mira Jacob evoked for me. This book is an insightful graphic memoir that recounts Jacob’s conversations about race, racism, American politics, and more with her young son as well as other family, friends and strangers. She weaves together her present and past in a gorgeous memoir that has so much brilliant insight to offer. I never wanted this book to end and I will definitely read more of Jacob’s work in the future! ⁣
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Jacob is bisexual and she discusses that facet of herself in brief but poignant moments within these pages. Bi visibility is so important to me, and I’m truly grateful that Jacob didn’t shy away from depicting this part of herself on the page, that she rather used this medium to portray and confront stigma surrounding bisexuality. ⁣
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Jacob’s stylistic choices in the crafting of this piece of artwork are so cool to me. She uses drawings of people over photographs to depict the backgrounds, and the end result is a stunning mixed-media experience. The only thing I found difficult is that the same drawing is sometimes used multiple times for strangers or other unimportant figures, and I was occasionally pulled out of the story to wonder whether a repeated drawing correlated to a recurring character or was meant to depict just another generic stranger. ⁣