I had meant to read around in a bunch of graphic novels this summer to make some changes to my class syllabus, but in typical fashion, it was just after I finalized the readings and set up the canvas course and everything that I started tearing through piles of graphic novels. A friend introduced me to a publisher called Iron Circus Comics based out of Chicago, and I’ve been reading around in stuff they’ve published, because a lot of it is really great (stay tuned for some of those posts).
This one is not as good, heh heh. I mean, it’s fine — it’s a quick and fairly interesting read about a family who gets a home from Habitat for Humanity (not for free, mind you — you learn a bit about how the process works). But it’s also a debut work, and you can tell. The narrative is a little scattered; it can’t quite make up its mind on what it wants to emphasize, etc.
Still, it’s a thoughtful and engaging account of growing up poor, one that gets at how wierdly fine-grained the idea of poverty is in the US. The title, the lucky poor, refers to the idea that they’re poor, but still better off than many — most obviously, they get the house. Even writing this, I notice how difficult it is to even say that she grows up poor — how hard it is not to qualify and explain, as indeed the author does (her grandparents have a lake house!). I think it’s because in the US, the myth of meritocracy surrounds poverty with shame, such that even people who struggle economically are incentivized to point out how much worse it is for others, and are expected to be grateful for what they do have. The memoir treads lightly over some of the more unpleasant experiences of the author’s life (such as her mom’s jerk boyfriend), and also tries to make clear that although noticing the difference between your house and those of your wealthier classmates can be upsetting to a kid, it’s not necessarily a profound emotional injury, especially when plenty of your other classmates are economically closer to you than not. I think we have more of an understanding, these days, of the resentments and anxieties and feelings of inadequacy that people with less privilege and resources experience. But there’s a lot of nuance and complexity about how this stuff plays out that doesn’t often get explored.
Kasia Reads 