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A review by jessrock
Dumb: Living Without a Voice by Georgia Webber
3.0
Mixed feelings about this graphic memoir by a woman living with an undiagnosed and invisible disability. The author was in her 20s when she found that speaking was increasingly painful for her. After a few months, she went to a doctor who was largely dismissive, implying that she'd done this to herself by talking or singing too much, and who told her that it would go away if she stopped talking for a few months and gave her voice time to heal. She followed his orders while struggling to maintain her friendships by silently mouthing her words, writing them on paper, and texting, but found herself increasingly socially isolated. She had to quit her job in a cafe and began wrestling with the unending layers of bureaucracy and paperwork that come with trying to go on unemployment and disability.
This kind of story is so important to tell. The art style suits the story well, with lots of things scribbled out or obscured to represent the swirls of thoughts she couldn't articulate, the conflicting emotions, and her struggle to figure out how to depict an invisible disability in her art. However, the level of stress and frustration conveyed in the partially scribbled out art sometimes makes it a stressful and frustrating experience to try to read the pages, too. I'll also mention that the book is set in Montreal and occasionally has panels written in French, which I wasn't expecting after the whole early part was in English - you won't miss a lot if you can't read the language, but I imagine it would make a reader feel even more shut out of the story to wrestle with both the art and the French.
The book ends with her beginning to try working with a vocal coach, followed by several wordless pages in a different style, entirely in red ink. I honestly don't know if the red pages are supposed to be the final pages of the story or if they're outtakes/extras. I don't feel like the book actually ended. She gave us so much introspection and emotion throughout the book that I was surprised it dropped off where it did without any kind of final "here's where I'm at, here's where I'm trying to go next."
This kind of story is so important to tell. The art style suits the story well, with lots of things scribbled out or obscured to represent the swirls of thoughts she couldn't articulate, the conflicting emotions, and her struggle to figure out how to depict an invisible disability in her art. However, the level of stress and frustration conveyed in the partially scribbled out art sometimes makes it a stressful and frustrating experience to try to read the pages, too. I'll also mention that the book is set in Montreal and occasionally has panels written in French, which I wasn't expecting after the whole early part was in English - you won't miss a lot if you can't read the language, but I imagine it would make a reader feel even more shut out of the story to wrestle with both the art and the French.
The book ends with her beginning to try working with a vocal coach, followed by several wordless pages in a different style, entirely in red ink. I honestly don't know if the red pages are supposed to be the final pages of the story or if they're outtakes/extras. I don't feel like the book actually ended. She gave us so much introspection and emotion throughout the book that I was surprised it dropped off where it did without any kind of final "here's where I'm at, here's where I'm trying to go next."