Blankets

Blankets is an intimate and touching memoir written and illustrated by Craig Thompson. The bits and pieces of his life that he chose to illustrate in this novel depict a familiar story. At its core it is a love story. An achingly real one that is told so simply, and so truthfully that at first blush it almost comes off as vapid and perhaps a tad juvenile. But when one looks to define young love, I suppose that description would not be far off. So in that sense the story felt all the more real. The sting of a first love that breaks your heart is sort of silly when you think back and reminisce of all your romantic endeavors since the first time you fell in and out of love. And I believe that is the point Thompson tried make. What surprised me about this story was the amount of time spent on dealing with his family's extreme fundamentalist christian beliefs. In a sense, yes it was a love story, dealing with a first girlfriend, family life, but it was also a story about his love of God and falling in and out of love with him. So much time was devoted to his struggles with religion, and so much of his life was shaped by it, it almost became a distraction for me while trying to enjoy the novel. At times I felt it became too preachy in regards to how people should lean whether it be one way or another on their religious beliefs. Nevertheless, it was so well written and beautifully illustrated that the over saturation of religious themes only served as a minor distraction, as the novel flowed wonderfully and made for quite an enjoyable read.