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Go to Sleep (I Miss You)

One book that excites me right now is "Go To Sleep (I Miss You)" -- a graphic memoir about parenthood.

If you're writing about your own life, you have to make yourself a weird, dynamic character; you have to recognize at least some of the absurdity in your own behavior.

Lucy Knisley knows this, and she does the work very well. She recalls worrying--while pregnant--that having a kid would derail her important comic-book art. (We see an image of this art, a lady farting, in an upper corner.)

Knisley mocks her own self-importance: "Charles Dickens said each baby born is better than the last. But....seriously, though....Mine is the best...."

Knisley finds a vein called parental ambivalence/lunacy: how a new parent will urge, and urge, and urge the stormy baby to go to sleep....THANK GOD!!! .....and then, within moments, discover that she misses that stormy baby....How new parents--after they put the kid to sleep--will spend several minutes looking at photos of that same kid in bed....

And Knisley has a delightful scene--at 3 AM--when the baby becomes upset at having rolled onto his stomach. Trapped, the baby gets louder and louder. The tired mother silently thinks....Yes! 3 AM is a *fine* time to practice this skill!

Good art can be therapeutic--and this title seems to fit the bill. You can find the info here:

https://www.amazon.com/Go-Sleep-Miss-You-Parenthood/dp/1250211492#reader_B083RS9QKM
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