David Small, the award-winning illustrator, had a childhood more bizarre and surreal than any Grimm fairy tale . In his graphic novel memoir, Stitches, he shares with us the experience of growing up in a household led by a taciturn mother whose primary form of communication included slamming doors and dishes, and a radiologist father whose authoritarian demeanor exuded no emotion for young David, either. Even visits to his maternal grandmother offered little respite; it was clear that the pattern of emotional child abuse and dysfunctional parenting did not begin with David’s mother.

From an early age, David was subjected to his father’s x-ray treatments for respiratory ailments. After several years of treatment followed by an appalling negligence on the part of his parents, it was after what was supposed to be a routine surgery that David awoke to discover one of his vocal cords had been removed. Forced into silence, David delved even further into his beloved art, and did as he always had, finding escape in his imagination. Eventually, he finds a sympathetic and understanding psychiatrist and moves out of the family home.

In the years that follow, David seems to find a way to both forgive and to move on from his past, and it’s obvious that the creation of this memoir was a form of emotional release. Would that all forms of catharsis could be this brilliant and poignant. The illustrations are just as evocative, if not more so, than the words of David’s story, and resonate with distilled emotion. I believe it to be one of the finest examples of the memoir in graphic novel format, a perfect coalescence of two forms of communication, to share one very painful and powerful story with us, the fortunate audience.

Last January, French Milk, another graphic novel, ended up being one of my favorite books of the year. I have a feeling the same may happen in 2010 with Stitches.