Imposter's Daughter- Omniscient Frame

Graphic novels make me more aware of the ways in which authors are framing narratives, scene by scene. I see craft, character development, structure, etc so much differently— as if it is liberating us from a type of textual tyranny. Importantly, here, the frames create a kind of omniscient narration where Sandell’s memory box, that is backed up with material evidence, is “witnessed” by the readers. I feel like a lot of writers write so that the readers know more about who they are, their sense of the world, while this, and perhaps many graphic novels, are amazing ways for writers to report, give space for the readers to simply witness. 

Perhaps Joe Sacco and visual journalist have created this understanding of graphic novels! At first, I felt as if this entire piece was written in first person POV and was left without a deep connection to her interiority. I got the story, loved it all, but, again, felt like a witness more than anything else. It was like being taken on a ride as her passenger where, like the women Sandell interviewed, she “perfected the art of seeming incredibly open, without giving too much” of herself. Graphic novel frames are perfect for this type of minimal narrative that as a result creates impression management, juggles the subjective and objective, gives room for discretionary disclosures, etc. 

It’s no wonder that interviews are captured so well in graphic novels when delivered properly. 

When thinking of the way Sandell handles minimal narration, my mind first goes to page 37, the last panel where it states, “There was no privacy, no boundaries.” This was stated as an ongoing issue she had as a young adult/teen, illustrated with her dad walking in on her while undressed. The effect that this scene creates, assumedly intentional, the effect of a ghost narrator. Despite not having the book literarily framed with an an adult narrator, being that we start off with the child’s perspective, this intense panel has a writer’s touch and structure to it, although there is a careful control to keep it in the child’s perspective while being suggestive. This panel also transitions the book, right there, where she is not “team dad” anymore, significant in that this is where I begin to think about the difference between a objective event and a subjective event. Everything of her youth was written in a beautifully crafted “objective” way. 

These memories are not questionable to me, even when laid out beside her stories that have hours of interviews and emails. This isn’t a bad thing either, it seems either intentional or interesting/inspiring. The “coming of age” and young adult parts of this memoir seem to be written in relation to subjective events (to define, events where the narrator becomes aware of the signifance through emotional reactions, memory and processing). In other words, moments like page 57 demonstrate how these experiences seem to be the writings of subjective events (where she has a flash back on naive stoicism in the face of peril). To be honest, this shift could be an intentional portray of self-destruction or, simply, the way self-destruction appears when remembered (some suppressed or unremembered part of ourselves that can only be understood through memory, emotional reactions, etc). 

Another example: page 82, an insert of her childhood drawing to juxtapose her making her father feel small after yelling at him and calling out his bullshit. This is an subjective event. The portrayal of his shrinking juxtapose with her small self with his larger-than-life, Mount Rushmore self is clearly one created from internal searching and emotional unpacking. I find this to be beautiful, brilliant, the way Sandell steers us through her mind here. These are the moments where I connected most to her interiority. The restraint she maintained here, that minimal narrative as the frame filtered her world, carried the rest of Sandell’s story.