Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me - A Graphic Memoir
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Overview
Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between “crazy” and “creative” in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers.
Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity.
Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to “cure” an otherwise brilliant mind.
Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney’s memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist’s work, as she shares her own story through bold black-and-white images and evocative prose.
Synopsis
Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between “crazy” and “creative” in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers.Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity.
Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to “cure” an otherwise brilliant mind.
Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney’s memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist’s work, as she shares her own story through bold black-and-white images and evocative prose.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Retentive booksellers and readers might remember Ellen Forney as the illustrator of Sherman Alexie's National Book Award-winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Now she ventures into an arena that she knows even better: bipolar disorder. In the late nineties, when the Seattle artist was first diagnosed with the malady, she worried not only about the malady, but also about how her new medications might curtail or distort her creativity. Though tagged as a graphic memoir, Marbles tackles that issue by pulling back to describe the experiences of mood plague artists including Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe, Sylvia Plath, and Michelangelo. Forney also helpfully describes efficacy of various pharmaceutical and treatment options. As informative as it is personal.
The New York Times Book Review
It's not exactly focused, but it's mostly delightful: Forney switches up the style and layout of her artwork every page or two, and she's got enough perspective on herself to find some kind of comedy even in painful experiences.—Douglas Wolk