A slender group - only Kim and me and a new person, who happens to live in the apartments off the end of 28th Pl. (Of course, we were conflicting with Sherman Alexie's talk, so that probably drew a bunch of people off.) A graphic novel was a bit out of our collective comfort zone, but a graphic memoir was totally out there for us. This was a family unlike the ones that we'd had growing up. And thank God for that! Even if the kids were not abused, they were shown no love by either of their parents. (At least, none that Alison remembers, or that she chose to portray.) Her father was depicted as tortured (by his repulsion for his closeted sexuality, as she found out later) and her mother as deeply unhappy, long fallen out of love with her husband, and now trapped in loveless marriage in a small backwater. We suspect that his death was not a suicide. Which might make it worse, being a utterly senseless rather than his final attempt to take control of his life.