Mother Noise, Cindy House's "graphic narrative piece," is an unexpectedly uplifting memoir that tells the story of House's heroin addiction, 20 years of recovery and the anxiety over sharing her past with her son.
This collection of more than 20 nonlinear essays, interspersed with whimsical drawings, begins when House's son, Atlas, is nine years old. House reflects: "It is only now that I am thinking of how to tell him about my past that I realize how much danger I was in back then." Her honest narration of this danger is horrific; readers are compelled to admire and appreciate her recovery. She shares Atlas's reaction to her revelation in a series of sketches of his expressions. An accomplished writer, House tells of a low point in her addiction when she couldn't read: "I might be able to grab onto a word here or there but an entire paragraph is indecipherable." She recalls this after noting the love for books she and her son share: "Storytelling became the same light in the dark for Atlas that it is for me, the path to find our way."
A champion of House along this journey is humorist David Sedaris, who was her writing instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago; now she is a regular opener at his readings. "You could go to any grad school you wanted," Sedaris once told her, a moment she'd remember and "replay... in hospitals and halfway houses for years." In her masterfully crafted memoir, House includes stories of despair and joy. Ultimately, the narrative she shared with her son also brings hope to her readers. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.