Weng Pixin

Told in five separate years spread out over more than a century, we meet each character as a 15-year-old girl and again (mostly) when we are introduced to their 15-year-old daughter decades later. The first daughter lives in 1908 while the last is an imaginary daughter of the author's stand-in, living in the year 2032.

The sins against mothers are visited upon their daughters, and the best we can hope for is to be reincarnated as butterflies seem to be the morals of this frustratingly vague and yet simplistic generational study.… (meer)

Let's Not Talk Anymore portrays 5 generations of women from the author's family in a graphic memoir. Their stories are told from when they were all fifteen years old. In 1902 the author's great-grandmother Kuan's life is told. In 1947 her grandmother Mei's story is told and in 1972 her mother Bing is portrayed. In 1998 author Pixin’s own life is shown and in 2032 the author's imaginary daughter Rita's life is given. These stories alternate back and forth in time and span a century.

Weng Pixin's lineage is full of sorrow. Great-grandmother Kuan is sent away from her family in China to Singapore, grandmother Mei's mother allowed her to be adopted by a neighbor to help with the housework, Bing's father left the family home, while Pixin feels isolated from her mother. Through these generational traumas, fractured relationships are passed down from mother to daughter every generation. It all seemed sad to me. These ladies were miserable but tried to hide their feelings. I am not sure why but I wonder if this is a way for the Chinese to save face?

The artwork was drawn in colorful comic book panels. It was a little hard to tell the difference between the women given that they look alike. Weng Pixin changed the facial coloring and hair styles to distinguish them from one another. She used an interesting mixed media approach to the drawings by using poster paint, oil pastels and watercolors. The style of the drawings is simple, almost childlike.

My main takeaway from the book is that the way in which each of us handle adversity comes from imitating the way our elders handled it. This is a depressing thought because it seems that we are all doomed to repeat mistakes from the past. I liked that the last nine pages were of butterflies ready for flight. Perhaps there is a silver lining in every family's story.… (meer)