Stitches: A Memoir Themes

Not only does David's dad subject him to the X-rays that cause the tumor in his neck in Stitches, neither of his parents will be straight with him about it. This is a seriously repressed family, wi...

Stitches is a story about blocked communication. David loses his ability to speak after having the tumor removed from his neck; his mom coughs and slams cabinet doors to express her anger; his dad...

There are outright lies—"the dog ate my homework," for example—and then there are lies of omission. The latter defines David's childhood in Stitches. His mom doesn't love him, but she won't say...

Quick: Think of one single character in Stitches who isn't suffering. Can't do it? We can't either. There's so much suffering in this book that David doesn't even get a break in his dreams, which p...

It's pretty much a given that any book about cancer is going to have mortality as a theme. But when the person with cancer is a kid, the thought that they might die becomes all the more tragic. Phy...

In the world of Stitches, home and hospital are pretty much interchangeable. Among the treatments David's dad does at home are chiropractic adjustments (yay) and enemas (not so yay). David feels so...

If you begin your life as a sickly, unloved little kid, can you transform into a content human being through force of will? Well, yes and no. David is born with the artistic talent that ultimately...

Some stories deserve to be told in pictures, and Stitches is one of those stories. David's childhood is so grim that both he and his readers need the escapism of his dreams and fantasies. The magic...