Talented San Francisco-based artist Thorina Rose chronicles life–and ultimate triumph–after divorce.
In this graphic memoir, Thorina Rose chronicles the dissolution of her marriage (and with it, her identity as a devoted wife) as well as her subsequent efforts to rebuild her life and career. Rose is a talented San Francisco–based artist who was married to a French-born photographer. Although initially more successful—yet never more egotistical—than her unnamed husband, Rose put her professional ambitions aside to focus on raising the couple’s two young sons. After nearly two decades together, her husband fell in love with a woman he met on the street and did little to conceal his affair. Rose was devastated but had no choice but to stumble forward; it doesn’t take a psych degree to deduce that this raw and introspective illustrated journey was part of her healing process. Clearly (and understandably) still fuming, Rose draws her ex in an unflattering light, and although she obscures his face with shadows and angles, she exposes his crude and caddish behavior. This Gallic brute lives up to every negative stereotype about French men, and we find ourselves enthusiastically siding with Rose’s best friend, convinced that Rose “will be better off without him.” But more than a public form of revenge, the book proves to be the perfect break-up recovery manual. With wit and insight, Rose draws herself passing through different stages, sampling coping mechanisms, weighing words of wisdom (illustrated by portraits of luminaries like Dolly Parton and Coco Chanel), and ultimately, triumphantly, moving on. We look forward to her next work and hope the inspiration is less distressing.
