So much of her routine becomes an issue of control, perhaps hinting at a deeper catalyst for events but also trapping her within the confines of the recovery process. There are cycles of recovery and relapse coping mechanisms that slip into ritual and obsessions. Green chronicles events but leaves it to the reader to draw what conclusions they may as to root causes. There are no easy answers as to its origins, no pat explanations for its emergence. One thing that becomes evident as the years pass by on the printed page is the complexity of the condition. As the months and years progress, for example, we see its grip on not just Katie but also expanding to swamp her entire family. It’s a key storytelling technique in the book and one that has a commanding significance in terms of expressing the effect that the eating disorder has not just on herself but also on those around her.

Reflecting the intensity of her experiences it variously manifests itself as a scribbled black cloud hanging ominously over her head to a sea of blackness, enveloping the page and consuming the author in its malign embrace. Throughout Lighter than My Shadow the darkness that permeates Katie’s existence is a constant visual presence its form depending on her state of mind at any given point in the narrative. From there we follow the twisting psychological path of her illness through her school days, and her growing feelings of guilt in regards to food, to the eventual diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.

It begins in her childhood portraying the family customs at mealtime, with early signs that all is not well as the young Katie begins hiding uneaten food in her bedroom.

Those looking for a prime example of that statement need look no further than Katie Green’s autobiographical graphic novel Lighter than My Shadow – published by Jonathan Cape – described on its release at the end of last year as “a graphic memoir of eating disorders, abuse and recovery”.Īt 500-plus pages long, Green’s account of her struggles with anorexia, self-esteem and a resulting betrayal of trust is a comprehensive and weighty tome. As a subgenre of that, what has now been termed “graphic medicine” has played an integral part in taking that newcomers’ appreciation of sequential art one step further, ensuring not only that they appreciate comics as a form but also understand its unique ability to convey emotion and share personal experience. Lighter than My Shadow is an outstanding and courageous use of the graphic novel format to inform, to elucidate and to share.Īrguably, the graphic memoir is the strand of comics publishing most responsible in recent years for legitimising the form in the eyes of a wider audience and underlining that their assumptions about its inherent infantilism have been unfounded.

Lighter than My Shadow by Katie Green