French Milk by Lucy Knisley
Sunday, January 11th, 2009- Title: French Milk
- Author: Lucy Knisley
- Publisher: Touchstone
- Year of Publication: 2007
- Pages: 193
French Milk is a graphic novel about a 22 year-old New York girl (the author) and her trip to Paris for five weeks with her mother. This graphic novel is styled as a diary, with fantastic visuals and occasional photographs of the real thing.
I approached this book with a bias. I took a trip to Paris when I was 22 years-old, too. The trip included a stop in London for five days, a ride on the EuroStar to France, and a week in Paris. It was an amazing experience, and I want to go back.
Reading French Milk helped me remember the little things I loved and the excitement of Paris. The food, the art, the culture was refreshed in my memory because of this book.
The author’s personal style didn’t hurt, either. Her diary was open, honest, and was successful in making me care about her characters.
The only complaint I had with this book was that the structure was difficult to adapt to at first. I was expecting French Milk to resemble the comics the author posts on her journal, something akin to Persepolis, the only other graphic novel (series) I’ve read cover-to-cover. However, once I got used to it, French Milk was effortless to enjoy. 4.5/5

