Review: Kiss and Tell

Kiss & Tell by MariNaomi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kiss and Tell is bare-all graphic memoir (or autobiographical comic) about the romantic and sexual history of San Francisco cartoonist Mari Naomi. The memoir reads like a little black book of encounters, going chronologically through each person (some of whom we meet more than once). The step-by-step, grittily honest tales touch on way more than sexual experiences and paramours - candidly revealing the entanglements and growing pains of a girl coming of age and how it shapes her relationships with family and friends. Her minimalist drawing style is as direct as the delivery of her story, both managing to come through as both matter-of-fact and heartfelt. Creating such a level of intimacy with a reader takes great courage and risk on the part of an author, especially as a woman writing on subject matter that, despite many changes over the years, still remains more comfortable as the domain of men. Mari Naomi does it humorously and artfully, and I consider myself duly charmed.

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