IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE

A graphic memoir about a cartoonist’s struggles with alcoholism, recovery, and romance.

Early on in the text, Wertz, the author of Tenements, Towers & Trash, notes that she had long been telling her doctor that she enjoyed a couple drinks every evening. It turns out she was drinking multiple bottles of wine daily. At the time, she felt like she couldn’t live without it, even though she was warned that she would not live long if she continued her habit. Though the subject matter is grim, Wertz’s light touch as a narrator and talent as an illustrator help the narrative avoid the down-and-out, hell-and-back pathos of so many recovery memoirs. The author was a functioning alcoholic, publishing productively and meeting deadlines, but there was not much except work and wine to fill her life. However, when she stopped drinking, at least for a while, it didn’t solve her problems. In some ways, life got messier, as she forced herself out of her comfortable isolation to meet people and try to find a romantic partner. When she inevitably relapsed, it was not the end of the world but more of a learning experience. She received support from her brother (also in recovery), close friends, and other alcoholics at meetings even as she tried to minimize residual trauma as merely “a relentless series of tedious misfortunes.” By any objective standard, her life improved—not only professionally (her work started to appear in the New Yorker and the New York Times), but personally as well. Refreshingly, none of this seems like a pat, cause-and-effect morality play. With her consistently engaging, well-wrought black-and-white cityscapes—native New Yorkers, in particular, will appreciate the fine details of the illustrations—Wertz captures the busyness of life, teeming with possibility, including a happy ending.

Her story may be “completely average,” but the way she tells and draws it is extraordinary.