Mira Jacob

"Snippets of dialogue between Jacob...and her family and friends form the basis of this breezy but poignant graphic memoir that takes on racism, love, and the election of President Trump."--

A Memoir in Conversations

Good Talk

Soha

Important conversations. Difficult conversations. Necessary conversations.

Patricia Nelson

A graphic novel/memoir about an East Indian American who shares what it is like to be a dark-skinned American of Indian descent in today's America, in a family with close ties to family living in India, as a mother of a mixed-race son, and wife of a Jewish white man with conservative parents in Florida. Whew - sounds like a lot of heavy stuff, but it was so well done - the author shared her story with humor and truth. I read this in two large gulps over two days, but don't let that fool you - this will stay with me. There were multiple passages I marked to copy down into my book journal. I had chills while reading her story of 9/11, when she witnessed the planes hitting the towers from lower Manhattan. I laughed with her crazy family stories and dating stories, and felt her sadness and frustration with her experiences with racism. It's a memoir of a woman trying to may her way, and finding the best way for her family and her child. I loved it.

Beautiful story but I’m not sure this was the best medium for it

Sarah Schumacher

A quick read because of the graphic novel format. I listened to an interview with Mira Jacobs, so I felt like I already knew the plot lines when I got to them, but it was still great. A unique, visual way to see someone else’s perspective through their eyes. Her son was the catalyst for the book, but it’s more about her experiences.

The way it ended made me want a resolution, selfishly, for advice on how her family handled a subject many of us are currently walking through in real time with her. It actually seemed a fitting way to end, but with a hopeful quality about it.

Midori Kobayashi

i hate rating NF usually but this was so spot on with conversations surrounding racism and honesty and familial relationships and how it hurts to see the ones closest to you support your oppressors. humorous, spot on and absolutely amazing comic-memoir i didn't know i needed!

Jeannette Ordas

I really liked this memoir and while I wasn't wild about the mixed media graphic novel aspect - a simple drawing overlaid over photos, I loved so much about this book. Her discussions about race, her inlaws, her parents, her kid, her pre-marriage dating life, her husband - were well told, relevant and meaningful. 4.5 stars.

'By turns hilarious and heart-rending. Plunges fearlessly into the murky grey areas of race and family, of struggling to find common ground, of trying to talk to our children and help them make sense of it all' Celeste Ng 'Does Donald Trump hate Muslims?' 'Is that how people really walk on the moon?' 'Is it bad to be brown?' 'Are white people afraid of brown people?' Inspired by her viral BuzzFeed piece '37 Difficult Questions from My Mixed-Raced Son', Mira Jacob responds to: her six-year-old, Zakir, who asks if the new president hates brown boys like him; uncomfortable relationship advice from her parents, who came to the United States from India one month into their arranged marriage; and increasingly fraught exchanges with her Trump-supporting in-laws. Jacob also investigates her own past, including how it felt to be a brown-skinned New Yorker on 9/11. As earnest and moving as they are laugh-out-loud funny, these are the stories that have shaped one life, but will resonate with many others.

Stef

Another best memoir graphic novel that I read this year. Pas banget aku sendiri sedang mencari isu/topik tentang diversity in western country. Dan baca ini wide my opinion kalau racist still mendarah daging di Amerika ke people of color. How they pretend sleepwalking and blind toward racist pretending that issue never big deal.

renee badenoch

(more full review later of the things I absolutely loved when I can check out the book again and reference specific passages) 

I am definitely more left-leaning than the author, and felt uncomfortable with the way that Obama was repeatedly glorified and used as an example of progress without ever talking about ways his policies harmed communities of color, i.e, massive deportations, bombing hospitals in Afghanistan, signing the papers allowing for the keystone pipeline to be built, or allowing federal troops to be deployed in Ferguson. Maybe those things aren't the topic here, and maybe it deflects from the narrative of the rest of the text, most of which takes place with the author being a dark-skinned Indian-American woman in New York post 9/11 and during the openly racist presidential run of Donald Trump. Still, with the rest of the book being so nuanced and thoughtful in regards to the way racism is inherent and built into us as Americans, I wish that the author had addressed how even a black president can perpetuate American racism when working for the aims of our imperialsit American Empire.

sophia n

this was lovely and raw, like looking into someone’s personal scrapbook of their life. it was equally funny and painful, and truly just a very important and powerful read. i cannot recommend this enough.

Fraser Simons

This memoir is Mira Jacobs life experience growing up as a dark skinned Indian woman in America. From teenage years and childhood to 911, Obama being elected, and finally, with Trump being elected. 

It is sometimes quite funny, especially when it’s focused on conversations with her family members and, specifically, her son. The tone shifts when it talks about racism and other prejudice, privilege (especially passing in white spaces), but it always feels well balanced. 

It is also very nuanced, I found. In very short order the conversations are reduced to the embodiment of specific points of view on various subjects. It’s really, really well done.

The art style is going to be polarizing, I think. It uses a mix of stock art photography and black and white artwork for characters for most conversations. Sometimes actual pictures are used, and that’s when it’s at its best. Childhood pictures and other things lend those sections to have a scrapbook feel. But it also minimizes the presentation of the rest of the book, unfortunately. 

Overall, though, this is a very unique memoir. Never read anything quite like it, especially in both it purely being conversations with others, as well as the visual style. Excellent stuff!

Elizabeth Moore

I picked this book for my Book Riot “Read Harder” challenge which includes “Read a Graphic Memoir” as one of the prompts, as well as “read a memoir by someone from a reunions background that is not your own.” I’m so glad I chose this book!

As much as I love to read, until now I’d never ever read a graphic novel; I’ve always assumed “oh they aren’t for me.” And I’ve also realized this year (which is way too late but you gotta start somewhere) that “who” I read has been very narrow and non representative of the larger population; for no good reason other than laziness and how easy that is for me to do as a very basic-ass white person. This book has shaken both of these non-habits up and I’m very glad for it.

Good Talk is an amazingly creative and beautiful graphic memoir and I loved how the author’s story is primarily told through conversation bubbles of dialogue, with small little punctuations of guy punching first person narration. It’s a story about being Indian, being Indian in America, being a person of color, being a woman of color, being a writer, being a mom, and, I think most of all, being an American - no matter what any idiot tells you. It is funny and poignant and sad and honest and utterly captivating, and I finished it in one afternoon.

Reading this memoir was also a reminder of how much of an unearned privilege I have to not ever have to worry or think about the fears and frustrations and concerns that the author and so many Americans do color have to think about every single day. We’d all do better by others to read things every single day that remind us that wrongs we don’t personally see and pain we don’t personally feel certainly do indeed exist. 

I loved the author’s son and all of his kid questions, and I loved her Indian family on both continents. And overall, I loved how much I loved reading this book. I’m not on the graphic story train, and I’ll continue on my path to read stories and words that reflect all of people and points of view that power this world, not just the ones that feel very familiar to my little sliver of perspective.

Jenna

(#partner @randomhouse) • Good Talk by Mira Jacob is a graphic memoir in conversations. Many of the conversations are with her six-year-old son. Mira Jacob is Indian and her husband is Jewish. Some of the questions from her son are pretty heartbreaking - for example, he asks if his dad is scared of them because they have brown skin. Of course, the questions became more complex after Trump won the election.

It feels like Mira Jacob is sharing parts of her soul with us in this book. She’s vulnerable but also wry and witty. She is frank and open about her experiences as a person of color living in the US. I love the drawings, too, and she even includes some photographs. They made for a unique reading experience - we get to see things the way she saw them.

I saw that there is a TV series in the works based off this book, and I am soooo excited and hopeful that it happens. I think everyone should read this book, but even more people would be exposed to this work if it were also a show!

I don’t really have much else to say except read this. To try and further convince you, here are a bunch of adjectives to describe it: brilliant, funny, open, intimate, necessary, honest. A must-read.

Sophie Sweany

This was not my usual style of writing I like to read, but this book was marvelous, heart-breaking, and beautiful. Good Talk is exactly the book that America needs to read right now. I feel more aware having read this book and I hope others can do the same for themselves. I loved this book so very much and would recommend it to anyone wanting to read something new and quick.

Caroline Lewicki

Mira Jacob’s memoir is absolutely a must read. It hurts me that she had to write this but I’m so grateful that she did. The ways in which BIPOC people are treated, both in aggressive and microaggressive ways, are highlighted so flawlessly and will hopefully educate its readers on ways to do better. Tying her childhood to the life her son is experiencing in the present shows that while we’ve changed as a country, America still has a lot of work to do.

Sahi K

I just stumbled upon this book on Twitter when the author Mira shared a couple of illustrations from the graphic novel about Indian aunties and I couldn’t stop laughing and I decided that I had to read it. However, I ended up not finding the graphic novel at my library and had to listen to the audiobook which turned out to be totally unexpected and wonderful in its own way.

This memoir is completely heartfelt, witty and hilarious while tackling very complex issues surrounding race in the America of the current president. The author’s own growing up timeline felt familiar, irrespective of the fact that I grew up in India. The relationship she shared with her parents and relatives, their conversations and ideas and values all felt so relatable (not always in a good way though). When she talks about the colorism that she faced in India due to being darker toned than her parents and brother, it hit me very hard. Just like her, I too heard a lot growing up that my parents were going to have a tough time finding a guy for me because I wasn’t as fair as I used to be when I was a child. As a young well educated woman, I was constantly told I shouldn’t want to marry an equally highly educated man because neither was I very pretty nor was I rich enough to harbor such dreams. This whole idea of reducing a woman’s self worth to the color of her skin is still far too common in India even years after when the author’s own story takes place. 

The other thing the author talks about is the othering she felt both while trying to date (as a bisexual woman of color) and as an aspiring author trying to make it. There are numerous occasions in the story where she encounters little statements or micro aggressions by white people, who are completely tone deaf and clueless as to how racist they come across. As an author, she has to explain to a radio producer that referring to her characters as Asian Indian instead of East Indian just so that Americans can understand it better is so darn ignorant. And all these little things just add up and go on and the author (like many other POC) doesn’t confront or argue with these people because that will not change anything. There is a frustration that is reflected in the author’s narration that I totally empathized with because it’s a reality for many of us.

And the most important and also the most difficult and heartbreaking parts of the book were her conversations with her six year old biracial son. He is an inquisitive little child always asking her lots of questions, which she wants to answer honestly - until he starts listening to the 2016 election campaign rhetoric on the news and wants to know if Trump hates him, if his white Jewish dad will have to give him and his mom up if Trump wins the election and has lots of questions about racism and prejudice and more other issues that affect him profoundly - she doesn’t know how to answer them all in a way he can understand, but can’t avoid them either because they will affect his daily life. When Mira has to explain to him that his Trump supporting republican grandparents still love him, he is truly confused and wants to beg them not to vote for him and it broke her heart along with mine. The line “sometimes the people who love you will choose a world that doesn’t” is still haunting me hours after finishing the book. While she spent the election night with her husband and their friends lamenting on the result (and also not feeling completely surprised by it), I was all alone in my home reeling with what I was seeing on tv - but the thoughts that were running through our head were the same. These conversations that she has with her kid and everything she is grappling with about her son’s future, are the same I think about when I envision having a kid who will probably be born American, but will ultimately always be defined by their skin color.

I have read in other reviews that the author’s illustration style is amazing but the full cast audio (with music and situational background score) is absolutely spectacular and I would highly recommend this format too. This book is very thought provoking and funny and also sad and I think POC readers will find some very relatable experiences in it. Thats not to say others won’t, but I feel people who have lived these experiences will have a unique appreciation for this book.

Caitlin

** spoiler alert **
           This was such an insightful read and Mira’s voice was so powerful and personal and real. (I mean, I listened to the audiobook version that she narrated, but I mean the words on their own, and the way she wrote. You know what I mean. I hope.) 

The way she jumped around her life timeline, and glimpses into her life as a mother vs her life as a daughter were incredibly eye opening. I was especially gutted by the chapters about her life in NYC post 9/11, and the discrimination she faced because of her skin. Her skin was too dark to her family members in India, too dark to white Americans. She was too American to her family in Indian, too Indian to Americans (she is American! JFC)…the struggles she faced to figure out just who she is and how she fits into the spaces in her life really shone through in her writing. 

One of the most engaging and powerful parts to me were the chapters that dealt with how she explained social issues to her young son. How much is too much to say? How much should he know? But how to combat what he sees on the television day in and day out on the news, or what he hears from others? How to expect explain racism to a child without scaring him, in a way he can understand? I can’t imagine that struggle, and Mira’s experience, not knowing if there’s a right or wrong way to approach it all, is gutting at times. 

Lastly, I really appreciated her sharing the difficult experience surrounding the political events of 2016, and the difficulty of having family members who supported Tr*mp and refused to see how his words, his followers, and his politics harmed minority communities, and the huge internal battle between loving them and being so disappointed in them. I myself, as a queer woman (and a woman period), experienced this (on a much lesser scale) with one of my family members, and it’s been such a hard thing to tackle, loving someone who actively supports a man who rallies against people like you.

Luke Leighfield

Mira Jacob recalls complicated conversations she’s had with people – including her young son – about race. It’s often laugh-out-loud funny and also, predictably, a little sad. I loved the whole dang thing.

Sabrina D. 

Such an amazing book and perspective. I was so pleasantly surprised reading this book. Jacob was so skillful at weaving such complex yet commonplace issues into art. Must read; best read; classic read. 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

Good Talk was excellent. I understand why it’s on so many anti-racist reading lists. I don’t usually read nonfiction or graphic novels, so book took me outside my comfort zone on so many levels. It was very accessible, relatable and educational. I laughed and cried (especially during the parts dealing with 9/11 and the 2008 and 2016 elections). I can’t recommend this book highly enough. More thoughts to come after I process a little more.

Good Talk A Memoir in Conversations

Reviews