Jul 1, 2015 By Jeremy Farbman 3 min read

With the start of summer, everyone is eager to go on vacation and get some relaxation. However, having to supervise and take care of others on a trip, especially the elderly, can be stressful, making the point of a vacation impossible. Lucy Knisley captures this dilemma perfectly in her graphic travelogue, “Displacement.” It relates to the readers a cruise that she took in 2012 with her grandparents, who were both suffering from memory loss, inactivity and other problems that come with old age. While keeping constant tabs on her grandparents, she learns not only about responsibility, but also the nature of humanity and family.

Lucy’s struggle to take care of her grandparents in an unfamiliar location is the perfect vehicle for relating her insight to the readers. With her beloved grandparents in such a fragile condition, she constantly worries that something might happen if she is not watching them. Combined with the general unpleasantness of the cruise itself, the trip shapes up to be very stressful, to say the least. At the end of each day, Lucy reads a passage from her grandfather’s memoirs that detail his service in World War II. These scenes are important to understanding the vast life experience that her grandparents have. It also makes their memory loss and waning health all the more tragic. To see what were once capable people so helpless is really emotional. What’s worse is that nothing on the trip lets Lucy relax. People are difficult with her, she gets seasick and in general nothing goes according to plan while she desperately tries to remain calm. The book manages to be both sympathetic and funny.

I really enjoyed the art in the novel. It’s not very detailed, but the drawings are very distinct and nice to look at. The coloration is very bright and highly stylized, too. The drawings look as if they were painted with watercolors, which really works and is very appealing. The number of drawings per page varies often, which keeps the reader paying attention.

While simultaneously being a well-done comic, “Displacement” also conveys a sense of immense pressure and worries about the future. The reader is able to feel the stress coming from the author perfectly, and is able to sympathize with her through her many hardships. I would recommend “Displacement” for anyone wanting to read a book about aging and the purpose of family … or for anyone who needs to be convinced to not go on a cruise.

Jeremy Farbman just finished his sophomore year at Mt. Lebanon High School.