
Once she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the reader is presented with an account of her downward spiral into the realms of dementia. A once vibrant individual, the mother becomes a cause of concern for the family after her memory fades and she begins to struggle with simple tasks such as opening a sliding door or packing a suitcase. Leavitt’s account deals with her changing relationship with her mother. As part of its genre, the premise is great.

It ventures into grounds often cowered away from, and it does all this with a mixture of deft sensitivity and wit. It deals with personal suffering that has a resonance throughout society. Ever since, the graphic novel has been fair game for explorations of all sorts of trauma. Leavitt’s Tangles appears to have all the ingredients to slip nicely into the midst of this modern tradition. Spiegelman broached the topic of the Holocaust with his seminal text.

Although perhaps not the first, Art Spiegelman’s Maus played a big role in beginning this trend. Over the years, graphic novels have become something more than solely comic book fantasy, establishing a reputation as a platform for a multitude of serious issues.
