Matthew Noe's Reviews > Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love

I'm writing this short review immediately, with wetness still in my eyes because I want the rawness to bleed into it. I wish I could say I feel raw because of Marissa's struggle or even that of the kids, but that's only part of it. What truly hit me was Harvey's loss of empathy for those sround him. It scares me. It scares me because it reminds me of how I often was when my chronic pain was so bad I was on several opioids at once. Between the pain and the meds I became someone I scarcely recognize now. There are flashes of it when my leg is bad or I have to be on a stronger medicine. That's a person I never want to be.

It scares me because Harvey could barely see it. There were flashes - moments of himself - but those glimpses can't outdo the... the worst of us. That's the kind of illness that truly frightens. The kind that can strip us away rather than outright ending us.

*deep breath*

"Something that takes all your focus, all your concentration. A physical demand that strips away your sense of self." This is one way Marissa describes dying - dying from an illness like ALS.

There's a reason this was chosen by the Graphic Medicine community as one of the best of 2017. My experience is one of them. Yours, likely different, is another. We all can relate, we all bring our own experiences and fears... and Last Things breathes enough for them all.