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Dec 23, 2009

K rated it:

Sandell, who has the somewhat enviable job of interviewing celebrities for women's magazines, recounts in graphic novel form how she grew up awed by a magnetic, brilliant father who claimed all manner of extraoardinary achievements, and how in adulthood, she discovered he was basically a liar, con-man, and narcissist. Despite intriguing premise, charming bright illustrations, and high production value (full color pages on glossy thick paperstock), not especially engaging on emotional level. Th More...

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Oct 30, 2011

Wandering rated it:

This was a bit surreal. As someone that was raised by a nice Midwestern Scandinavian family, it seems like total fiction that someone's father would con not only strangers and employers but also his family members and personal friends. Taking not only their money but also their trust and twisting it until you don't know quite where you stand with any of your relationships.

The experiences that Laurie goes through, the fact that she lived in Israel and was an exotic dancer in Japan, make More...

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Jul 02, 2011

Nicola rated it:

Reason for Reading: I love memoirs; I love graphic memoirs. The shady dealings grabbed my interest.

The author is a journalist who mostly spends her time interviewing celebrities. She is currently an editor for a well-known fashion magazine and has written for many well-known magazines. She grew up very close to her father who was an awe inspiring man (sometimes fear inducing) who was a former Green Beret, fought in Viet Nam, held 4 prestigious diplomas and spoke several languages. More...

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Nov 21, 2010

christa rated it:

When Laurie Sandell, if that is her real last name, was growing up, her father would have the mail stopped every time he went out of town. If, by some twist, Laurie did get her hands on the delivery, she would find envelopes addressed to all sorts of people she had never heard of.

The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell, a chronicler of celebrity stories and editor at Glamour, is a graphic memoir recounting a childhood spent with a mysterious father who haslarger-than-life stories of More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2010

Ciara rated it:

a graphic novel/memoir about a woman exploring her relationship with her father, men, herself, & her addiction to sleeping pills after discovering that her father is a life-long pathological liar. sound interesting? i thought so too. the reality was a little less awesome. i guess my issue is just that i know something about crazy parents & i have a really hard time feeling sympathetic to grown adults who allow their dysfunctional relationships with their crazy parents to ruin their lives. it was More...

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Feb 19, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

I know I've got a gender bias, but I think women are the masters of autobiographical comics. I know there's Jeffrey Brown and even R. Crumb, but didn't Aline Kominsky-Crumb set the whole genre in motion? This graphic memoir reminds me of Cancer Vixen in tone and art, but channels Fun House for me in Sandell's search to understand herself by understanding her father. I love her honesty and humor and her struggle to know herself, which I think is what makes women's autobiographical comics uniqu More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2010

Alyce (At Home With Books) rated it:

My first thought upon receiving this book was that the title was mispelled. However, according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary "impostor" can be spelled as it appears in the title, and it can also be spelled "imposter" (which was the spelling that I knew).

Having satisfied my inner spelling geek, I was able to crack this book open and settle in for a fascinating read. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is a graphic memoir. The drawings are easy to compre More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 13, 2009

Elevate Difference rated it:

The disenchantment of our parents, when we realize they’re humans too, is an unpleasant event of growing up. We all handle it differently. For Laurie Sandell, she put it into a graphic novel, The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir. In a little less than 250 beautifully painted pages, Sandell shamelessly shows each and every skeleton in her closet—starting from childhood and ending as her young adult self—and the battles she fights to expose the lies about her larger-than-life father and form a n More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2009

Terry rated it:

I have been tapping my foot impatiently over this book; I heard Sandell interviewed on some NPR show and couldn't wait to get it. My library had it in its system since sometime back in JUNE and somehow it only NOW got onto the acutal SHELVES of the library where one could actually get one's HANDS on it. HMPH!!!

But I don't think my impatience really colored my opinion, I swear. I love the artwork, and I liked the story, but I have to say I found this a tiny bit shallow. And I feel lik More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

Flipping through The Imposter's Daughter the colorful images really appealed to me, just as the cover had. I knew that The Impostor's Daughter was not a book to be read in bed. I got an iced tea, went out on the deck and started reading. I was immediately HOOKED! I love hearing stories about people's families, the soil and nutrients from which the plant grew, so to speak. Learning what went in to making the person I know.
Laurie Sandell, the author and illustrator of The Impostor's Daughter More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 25, 2009

Mandy rated it:

A month or so ago the publishers, Little, Brown sent me a copy of this interesting story. I've been slacking. I read it right away, but I've been dealing with school starting up and just being plain to lazy to blog. But this does deserve to be talked about.

I had no idea what to expect. Honestly, I wasn't even aware that it was a memoir. The title is interesting in that mystery and or romance sort of way. Then I flipped through it....expecting to see print. Nope, pictures. At this poi More...

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Aug 14, 2009

Sara rated it:

The Impostor’s Daughter by Laurie Sandell was the first graphic book I’ve ever read. I’m not sure if I would have ever picked up a graphic anything, if this book hadn’t been a memoir. The idea of mixing the two seemed like an easy way to broach the genre. And two hours later, I had read the book cover to cover.

The author decides to write an article on her remarkable pop. While fact checking, she uncovers that his stories are fiction. More research uncovers lawsuits stemming from More...

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Aug 05, 2009

Glenn rated it:

I really enjoyed this "graphic memoir". It was a unique concept. The author told the story of her life using a cartoon format. Her father was a very mysterious man while she was growing up and he seemed larger than life to his daughter, telling stories about heroic actions in Vietnam and working a clandestine job for the government. Later she grew to realize that he was not the man he said he was, and seemed to be involved in underhanded and illegal dealings.

She goes on to More...

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Jul 18, 2009

Gaby rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Aug 22, 2010

Carol rated it:

This is the first time that I ever read a graphic novel and I had been wondering if I would like it. But, I was hooked from the first sentence. "Whenever my father went out of town, he had the mail stopped." The story was engrossing. She grew up with her father as her hero because of all of his tales of how wonderful he was. He picked her out of the family, not his wife and two other daughters to concentrate charming her. I wonder if this is key to her later writing this book.

More...

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Jul 09, 2010

Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com rated it:

Disclaimer: I got this book for free.

“The Imposter’s Daughter” is a memoir of Laurie Sandell tells her coming of age story in the shadow of her father. The book is in a graphic memoir (read: comic book format) and seems to be poignant and honest.

We meet Laurie as a young girl who is enamored by her father’s tales of self-glorification. However, unlike the character of Ed Bloom Senior in the wonderful movie “Big Fish”, Mr. Sandell actually believes his own propaganda. More...

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Mar 09, 2010

Kathleen rated it:

This is the very honest biography of a woman I could never possibly relate to. The story of a father who is a con-artist and the daughter who grows up with an emotional disconnect told through the medium of comics was intriguing for all the obvious reasons. The fact that I was unable to connect with the characters probably speaks to Sandell's honesty: she is a self indulgent celebrity hound who feels a driving need to publish her family's secrets.

Lets explore that for a moment. More...

1 comment like

Dec 10, 2009

Sarah rated it:

This colorful adult graphic novel surprised me because it isn't a cute and fluffy read like the bright colors suggest. It's a memoir, describing Sandell's relationship with her father. Growing up, she idolized him because his stories were larger than life. He met celebrities and heads of state. He was a hero in Vietnam and graduated from NYU and Columbia and had taught at Stanford. But he also had bad days--grumpy, mean, and depressed. Sandell's world revolved around his father and his moods. As More...

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Aug 18, 2011

John E. rated it:

The title and the cover illustration could not be more suggestive, more appropriate to this graphic memoir. As a young adult, Laurie Sandell found her own identity defined by, in some way concealed behind, that of her father. And he isn’t rendered as such in the title—he’s a man pretending to be someone he isn’t. As with the cover, so with the contents: behind mostly bright and cheerful colors, and beneath her quick, light-toned narration, Sandell’s tale is darker. Even the straightforward, chro More...

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Aug 24, 2009

Kate rated it:

To be fair, I am not sure if I am rating this book "it was OK" as opposed to "I liked it" because it truly was merely OK, or because I am not at all used to this format. I guess you would call it a graphic memoir, meaning, comic book style--each page is filled with drawings complementing the rather spare narrative, with dialog taking place "speech balloon" style. It is a kind of neat treatment, and it almost feels like you are sneaking a peek at the (very detailed More...

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Aug 18, 2009

Julie rated it:

I got this book and finished it within 1-2 days of getting it. Its a Graphic novel -- like Watchmen but the pictures were more relatable. Its the story of a women trying to solve the mystery of her father and lies he told while growing up.I liked that it showed her relationship, and even some people she interviewed for her job. She is addicted to ambien and then it shows her recovery and what happened afterwords.

This is her first novel and memoir and I do agree the story More...

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Jul 29, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

I wasn't sure what to think when I cracked open this book! The story is told in comic book style, with illustrations and thought bubbles! I have never read a graphic novel and I wasn't sure if I would like the style in which the book was written. I have to say - I just closed the book after finishing it in less than 24 hours and I am extremely impressed with how the author, Laurie Sandell, put this story together. This style works extremely well for this story and I am so happy I read it! Becaus More...

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Nov 12, 2011

Sesana rated it:

Laurie Sandell grew up hearing her father's stories about his time as a Green Beret in Vietnam, his medals, his PhDs, his time teaching at Stanford, and his thriving business investments. In college, she applies for a credit card, only to find out that her father had taken out multiple cards in her name, and the names of both of her sisters, and her mother's name... Digging further, she discovers that her father has no college degrees, never taught at Stanford, never got a medal in the army, and More...

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Aug 15, 2010

David rated it:

The more I read, the more I enjoyed the Imposter's Daughter. Until about ½ way I wondered if the driving story (obvious from the title) was really all that shocking and if it justified a full length Graphic Memoir. In comparison to Fun Home by Alison Bechdel this seemed a little weak in the dark family secret genre.

But now I think it is that telling the family secret is obviously central to the book, the tale is more than just the being a daughter of a volatile liar, it about her st More...

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Sep 19, 2009

Megan rated it:

Not what I expected -- another reviewer called this book a "bait and switch," and I guess that's my issue with it. I don't really enjoy reading rehab stories or "I'm just not that into him... or am I?!" stories, even less so when the person writing them leads a lifestyle of the Chateau Marmont-staying, Ashley Judd-befriending, bi-coastal variety. (There but for the grace of whatever go I.) There just wasn't enough about the father's story or even her crazy world travels to ke More...

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Sep 23, 2009

Wallace rated it:

I had never read a graphic novel before The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell, and had never planned to. However, this book kept popping up on my computer screen while I was doing other research, and then again at the library. I was walking past a display and there it was, literally front and center. At this point I still didn't realize it was a graphic novel, but when I picked it up and opened the pages, I couldn't put it back on the shelf. I had read three pages in the course of a minute ( More...

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Jun 10, 2010

Marissa rated it:

Laurie Sandell writes for Glamour and it shows in this surprisingly gag-inducing graphic memoir about her scam artist father, addiction to ambien, various romantic misadventures, and high status job. Although the story initially starts out as a compelling and promising examination of her ambivalent feelings toward her larger-than life father when she was a child, as it continues, it quickly starts to feel like a particularly self-pitying therapy session with a Sex-and-the-City-esque character in More...

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Jul 26, 2009

Kathy (Bermudaonion) rated it:

When Laurie Sandell was a young girl, she idolized her father. As she grew older, she began to realize that he’s different from other fathers and she suspected that a lot of what he was saying wasn’t true. After college, Laurie discovered that her father had obtained credit under her name and done some other questionable things.

In trying to find herself, Laurie does some questionable things of her own after that – traveling the world looking for love and participating in some outra More...

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Jan 24, 2011

May-Ling rated it:

i found this one randomly going through the graphic novel section of the library, drawn in by the cover. it seems okay to judge a book by its cover when it's an illustrated novel...

i love the idea of using the medium of graphic novel to illustrate memoirs, and like satrapi's work, this one succeeds. sandell has a good pace for passage of time, going slowly at the parts that matter (childhood, the start of her main relationship), and skipping over long stretches of time to advance the More...

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Sep 15, 2009

Eugenides rated it:

The story was conveyed beautifully. Sandell has a talent for the interplay between words and images. Every image was necessary. Every word was necessary. (It reminded me of something Mark Twain once said, roughly: "Every time you use the word 'very,' replace it with the word 'damn.' Your editor will delete it, and your writing will be better for it." Sandell either heard this advice before, or she never needed it.) At the end, we're still as confused as she is, but, the same as she has More...

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