My New York Diary

Tami Oliphant is a Ph.D. candidate in Library and Information Studies at the University of Western Ontario.

Julie Doucet, creator of Dirty Plotte, has laid bare her most intimate
and painful moments in My New York Diary. The autobiographical graphic
novel is infused with grim realism from its opening story, “My First
Time,” in which the Catholic schoolgirl loses her virginity to an
aging hippie. From there the reader follows Doucet to art school, where
Julie dates a pitiful suicidal artist, then on to New York, where she
lives with another pathetic and emotionally needy boyfriend.

Her move from Montreal to New York unnerves Julie. Her apartment is
infested with cockroaches, and she spends her days and nights doing
drugs, binge drinking, worrying about her work, and having alarmingly
intense epileptic seizures. At the same time, she is gaining recognition
and success in the comics world (Art Spiegelman makes a cameo appearance
and congratulates her on her work) while her boyfriend, who is also a
cartoonist, languishes. His envy of Julie’s success is palpable, yet
as time passes he becomes more and more reliant on her. Julie realizes
that she needs to get out of New York and secretly plans her escape
while trying to deal with an increasingly needy and unstable partner.

Though all this sounds grim, Doucet brings humour and hope to her
story. She deals with the hassles of being female in a humane,
bittersweet, and hopelessly honest way. All of the characters have been
drawn with bubbleheads, making them appear cute even when they aren’t
acting cute. Each panel is heavy with detail and contains unexpectedly
funny or touching backgrounds.