Two-Week Wait: An IVF Story

The Jacksons, married educators and parents of two, partner with artist Wild to tell a compassionate story about the struggle to conceive based on their own experiences and interviews with other couples who have dealt with fertility issues. After a year of trying and failing to get pregnant, the fictional Joanne and Conrad seek medical help, discover that Joanne has endometriosis, and begin the long, difficult process of IVF. There are funny moments, as when Conrad tries to figure out how to get a sperm sample into a tiny test tube (“At what possible angle...?”), but also grueling medical procedures and emotional strain that threatens to tear their marriage apart. “It makes me feel like I’m broken,” Joanne confesses. They consider adoption and alternative medicine; spend time with children and think on how to be parents; and find that opening up to others helps them push through their isolation and frustration. Wild’s loose, fluid, warmly colored pencil art perfectly complements the script; in swooping curves and simple shapes, she draws emotive characters in domestic settings that look lived-in. Gentle and empathetic, this enters a growing trying-to-conceive graphic medicine genre, recalling Sarah Glidden’s and Lucy Knisley’s work, and offers a touchstone for any reader dealing with IVF. [em](Aug.) [/em]