Jag drömde att jag var gravid i natt

by Sara Elgeholm

Sara har sedan länge närt en dröm om att bli förälder. Men hur blir man det när man inte lever i en heterosexuell relation eller ens med en enda utvald partner utan vill kunna älska och ha med sig flera i sin familj? I Jag drömde att jag var gravid i natt får vi följa med i Saras tankar kring projektet att skaffa barn genom sin naket ärliga dagboksskildring vecka för vecka. Det är en berättelse om inseminationskliniker i Danmark, privata hemsidesdonatorer, killragg, religiösa föräldrar och om de kliniska faktorerna det innebär att vara 35.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Queer, Swedish Literature

153 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

En intressant berättelse som blev för repetitiv.

[Emma Lindhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read but didn't click for me as much as I'd have liked. It's fascinating to read another polyam person's musings and still so often feel frustrated at what felt like really rigid expectations and ideals. I also think I might've enjoyed it more if I'd read it little by little and not all in one go, as it did get a bit repetitive.

[Maja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting autobiographical comic about the decision to become a parent outside a traditional family setting (e.g. raising a child together with several friends) and the journey to actually get pregnant.

[Karenina (Nina Ruthström) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intressanta tankar men trist som bok

[Fredrik Strömberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really interesting Swedish graphic novel. It's a book version of a web comic diary about wanting to have kids, but being hesitant towards the traditional, heterosexual, dualistic relationship conventionally associated with having children. The main character has several relationships going on and wants to start a big family with girlfriends, friends and other potential parents to the potential child. This is new in the comics format, at least for me, and Elgeholm shows her life and her inner thoughts openly, with all the problems she's facing, from getting people to accept her choices, to actually getting pregnant. The process of trying to get different constellations of friend, girlfriends, room-mates and so on to work together has me thinking of Alison Bechdel´s incredible Dykes to Watch Out For, which is praise indeed.

The style is back and white, rather sketchy and very emotive, fitting the subject perfectly. Elgeholm also has an interesting way of writing dialogue. Sometimes she has two characters say things that don't directly connect in the traditional, dialogue form, but rather feels like two statements from a longer discussion. At first I interpreted this as them talking past each other, but after a while I got a sense that it's more of a shorthand for getting the gist of a longer discussion across in a few speech balloons. Interesting, none the less.

My main concern with this book is that even though it has been processed for the graphic novel format, I can still feel the original, serialised form throughout, which makes it a bit too longwinded and sometimes repetitive. It is a diary in comics form, though, and maybe the idea was to communicate the feeling of constantly having to start over with the seemingly endless attempts at getting pregnant, followed by the long period of having your body turn bigger and bigger, adding physical problems along the way. On a pure narrative level, I associate this method with the book Doing Time, an autobiographical tale where Japanese artist Kazuichi Hanawa through endless repetition, tries to communicate the tedious feeling of being imprisoned.

Anyway, as the image on the cover says as much I don't think I need to add a spoiler alert before revealing that the book actually ends with the child being born. As that was a few years ago, I really hope there is at least one follow up to this book, stating what happened and how the idea of the big family worked out. I for one would love to read about that.

[Clara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Det var var väldigt många år sedan jag läste en seriebok. Intressant att följa hela förloppet, känslorna och olika sorters relationer. Tror det är en bra bok att läsa för att få igenkönningsfaktor om en befinner sig i en liknande situation! Mig för var den alldeles för långdragen och upprepande.

[Bokbabbel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Om icke-heteronormativa par- och familjeförhållanden, och svårigheten med att försöka skaffa barn inom dem. Stundvis uttråkande repetitiv - oklart om det beror på att serien ursprungligen var en bloggdagbok eller om det blir symboliskt för de ändlösa försöken att bli gravid. Ägglossning, insemination, väntan och besvikelse. Om och om igen.