In 1991, I had the chance to interview anthropologist Kenneth Good, who spoke with me at length about the plight of the Yanomama tribe, also spelled Yanomami, a Stone Age society living in the Amazon River basin and surrounding South American rainforests. The tribe was being exposed to modern civilization for the first time as the rainforests disappeared around them, a casualty of ranching and mining operations. As Good and I discussed the issues facing the Yanomama, he also told me about his wife Yarima, given to him in a marriage arranged by tribal elders, who had left her home and people to live with him and their three children in the United States.

Several years ago, I remembered the article I had written after the interview and was moved to look Good up to find out what had happened; I was saddened to see that Yarima, overwhelmed by U.S. civilization and missing her people, had left her husband and children to return home.

So I was surprised not long ago when NBM sent me a graphic novel to review that was written by Kenneth and Yarima's oldest child, David Good, and told his story: how he grew up hating his mother for abandoning him, how his childhood was troubled and led to teenage alcoholism and problems at school, how he eventually came to terms with his unusual upbringing and visited the rainforest to reunite with his mother.

The book is told in alternating chapters; his own biography has black and white illustrations, while his mother's is told in vibrant color -- much of it without dialogue. Illustrations are by a guy who goes by the name FLuX; the art here is serviceable without being intrusive ... or memorable. Certainly, his full-color illustrations set in the Amazon are far more eye-catching. Anyway, it's the story that matters most here.

And David is brutally honest about his emotional turmoil regarding his mother, as well as his emotional disconnect from his father. Some elements of his life must have been difficult to lay bare, but it makes for an effective tale. As David approaches his mother's village at the end, his b&w story merges into her color. It's a moving reunion.

My only question is, how much of it is true? I read this story as David's autobiography, but when I was gathering details for this review, I spotted a note in small print on the page with printing and copyright information: This book is a work of fiction inspired by actual events.

Well, nuts. Do I know how Yarima's story turned out after all? I guess not, since there's no way to know which parts of this story are true and which were "inspired" by David's recollections. Did he really steal his father's car and go on a six-month road trip as a teenager? Did his father really ban him from dating a girl in high school because he made a late-night visit to her house? Did his mother really recognize immediately after so many years apart? This book doesn't tell you what is real and what is imagined. And that ... disappoints me.

Although I haven't read it, David Good has written a nonfiction book about his life and experiences titled The Way Around: Finding My Mother and Myself Among the Yanomami, which I assume gives a more complete and factually accurate account.