6/24/2023 0 Comments Stone fruit by lee lai![]() Stone Fruit will be an excellent addition to any library, but is a must-have for collections with an emphasis on queer and transgender narratives. While cartoonist Lai’s work has been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and Vice Magazine, Stone Fruit is their debut full length graphic novel. Her detailed panels have a film-like quality and her brilliant line work carries us – and her characters – through states of being that no words can describe. ![]() ![]() Throughout the novel, Lai uses a constrained blue-gray palette to explore the challenges of being in relationship to self and others. Their feral state in these opening scenes stands in stark contrast to the emotionally distant and halting interactions we observe as the story moves forward. ![]() The three characters are on a hunt they are fluid and wild. We learn about them as they learn about themselves we observe as they navigate complicated boundaries with the people closest to them.Īs the novel opens, we see Ray and Bron with Nessie, Ray’s young niece. They grapple, sometimes silently, with the vulnerable dynamics of their own intimate relationship in a larger context of trans- and homophobia, racism, queer childcare, sisterhood, family systems, cross-cultural religious ideologies, personal identity, and belonging. Ray and Bron are rich characters whose stories are told almost entirely through dialogue and image. Stone Fruit opens windows into the private lives of two women. Lauren Scanlon, Instructional Designer, MERIT/School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison ![]()
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