About Betty’s Boob

author: Vero Cazot

Betty’s Boob is a graphic novel about a woman’s emotional and physical recovery from a mastectomy. It’s joyous and body-positive. However, it doesn’t pull any punches with depicting the physical and emotional pain that Betty goes through along the way. Because of this, some people may find this book to be triggering rather than empowering – it depends on the individual reader.

The book is almost completely wordless. Betty wakes up from a mastectomy and demands that her breast be returned to her. She keeps it in a gift box. This is the first of many surreal images in this books, which blends fantasy and reality to the point where they become largely indistinguishable. Betty’s partner is unable to cope with her new body and leaves. Then, Betty loses her job. After a series of events that swing wildly between tragic and comic and back again, Betty finds affirmation with a burlesque troupe that celebrates all kinds of bodies with joyful abandon. There’s a romance, and it’s wonderful – but the primary romance is that of Betty falling in love with herself in a positive, not narcissistic, way.

The art in this book is fluid and vibrant. There’s a lot of male and female nudity and several sex scenes featuring different body shapes and sizes. The dominant colors are red and black with other colors coming in to convey different moods. It can be confusing to follow because the art shifts so rapidly from what’s happening in people’s minds to what’s happening in their actual lives. It requires the reader/viewer to pay attention. The art, especially in the burlesque scenes, reminded me of Toulouse-Lautrec only more curvy (in terms of line).

I found this book to be painful at first but ultimately incredibly celebratory. Obviously it’s primary focus is on breast cancer survivors, but it also made me think about my own body in a more positive light, scars and fat rolls included. It’s a book that I want to look at more than once so that I can shift focus from “what is happening” to “oh, look at that.” A lovely book, but not always an easy one.

– Carrie S

Graphic Novel

Persephone

author: Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky

Persephone is a graphic novel that re-imagines the Persephone story from Greek mythology as a fantasy about science, magic, mothers, and daughters. It’s not a romance. Instead, it’s a coming-of-age story about a girl who has to emerge from her mother’s shadow and find her own identity.

In this version, the world above (Eleusis) and the world below (Hades) existed in peace until Hades, Lord of the Underworld, became paranoid and launched war on Eleusis. Hades (the guy) died and Hades (the world below) lost the war. Hades is cut off from the world above and its people face starvation. Meanwhile, in Eleusis, Demeter is a powerful mage and war hero. Only the children of mages can become mages themselves, so there’s a lot of pressure on Demeter’s teenage daughter, Persephone, to follow in her mother’s footsteps. When Persephone is kidnapped and taken to Hades, Persephone has a chance to solve the mystery of her past and pursue her own future while helping the two countries heal the literal and figurative rift between them.

The art in this story is lovely. It is dreamy, with soft pastel colors and a lot of wavy lines. There’s a lot of visual details, especially in the drawings of Eleusis. Persephone is aided by a prince (Hades’ son), a fox warrior, and some kindly residents of Hades in her efforts to understand her past and find a place for herself in a new world. The characters are relatable and the mother/daughter relationship is a combination of love, warmth, frustration, and tension that an awful lot of mothers and daughters will relate to. Also, there’s botany, and I sure do love me some science. This was an enjoyable and creative story, but it left a lot of unanswered questions. Also, even though I liked the characters, they don’t get much depth. A little bit more characterization would have earned this an A – as it is, it’s an enthusiastic B.

– Carrie S

Graphic Novel

Bright Star

author: Apparition LLC

Bright Star (2009) is a historical romance between poet John Keats (played here by Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). It’s not a spoiler to say that Keats died young, so it’s not a happy movie. However, if you are in the mood for sexual tension, historical costuming, and some astonishingly beautiful cinematography, then this is the movie for you. It was written and directed by Jane Campion, who adapted Andrew Motion’s Keats: A Biography.

Bright Star doesn’t do anything new, but it does everything well. Ben Whishaw broods attractively. Abbie Cornish plays Fanny as a woman who is both confident and insecure – a difficult contradiction to play, but a state that many of us have experienced. She has a scene at the end of the movie that not only had me in tears at the time but has haunted me since – have I mentioned that the movie is not happy? There is much recitation of poetry and discussion about how much time one should devote to one’s art as opposed to personal or financial matters, while the chemistry between the leads is through the roof.

The most memorable things about the movie are the tenderness between the leads, the stunning nature of the cinematography, and the movie’s insistence that Fanny herself is an artist, even though her art (sewing and fashion design) is mocked by men. Fanny uses the realm of the needle to share comfort, to create beauty, and to express herself. Also, as she tartly informs the perpetually broke Keats, “I can make money at it!”

Finally, I very much enjoyed Fanny’s poetry lessons, in which Keats says the following:

A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving into a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore but to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out, it is a experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept the mystery.

– Carrie S

Not a Book