Lee Lai’s graphic novels Stone Fruit and Cannon are both about being queer Chinese women in North America. They’re about people and relationships and living lives that don’t really have beginning-middle-end stories. They just have yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Repeat.
Stone Fruit – Why is it called that? I think it’s because stone fruit are soft and sweet. But if you continue eating blindly, they get hard and bitter. It’s such common knowledge that there’s a hard pit in the middle, no one will think to warn you about it.
Ray made a commitment to help raise her niece Nessie, after Nessie’s father left. Ray’s sister is happy (enough) to co-parent this way, but not so happy with Ray’s unstable girlfriend being part of her daughter’s life. Bron (the girlfriend) loves Ray and Nessie, but needs to deal with her own shit. And when a child is involved, that child needs to be prioritized and protected. At least all the adults agree on that.
Cannon – Cannon (aka Lucy aka Loosey Cannon) is amazing with food. The restaurant she works at pays her with dependence and praise (and probably money). She has to handle being responsible for her grandfather who needs a caretaker. Her friend Trish is trying not to get typecast as a queer Asian writer before her career begins. Normal everyday life is almost unbearable. They’re both careening into meltdowns.
And Cannon sees birds that no one else does.
These books could easily be depressing and boring. They aren’t. Lai manages to even make them kind of optimistic. Yesterday and today were bad, tomorrow and the day after probably will be too. But that’s ok.
