Flower & Fade

by Jesse Lonergan

Overview

Kyle has just settled in to his new city and job. He doesn’t know anyone around but it’s comfy enough in its boring routine. Erika, a pretty neighbor, catches his eye. They meet, they talk. Before they know it, they’re an ‘item.’ Before they know it, in fact, they’re very, very together. It’s a high but it’s frightening. Is it really the right choice? Are they really for each other or just escaping loneliness? There are great moments. There are doubts. In the midst of happiness, Kyle gets nightmares of pulling his teeth out.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781561634965
Publisher:	N B M Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/01/2007
Pages:	187
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Jesse Lonergan was born in Sacramento, California and grew up in Saudi Arabia and Vermont. He attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. His first book, Flower and Fade, is loosely based on his experiences living in Chicago after finishing college. His second book, Joe and Azat, takes place in Turkmenistan where he was a Peace Corps volunteer. He currently lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

The most striking thing about Lonergan's black and white comic is the deliberately inexpressive, realistic but minimal art. Many wordless panels look like amateur snapshots: they record the presence of objects or people without indicating what's going on or how an observer should feel. Even in closeups of the characters speaking, faces seldom show what's going on inside. This style is quite appropriate for the story of a casual relationship that can't develop into anything more. Kyle is an alienated young man, living in a borrowed apartment and starting a boring job. Erika is a rootless young woman who works in a nearby restaurant. They meet, like each other, have sex, spend time together and have minor spats, then part. Short, diarylike chapters give only glimpses of the two during their affair, but hint that a future is possible. Both feel that their lives are meaningless, so they might be ready to find meaning in caring for another person. But Kyle in particular is uneasy about becoming emotionally vulnerable by getting too close to someone else. The story's conclusion is sad but muted, suggesting that the breakup was inevitable with people like this, resulting in a book that thoroughly succeeds in being mildly depressing. (June)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Gr 10 Up
The complexities and isolation of modern-day urban life are lushly represented through Lonergan's well-executed black-and-white line art and brushwork. Written in journal style and covering a period of eight months, this graphic novel is split into chapterlike segments. Each opening page is divided into two rectangular panels. The first one provides the date of occurrence and an explanatory title. The second portrays an emotionally or psychologically imbued iconographic representation of the latter. Each entry then unfolds as a story in itself, a segment in the narrator's life, beginning on 5/20 with the title "I think I'm dying." Self-loathing Kyle finds himself alone, living in a strange city with a dead-end job, suffering from a debilitating case of existential angst. He soon meets the girl next door, Erika, a young woman in the same predicament. A casual, noncommittal romance unfolds. Emotions fluctuate wildly between sexual attraction for one another and intellectualized repulsion. Fear of loneliness drives Kyle to hold onto Erika until the relationship fades away as quickly as it flowered. The final chapter, dated 1/16 and entitled "I feel fine," provides closure for both readers and protagonist. Receiving a flippant postcard from Erika as she travels through Europe with another guy, Kyle finds himself alone again but self-satisfied. Lonergan's mastery of visual sequential storytelling (many panels are wordless) thoroughly engages readers.
—Jodi MitchellCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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