Himawari House

 

So far this year, I’ve written blog posts about fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry. I think it’s only fitting that I touch on another category of books before the year is out: graphic novels. I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but some of my favorites include Maus, They Called Us Enemy, and American Born Chinese. Recently I added Himawari House by Harmony Becker to my list too. 

Himawari House focuses mostly on Nao, a young woman traveling back to Japan after growing up mainly in the US. In Japan, Nao shares a house with four other young adults, including two that she becomes close friends with–Hyejung and Tina–and one that she develops feelings for–Masaki. With humor and nuance, Becker explores what it means to belong, the intersection of different cultures, love, grief, and food. 

Part of the reason I love this novel is because it’s so different from my other favorite graphic novels. While Maus and They Called Us Enemy are both heavy books about devastating true events, Himawari House is relatively lighthearted. However, that’s not to say that Nao and her friends don’t face any struggles. Nao tries to figure out what it means to be Japanese since she can’t speak the language fluently. Masaki has trouble understanding Hyejung, Tina, and Nao when they speak English. Hyejung grapples with memories of the people she knew back in Korea and Tina struggles to balance work and school. Throughout the book, Becker does a beautiful job of blending joy and sadness, levity and hope to create complex moments for her characters. Even in the most difficult moments in the book, Becker manages to inject subtle humor through dialogue or art. 

  As amazing as the plot and characters are, it’s really the artwork that brings them to life. Although the art is entirely black and white, I found Himawari House much more expressive and emotionally colorful than the majority of graphic novels I’ve read. Becker displays her artistic talent by switching seamlessly between drawing stylistically yet realistically and drawing with exaggerated features and emotion. In addition to the artwork, Becker plays around with the different languages that show up in her book. When her characters have difficulty understanding the language, Becker will scribble out certain words, perfectly capturing what it feels like to not understand all of what’s being said. 

Overall, I think Himawari House is a thoughtful and well done coming of age novel. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a novel that’s meaningful but not difficult to read.

- Bonnie