This was a really lovely, tender story of a lesbian couple in early America. I really loved the way Walden filled in the gaps in between what little is known about their lives and tied in the historical context of the time in which they lived.

Compared to Walden’s previous books, I was not such a fan of the small, regular panels that she used throughout Charity & Sylvia; I would have liked to have seen larger, more detailed pages here and there. However, this comic strip format lended itself well to illustrating the daily rhythms of their lives.

The story was fairly easy to follow, despite the sometimes archaic use of English (I had to reread the poems several times to understand their meaning) and large number of characters with similar styles. It moved along swiftly to cover a long span of time, yet Walden still managed to deeply explore certain themes like family relationships, trauma and grief, and sin and faithfulness.

Overall, I really loved this novel and would read it again.

Not my favorite Ogawa novel. The old man is creepy as hell, and Mari’s lack of self-preservation bothered me. If I knew these people in real life I would get her away from him as soon as possible. Matter of fact, I’d get her away from her mother too.

For all that, it is well written—so if you don’t mind the dark themes, you may enjoy this novel.

I love weird stories with ambiguous endings, and these novellas were exactly that.

There’s also something about stories from the 80s that just scratch a certain itch. They show a quiet, slow but intentional way of life that we don’t often get anymore now that we’re so inundated with technology and living in the attention economy. They remind me of the hot summers growing up, sitting in a sunny patch of grass, waiting for something to happen but knowing that there’s nothing for you to do. I like that they show how a quiet, unproductive life can be interesting too.