Shortcomings

Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine 108 pp.

This graphic novel annoyed me. On the surface, it is the story of a twenty-something Japanese-American couple, Ben and Miko, who are having relationship problems. Underneath it's all about their prejudices. She gets mad at him because he finds white girls attractive. He gets mad at her because she acts like all things Asian are wonderful, even badly done films. One of his old college friends, a Korean lesbian, makes frequent derogatory reference to bisexuals as "fence-sitters" but uses Ben as a 'beard' so her parents don't know her sexual preference. Miko leaves Ben for a temporary job in New York and their relationship detiorates further. When he travels to N.Y. to try to patch things up he discovers her with another man, who happens to be Jewish/Native American. By the time I was finished I wanted to slap them all and say "Get over yourself and make something of your life."

That being said, Tomine does an excellent job of portraying the characters and the story in his black and white art. The quality of the his work is excellent in spite of my opinion of the story.