Blurry

A man seeks a salesclerk’s help in selecting an outfit for his brother’s wedding. The salesclerk offers her professional expertise, as well as an account of her personal battle to resist acting on the growing attraction she feels for a coworker, Kay. Kay is contemplating whether to quit his part-time job as a figure-drawing model in a college class, which is taught by a professor spiraling into despair following the end of an illicit affair with one of his colleagues, Maala. Towards the end of this hefty volume, while preparing for bed, Maala pauses before switching off her lamp and thinks, “I want to see the moment just as the light fades—the split second between the light on and off.” After flipping the switch, she wonders, “Did I see it?” This elegantly understated scene perfectly evokes the sense of being adrift through life’s liminal spaces, common to a cavalcade of characters in this profoundly moving volume from acclaimed cartoonist and filmmaker Shaw (Discipline).