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The Peanutbutter Sisters and Other American Stories, written and illustrated by Rumi Hara, is a graphic novel collection of short stories/comics set in strange, unsettling, and dreamlike fantasylands.

What I liked:

• Hara’s work is utterly different from the work of graphic novelists like Kiku Hughes (Displacement) or Harmony Becker (Himawari House), yet no less “Japanese,” if we define a Japanese work as one created by a Japanese person. It would be fascinating to read a roundtable discussion or essay collection by nikkei graphic novelists, including these three creators, concerning their thoughts on what constitutes Japanese and/or nikkei art. For my part, I appreciate Hara’s quirky and unique work, even if her aesthetic is not quite my preference, simply because her style and subject matter expand the concept of “nikkei” art and literature in US mainstream publishing.
• The blurb on the back of the book (I read the paperback edition) by Malaka Gharib references women as the focal point of this work. I do not know if this is true to Hara’s intent, but the comment made me ponder in what ways the reader is encouraged to think about women as the book progresses. For example, the Peanutbutter sisters use their own selfie as the profile photo for their Ebay site, which is even remarked upon by the harasser who picks them up on the road. Although the race/ethnicity of the sisters is never mentioned, I chose to interpret them as Asian (I do wonder if their race/ethnicity is never specified in order to facilitate the reader’s ability to superimpose her own identity on the sisters and thus potentially expand opportunities for a wide range of readers to relate to them), and based on this assumption, read this particular story while thinking about what it means to be Asian and a woman in the US. The sisters are frequently depicted wearing bikinis, tank tops, and shorts, clothing that made me concerned for their safety when they were around other people. Of course, people of any gender should be able to wear what they want without fearing repercussions, but unfortunately current society often makes this an unsafe choice. I am curious about Hara’s thoughts on this topic – if not Asian women in the US, then women in general in the US, and their safety or lack thereof. Other comics, such as the Bombadonnas, seem to highlight the devil-may-care strength of women, in what I read as a reimagining, as well as a pointed response to/rejection of/writing back against gender inequality.

What I learned:

• I started to consider this when I read Nori, but it really hit home with The Peanutbutter Sisters – how might we understand the ways in which artists utilize a “weird” aesthetic (in this context, I envision “weird” as synonymous with words like, unsettling, disturbing, dreamlike, nonsensical, drug-induced, creepy, etc.) as a framework for conveying deeper messages, particularly social commentary?

Questions I had:

• I suspect I would have a better understanding of this if I knew Hara personally, but what was her rationale in putting the term “American” in her book title? From reading The Peanutbutter Sisters, I could not quite tell if Hara’s approach to social justice and social awareness is rooted in the “Asians are American” mindset, which reinforces rather than challenges the role of nonwhite settlers in US settler colonialism, or if she went a step further and is actually using “American” as a tongue-in-cheek reference to this type of activism.
• Does Hara have an intended audience for this book? What was her primary motivation in creating this book?
• What is the meaning of the white rabbits/bunnies? Are they a reference (Alice in Wonderland, anyone?) or merely another tool Hara utilizes to help create her desired atmosphere?
• What does it mean to be nikkei in New York? What sort of nikkei communities and spaces exist in New York and/or the East Coast? Is the character of Tammy Tabata intended to reflect or connect to these communities and spaces?

Follow-up:

• Although I preferred Hara’s first book, Nori (read my post here) to The Peanutbutter Sisters, I will be keeping an eye out for Hara’s future work. In particular, I would be interested to see Hara create a full-length science fiction graphic novel, maybe along the lines of Jonathan Hill’s Odessa, possibly an expansion of the short comic “Living Things.”