Kabi Nagata’s My Solo Exchange Diary 2 begins with an apology. At the end of the last book, she explains, we may have been rooting for her as she met someone she felt she could begin to imagine having some kind of feelings for. But that person does not come into this book.
Instead, this book is about the revolving door of her life, as she develops an addiction, and does stints in the hospital as she valiantly lives with what is obviously ever-more crushing depression, She’s careful at the end to explain that this manga is just one piece of her life – but that it is, in a very real way, her life. Boundaries are hard for a lot of people and people who are ill or disabled, often have an extra difficult time defining and/or defending boundaries. That she’s set some for us, the reader, at the end is the most positive sign, in my opinion. The conversation with her editor about it is terrific.
Even more importantly, this volume includes an original, non-essay work, “Chika-chan’s Depression” which was surprisingly hopeful.
Nothing about this volume is easy. Nothing about being Nagata-sensei is easy, right now, I think. But this comic essay is an important piece of Graphic Medicine. And regardless of the content, we know this is a story about a queer woman dealing with a severe chronic illness for which treatments are inconsistent at best. Again, it is my opinion that makes this worth reading, as “LGBTQ individuals are almost 3 times more likely than others to experience a mental health condition such as major depression or generalized anxiety disorder” according to National Association on Mental Illness (and if you are suffering from either, please visit the NAMI site or call their helpline!)
No ratings will be assessed for this book, as I do not feel I can adequately judge the content of a person’s life. I hope that her other readers and reviewers will consider that this is her life when doing a review.
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