Communion

Communion is a very graphic novel about many different characters who center around the same seeking of knowledge. It’s a book about life and the many disappointments that young people experience and, through that, the choices they make in regard to their sexuality and truly trying to figure out who, and what, they are and where they want to go in life. The title is somewhat deceiving, because the book appears to be about religion.. And although religion was brought into the book, it wasn’t about the true aspect of “communion” as Christians think of it. This was more of a “communion” of people – a gathering of various misfits who find each other through life circumstances and through acceptance of who and what they are and how they have built their own little commune together.

I found this somewhat of a difficult read, because of the material it covered and because there are numerous misspellings and misprints. But, ultimately, I was able to get beyond that and relate to the struggles of the youth who were portrayed in this novel. Tony, the cross-dresser, who is more comfortable wearing the shoes of Amber, Jason (known as Pockets, who is a thief by trade, homosexual, yet never quite comes to accept himself as he is and, instead, tries to be as the world expects him to be), Jaz, a lonely woman who meets Tony, along with the twins he hangs out with, and takes them on as lovers and also becomes a mother figure to them. She dies along the way, but before she does, she teaches them some valuable lessons about living life and she gets to fulfill one of her lifelong dreams of becoming a mother.

This story takes some of the young from out of nowhere to becoming great stars–some going off to school, some getting lost to the world because of the horrible world they chose to live in–to Tony, who through seeing and living through the various forms of life and interacting with all of these different characters, makes the bold choice of accepting who and what he is and wants to create a place where others like him can come and experience a piece and place to just be.

It’s a very moving story, despite the misprints and misspellings, and will take the majority of people into a world that most of us can’t even imagine, yet does exist on some level.