When longtime socialist writer and activist Lois Weiner recommended me Welcome Home by sisters Clarrie & Blanche Pope (both wrote while Clarrie drew), I wasn’t sure what to expect. The subject matter seemed very distant, both physically and metaphorically. I’m a man living in Metro Detroit; what do I know about a London-based queer love triangle among a group of squatters and activists? Nevertheless, I agreed, figuring I could give it a shot. Plus, I’d be (to my knowledge) the second American reviewer, outside the anarchist magazine Fifth Estate.
Welcome Home, the Pope sisters’ debut, is published by Minor Compositions, “a series of interventions and provocations drawing autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life.” Skeptical readers should not be frightened off by this description. This is neither a dull political polemic nor an artistic experiment for experimentation's sake. Rather, it's an alternately moving and humorous story of an attempt by activists to save a housing block from demolition and gentrification. The confluence of genres in Welcome Home—drama, comedy, romance—do an excellent job of capturing the experiences of day to day life. There is also an element of what I’d consider magical realism, given that the housemates' two pets can talk, with the dog quoting Trotsky and the cat voicing the opinions of right-wing tabloids. For obvious reasons, the two don’t get along. It is also a very authentic story, reflecting the Popes’ involvement in squatting and housing struggles.
Of the characters involved in the soap opera-esque story, some are standard archetypes recognizable to anyone who has spent time with activists. Tomaks claims to practice free love with Eva, but he exhibits an unhealthy possessiveness towards her. Will is a pseudo-intellectual, who manages to theorize himself out of doing any practical activism. Our heroine is Rain, who works in an assisted living facility. She has an unrequited crush on Eva, who as mentioned, is in a relationship with Tomaks. The fight to save the complex, Eva’s yearning, and her struggles at work are the three throughlines of the book, which otherwise can feel episodic - again, somewhat like life.
Parts of Welcome Home are quite emotionally affecting. Seeing residents of the nursing home struggle with dementia is heartrending for readers whose family members have likewise suffered. During the funeral of one side character, I was so overcome with emotion I had to close the book and collect myself before continuing; the eulogy for that character, reflecting on their previous activism, reminded me too much of what I’d said at my mother’s memorial.
This is not to say that the book is entirely bleak. The arguments between the cat and dog are great fun, and there’s pointed satire in the form of a brochure for the new gentrified apartment complex. It brought to my mind the proposed Delta City that’s meant to be built over the Detroit from RoboCop; its pages are interspersed with the narrative and are full of maddening buzzwords and busines-speak. “A holistic approach to the attractive dual aspect: over 90% of people said yes.” It’s exaggerated, but only just. The artificiality and lifelessness of this language contrasts with the messy, yet living experience of the protagonists.
Aside from gentrification, Welcome Home also addresses some of the effects of austerity. The senior home is required to do more with less. At one point, residents can’t eat in the dining room because there’s not enough staff to set everything up. The boss, Julie, is a nightmare that unfortunately many readers can relate to: she exhibits the annoying trait of “toxic positivity,” as though every problem can be solved with the right mindset. At Julie's worst moments, Clarrie Pope draws her turning into a monster. Blanche Pope knows this experience firsthand, since she previously worked in an assisted living home.
Of the art, I found the variety of panel layouts impressive. Rain’s process of getting ready for work is depicted in a grid layout, embodying the routine drudgery of the job. When Luca, another housemate, demonstrates his athletic abilities, he climbs on and swings around the panel borders. During Rain’s dream sequences, there are no panels at all; everything is on one page with events melting together, as without formal logic or structure. Clarrie’s people and animals are expressive and cartoonish. They mesh well with the more detailed realistic world that they inhabit.
Without giving too much away, Welcome Home’s climax reminded me of a line by the English Marxist Terry Eagleton: “After all, if you do not resist the apparently inevitable, you will never know how inevitable the inevitable was.” Some will find it sad, although I took it to be a bittersweet admonishment to live - and yes, fight another day.
