Blue Is the Warmest Color Paperback – September 3, 2013

Now that Julie Maron's BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is coming to theatres in a feature film that not only won the very prestigious Palme D'or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and that it was smacked by the MPAA with the dreaded NC-17 rating for its explicit sexual content, and that there is an ongoing war of words between the film's two leads and its director, it should generate enough publicity for not only people to see the film, but to also hopefully discover this remarkable graphic novel.Simply enough, the novel, written and drawn by Maron, is about a fifteen-year-old girl Clementine who is doing her best to be a "normal" young girl. She dates a senior at her high school, she studies for her exams, and she has the "right" friends. Until one moment of one day, as she's walking down the street, she passes a beautiful older girl with dyed blue hair, and she cannot get this girl out of her mind. The blue-haired beauty invades her dreams with shocking sensual and sexual imagery, and Clementine can't understand what these feelings mean. She just CAN'T be gay. She refuses it, and in that refusal, her passion for this mystery girl grows. As she sneaks out one night to be with her best friend, Valentin, who is a young gay man, they go to a gay bar, and Clementine meets the mystery girl. Her name is Emma. And from then on, Clementine, no matter how hard she tries, she can no longer deny the feelings of love and lust she has for Emma. But once they finally realize who they are to each other, all the other parts of Clem's life start to spiral out of control. Her parents refuse to accept their daughter's deviant lifestyle, as do her straight friends. Soon, all she really has is Emma, and for a even a short time, that's more than she ever thought possible. But time catches up to all, and it catches up to Clem in a tragic way that is certain to leave everyone in tears.Maron gives Clementine such a realistic voice that any adolescent or someone who survived adolescence and the awakening of desire for love and sexuality can immediately relate. You feel your heart lift when hers does, and even more so, you feel your heart break when hers does. The art and particularly her use of color is excellent. The writing is so strong that you really feel that you're with these characters, and even though you may find some of them despicable, you understand them. Maron never makes the mistake of painting stereotypes of any of the characters, so that even when they do or say something terrible, you understand where they're coming from.And this is the only other graphic novel, aside from Art Spiegelman's MAUS, that has ever made me cry.Again, though, we must go to the place that I hate to go to, which is the argument of Art Versus Pornography. This book, which I'm sure is probably banned in more than a few libraries, has a sequence of graphic sex between Clementine and Emma. This will be objectionable to many parents of adolescents who may receive comfort from the emotional realism of the book, but it is NOT pornography. Pornography is meant for the sole purpose of sexual stimulation, and is not intended to show realistic portrayals of sex. And believe me when I state that there is nothing resembling that in the least in this book. Is it erotic? Yes. Is it art? Yes. Is it pornography? Absolutely not.BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is an extraordinary graphic achievement, and it's something that I would recommend to anyone with a love for great storytelling and an open mind.

I loved the film, and though there are significant differences between both works, I still consider them both equals. I'm personally attracted to all facets that can be associated with love; with both the ugly and the beautiful. The sex scenes portrayed are brief and innocent, the art is quaint and charming, the flashbacks make your heart cringe and mind reel. The story, though brief, appropriately weaves the tale of one young woman's life cut tragically short by her inability to cope with one of life's many cruel, debilitating lessons. Was she truly a lesbian? Or did she just happen to indiscrimanently fall in love with someone she happened to truly be compelled towards? Why couldn't she cope, be happy? To me, the direction the film took concerning the aspect of her 'cheating' was more apparently conveyed; and while there are plenty who bitch about the film being 'pornographic', all I can say is that they are puritanical hypocrites (I thought the sex scenes were actually realistic and adequately portrayed two people finally being able to be physically united after such a period of longing) who really just shouldn't deal with sexual material to begin with; let's face it, not all of it is "pretty" people. Love certainly isn't, it can be exciting and wonderful one moment, harsh and unforgiving the next. The original version of the story is clearly the 'tragic' tale, while the film ends on an unfinished note. The expressions Maroh gives to her characters, brief dialouge, and placed settings/time all contribute nicely to the overall affect of the story. But for some, there may be some dissatisfaction with 'reading in between the lines' at times and the rapid progression of the story at various parts. Would recommend! For once, there's a poignant, realistic take on romance, with all that can progress and flourish, and all that can wither and haunt. Ultimately, the theme concerns the everlasting connection that can take place between two people, as rare and trying as it can be.

I thought Blue was one of the best books I've read in years. Pretty recently I saw a trailer for the film version at my local arthouse theater and was intrigued. A week or so later I discovered that it was actually a graphic novel at first and that it was available on my Kindle. The art style depicted on the cover also pulled me in and so I decided to drop the money and buy it.It's been a long time since I felt so moved by a story. Half the time I was reading it (especially during the beginning and the end) I was left in tears. It's amazing to see Clementine's constantly conflicting emotions and mentalities about what is right and what is wrong and the passion of her relationship with Emma...but it's equally painful to see the consequences of such a relationship. The movie hits my local theater next week and I've rarely ever been so excited to go see a movie because the book was simply spectacular.Some minor nitpicks about this version, though: while the story is an instant 5-star in my book, the kindle version deserves probably a 3-star rating...maybe 3.5 to be a little generous. I've read other graphic novels on the Kindle before and never really had issues. However the text style plus the way they frame some of the panels makes it difficult to read at times. Likewise, there's times in it where it jumps around in panel order. Like for example, rather than starting from the first panel to the last, there's one page that opens with the last panel and then goes back to the top. This marred the experience just a tiny bit for me. That said, though, the art itself still shows itself beautifully and the story is still as good as ever.