Reading Rutu Mordan’s Exit Wounds leaves me thinking “What’s the point?” I don’t mean this question to be in the typical sense, about questioning whether or not the graphic novel has a point, but rather, I think it is interesting to think about what Modan sees as being the “main storyline” of the work. If one was reading this graphic novel as a plot for Koby to find his father and Numi to find her once lover, who is also Koby’s father, then the book would be disappointing. Yes, Koby does “find” his father by finding his father’s new home and new wife, but he doesn’t meet Gabriel, nor do we get to see him by the end of the book. In that sense, the book would lack closure, perhaps, but I can’t make myself see the search for Gabriel as the point of the book. Rather, I see the search for Gabriel as a means to tell the story.
The point could be a practice in looking at Koby and Numi as they come together through their struggles about their own flaws and supposed shortcomings (Koby and his father issues and Numi and her physical hang-ups). It could be showing how the characters push aside inadequacies in order to overcome their loss (of Gabriel through his abandonment of both characters in different ways). I think to this point, Lindsay makes a lot of good point about how the book is painted by victimization.
I think what really led me to the question of what was Modan’s point was the fact that by the end of the book, I didn’t feel like the end was really the end. The book didn’t feel resolved, and I don’t believe that was simply because I didn’t get to see Gabriel by the end. Like Koby in the last panel, I’m left free-floating, not necessarily in plot but in feeling. Okay, they didn’t find Gabriel, but Koby and Numi found each other; I just didn’t and don’t think that the story could be left literally hanging without me feeling like the ending was a little abrupt. However, I do feel like that’s pretty unfair of me to ask for more at the same time because I’m not sure what else I would really want to see. I think it’s better we didn’t see Gabriel; I’m okay with Koby being with Numi, I think; but by the end of the graphic novel, I’m left suspended (which undoubtedly reminds me of the end of Fun Home, visually and psychologically but the latter in a different way).
I suppose this is the part of my post where I remark that the “left in the air” or perpetual juggling without falling was Modan’s point in ending this graphic novel the way that she did, and maybe, to that end, a lot of others found that ending to be effective, but for whatever reason (one that’s increasingly elusive to find), I can’t make myself be completely satisfied with the ending of Exit Wounds, even if I can see Modan’s point in leaving us always coming down to earth with Koby. Maybe I’m just over the “in media res” abrupt endings…
~Kelley