Raging Clouds Review
“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.” Viktor E. Frankl
Amelie is a brilliant noblewoman who is trapped between her passion for flying and her duties as a wife to a merchant in 16th century Netherlands. Her husband, Hans, is a respected man but he and Amelie do not love each other; their marriage is full of abuse and unhappiness. So when Hans comes back from a year-long trip, with a slave mistress by the name of Sahara in tow, Amelie’s life is turned upside down. But Amelie and Sahara, trapped by restricting social expectations, find a way to seek their own freedom.
Yudori is from South Korea, and Raging Clouds is pitched as her ‘debut graphic novel’ but she has two other comics to her name. Pandora’s Choice, which (according to her bio) she dropped out of university to write, is not currently published in the UK. There’s also Lovers of the Empire, which is being released, also by Fantagraphics, next year. In an interview with Publisher’s Weekly, Raging Clouds is described as an idea Yudori had since she was 19, and she wanted to write a story about “women who failed, who tried hard and didn’t get what they wanted” as a lot of feminist narratives have a habit of focusing on ‘successful women’ who challenge gender norms (think Rose of Versailles, Yona of the Dawn and Revolutionary Girl Utena). So if you saw the blurb for this book on a website (which pitches it as a ‘richly imagined, erotic, feminist graphic novel’) and assumed it would be along the lines as Rose of Versailles, then you might be disappointed, but I highly recommend you adjust your expectations and read it anyway. Raging Clouds is a dense book, which is why it took me a while to write this review, but it’s an engrossing read nevertheless.
The setting of the story is unique. There are not many manhwa that are set in the Netherlands, but anyone who knows their history will be aware that the 16th century was not a kind time for women; societal expectations included obeying your husband no matter what, birthing his child, performing your ‘duties’ as a wife such as cleaning and sexual favours, and so on. Then there were separate issues for anyone not born white, including slavery and lack of any rights. This book is unflinching about the time period it is set in, often using old slurs and outdated mindsets to paint a picture of what life was like back then. The comic is also very frank on what kind of people this male-dominated society bred, how it favoured men and what it did to women’s psyche in order to survive in such a time.
We mainly follow Amelie, but we do have perspectives from two other female characters, and briefly from her husband Hans, but Amelie remains the main POV and it’s her story. She comes from a noble background, but was forced to marry a merchant when her father gambled away their wealth. Amelie is fascinated by flight, wanting to know how it works and whether it’s possible for humans to fly, or create something to fly in, but her ‘hobby’ is branded as sorcery/witchcraft by her husband, so she is understandably always angry, hiding her love of flight away and constantly feels trapped by her circumstances. Despite a huge change in Sahara coming into her world, and opening up doors that she never knew previously, it’s not a happy tale for her, as the world is not welcoming of her mind or gift, and she’s eventually punished for it. It should be noted however that Amelie isn’t 100% a likeable character; because she’s from 16th century Netherlands and has grown up in a very restrictive, upper class environment, she often looks down on Hans’ ‘common’ interests, and is highly racist when it comes to Sahara. Despite both women growing into better people (in some ways) through each other, Amelie also doesn’t hide her disdain for Sahara due to her skin colour and her role in her and Hans’ marriage (even though Sahara has no control over that). But I think that’s the point. Amelie is not a perfect heroine, she’s a regular person who has to survive in harsh circumstances, she is a product of her surroundings, so of course she’s going to think that a slave of a different skin colour is someone who is ‘inferior’ to her, despite also giving her ideas to help with her flight machine. I enjoyed reading Amelie’s POV because she’s passionate about what she wants, and she makes some grave mistakes, so you want to see how it’ll turn out, and I can see why she thinks the way she does, and how her emotions grow across the book.
Sahara is the other woman on the cover, the slave that Hans bring back from his trip, and because we’re mostly looking from Amelie’s POV, we do see Sahara fetishized and idolised a fair bit in the book, but again this seems to be intentional. We learn a little about Sahara from herself but there’s also a mystery that she chooses to keep private, yet she’s fun to read about because, despite her horrific background, it’s fascinating how she responds to her surroundings. She’s been beaten, raped, brought to a country she knows nothing about and can’t speak the language, and taken with the purpose with having sex with Hans, and she’s never seen outside of his home, but she chooses to live in her own way. She picks up reading, she enjoys the food she can’t eat at home and sees the positive side of life in the little things. She doesn’t have a good life, she’s still trapped in the patriarchal world of the 16th century, but she lives on her own terms. As per the quote above (which I thought about after reading this book), all of her freedoms have been taken away, but the freedom to react to them is still her choice, and that’s why she feels ‘freer’ than some of the other characters in this tale.
Hans, the man in the middle of all this, is obviously not a likeable character at all; he rapes Amelie constantly, he sleeps with other women but expects Amelie to be a ‘good wife’ and not question him, and I will spare you his worst acts in the second half of the book. But I did want to give credit where it’s due. Yudori could have kept Hans as a one-dimensional, horrible man, but we do see small sparks of reality, that this male-dominated society doesn’t really make Hans happy either. He has a gentler side, shown by his love of kittens and wanting to save them, but a man’s role in the 16th century doesn’t include empathy or a caring nature, because that’s meant to be a women’s role. There’s also a small scene where Hans is in a pub, and a common game that involves animal cruelty isolates him from his peers. This is followed by a montage of him feeling downtrodden by his own wife who mocks his taste in literature and his job. In today’s society, where all genders have greater freedom to pursue what they want, and marry someone who shares their loves and hobbies, maybe Hans could have ended up a better man if he existed today. I think this side of the story is excellent and important to tell, as the patriarchy hurts everyone, not just one gender.
I think it’s safe to say that this book is dense with themes, characters and story; it’s not an easy, or even fun read, but it’s an engaging one nevertheless.
The art style is also very appealing, the whole time period is drawn vibrantly from the lived-in homes, to the detailed garments the characters wear. The sex that’s in this book is also framed unflinchingly; for the abuse scenes it’s depicted in a very matter-of-fact and uncomfortable way, often focusing on Amelie’s reaction of disdain and dissociation, but for Sahara, when seen through Amelie’s eyes, it’s sensual and intimate.
The Fantagraphics edition of this book is a hardcover; the hardback and the dust jacket have their own cover art, both of which are lovely. It’s a heavy, thick book, but very well presented and would make a great gift for the right person.
Raging Clouds is an excellent, unique manhwa from a promising new cartoonist, and I look forward to seeing her other work be published in English in the near future.
Our review copy from Fantagraphics was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Book Supplies).
