Love

By tracing Liselle and Selena's relationship over the course of 20 years, the author explores the ways in which true love might sustain the individual over time. Liselle and Selena first meet while attending college at Bryn Mawr. As two Black, gay women, Liselle and Selena feel an immediate connection with one another. However, it is not merely their race and sexual orientation that connects them. Rather, it is their profound capacity to see and understand the other individual in spite and because of their differences. In Chapter 11, for example, Selena decides that it is "time to explain herself to Liselle" (53). She then describes her complicated relationship with depression and anxiety, telling Liselle about the ways that historical and current events impact her psychological and emotional state. Though Liselle originally struggles to understand Selena's experience, she does not abandon her. The same is true of Selena's devotion...