An intense, brilliantly conceived graphic memoir announcing the arrival of a new talent to watch.
A cartoonist and writer reflects on intergenerational trauma and its relationship to modern colonial violence.
Family stories about heroic escapes during the Holocaust mesmerized Brager almost as much as those about their great-grandfather Erich, mythologized as the man who beat Joseph Goebbels in a boxing match. However, as Brager shows, those stories—along with the unarticulated events that led to the formation of their transgender identity—also haunted the author. Unable to speak directly about the trauma surrounding their transition, Brager wrote about family Holocaust stories instead, which graduate school history professors rejected as too personal. In this debut, the author uses their formidable skills as an artist to transform that research journey into a unique comic book–style narrative that interweaves tales of their inherited past with their own imperfect recollections. Grounding the narrative in work by psychiatrists, historians, and Holocaust survivors like Primo Levi, Brager achieves not only critical distance from their own work, but also the ability to see how other legacies of oppression subtly intersected both the Holocaust and their own life. In considering a gold bracelet inherited from their mother, for example, Brager was able to visualize their connections to the original owner, their great-grandmother, Ilse, and the bracelet’s giver, Erich, and link a historical artifact to a real event—in this case, Ilse’s escape from Germany. Brager shows readers how the bracelet, made in French colonial Morocco, functions as evidence of the subtle, unquestioned ways that colonial violence could embed itself in the histories of other oppressed people. As the author probes the many ways in which cultures intersect, they challenge readers to make deeper, more complex connections among self, family, and the many histories in which the self necessarily—but sometimes unknowingly—participates.
An intense, brilliantly conceived graphic memoir announcing the arrival of a new talent to watch.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9780063205956
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
An impassioned message of rage and hope.
The author of Persepolis returns with a collection about burgeoning activism in Iran.
In September 2022, the beating and death of Mahsa Jina Amini, an Iranian student arrested for not wearing her headscarf properly, incited a solidarity movement among women and men that spread around the world. To publicize and bear witness to this major uprising, Satrapi has gathered stories, cartoons, and essays from more than 20 artists, activists, journalists, and academics. The author has two aims: “to explain what’s going on in Iran, to decipher events in all their complexity and nuance for a non-Iranian readership, and to help you understand them as fully as possible”; and “to remind Iranians that they are not alone.” Setting the movement in context, Iranian American historian Abbas Milani offers an overview of the political upheavals and revolutions that have led to the current misogynist, repressive regime and the “resolute defiance” that has emerged in protest. As each contributor attests, life under a wrathful dictatorship is consistently frightening and dangerous: “The Islamic Republic ensures its own survival by murdering people. During the successive demonstrations” over Amini’s murder, “several hundred people were killed in an attempt to strike fear into the hearts of protesters. Young people were forced to confess under torture.” Women are especially vulnerable. Since November 2022, young students in schools across Iran have been poisoned by toxic gas as part of an attempt to force girls’ schools to close. Protecting the regime falls to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary organization that answers directly to Khomeini, the Supreme Leader, and for the past four decades has carried out a reign of terror. This collection pays homage to victims and celebrates the dreams of Iran’s determined activists. Other contributors include Joanne Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Paco Roca, and Mana Neyestani.
An impassioned message of rage and hope.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781644214053
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Seven Stories
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
IN THE NEWS
A delightful exploration of navigating the bumpy road to adulthood.
A story of a long-overdue Sapphic coming-of-age.
Through an autobiographical graphic narrative that is at times hysterically funny and at times gut-wrenching, readers follow Mieri, a young Japanese woman living in the U.S. From the lesbian characters in anime that she crushed on to the first real girl Mieri was attracted to, she’s known for a while that she likes butch girls. The fact that she sees fewer butch x butch relationships won’t stop her from trying to find a girlfriend even though the path, in person and on dating apps, is fraught with challenges. After she goes to visit her grandparents, Mieri meets Ash, a White American teaching English in Japan who becomes her first girlfriend. It starts out great: College sophomore Mieri experiences the stress and rewards of making the first move and even has her first kiss. But a month later, Ash breaks up with her, Mieri’s parents get divorced, and her grandparents learn about and aren’t cool with her sexuality. Worst of all, she can’t stop thinking about Ash. As Mieri navigates the aftershocks of the breakup, she also grows into maturity. The book has impeccable pacing and is engaging from start to finish. The humorous art enhances the narrative in a meaningful way, especially in portraying Mieri’s own emotional journey.
A delightful exploration of navigating the bumpy road to adulthood. (extra panels, author’s note, creating a manga, Q&A, bonus gallery) (Manga. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781974736591
Page Count: 208
Publisher: VIZ Media
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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