A Jew in Communist Prague: Adolescence

Rating:
Summary: second volume; one of the best graphic novels ....
Review: "A JEW IN COMMUNIST PRAGUE" VOL. 1-3 TPs by Vittorio Giardino. Insuperable, lofty, & a darn unfaltering imagining of a Jewish boy reckoning's, a coming-of-age signification of a comicbook....in 1950's Communist Prague. A powerful writing, roundly flawless, a guaranteed masterpiece, plus with an eye-filling art. For pertinent browsers-- zealots or neophytes alike.

Vol. 1, the story, obliges within the nimbus of 1950 Prague, Czechoslovakia. Jonas Finkel, the protagonist & the son of a bourgeois. His father, Dr. Finkel is forthwith apprehended & vanishes for no clear cause at all. The Communism order of a government in Prague blindingly renounces all prerogatives going for the Finkels such as freezing their assets, prying their ways, & depriving Jonas of abiding schooling & as well his mother, of procuring estimable jobs instead of odd manual labor, due to hardship they see sans her husband.

Vol. 2 carries on, as Jonas reaches his teen years. His father was arrested for "anti-socialist activities" (counter revolutionary & espionage) from those bygone days of war. Void of realized education & government repression, Jonas unshakeably plods from one menial job to another until he finally found his pinings--- a nigh, lasting pursuit in a small, neighborhood bookstore. On that point, abling found his moment to express his dissidence-- in a way by joining a group of teens who stealthily congregate at Petrin Park to sing & recite forbidden texts. Amid the crowd is a blonde with a blue-eyed girl names Tatiana, who at first sight titillates Jonas' heart.

Vol. 3 gravely picks-up the paces & shines its beacon on the literary movement of which Jonas has gallivated to, with the government on their heels chasing the shadows to ferret them out. Meanwhile, Jonas learns his bookstore owner is deeply in mire in one himself & he has to intrepidly exact great peril to aid his wishes.

A Jew in Communist Prague--- for me, is a certified one of the bestest graphic novels mustered & Vittorio Giardino, a snap as one of the arch graphic novelists ever traipes, fornent 2 of my most cherished writers-- the peerless Stan Lee & the conversant J.M. DeMatteis.

It is blasphemous not to adore the artwork for its lone beauty, meticulous panels & perfect presentation. And the colors are sprawl in light, pastel combinations that rebound easy to ones eyes.

A CAVEAT EMPTOR. It contains explicit sexual contents on vol. 1 & has a mild, very short burst of sexual connotation on vol. 3. Still, an appropriate book for young adults upward.

These 3 volumes each sizes at 8.5"width X 11"lenght in format, softcover yet satiably sewn & sturdy, have 48 pages of contents for each vol. 1 & 2, while have 56 pages for vol. 3.

A quick brush to anti-semitism. To my surprise, there is no cue or whatsover of anti-semitic. Perhaps it is in the murkiest details & in fleeting nuances, & Iam not well-versed enough to know.

This title was at first figured exhilaratingly a quartet-to-be, but the supposed "concluding" installment misses coming out. Still, it can be considered a good enough "finished product" by the 3 volumes themselves.

These others are also the same good readings. "No Pasaran" vol. 1 & 2 TPs by Vittorio Giardino; "To the Heart of the Storm" TP by Will Eisner; "the Fixer" HC by Joe Sacco; & "Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon" vol. 1-4 TPS by Andy Seto.

A must own reading & stellar in place atop your shelf.

HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION !!!


P.S.-- By the way, vol. 1 subtitles "LOSS OF INNOCENCE" (for eg., "A Jew in Communist Prague: Loss of Innocence" ). Vol. 2 subtitles "ADOLESCENCE". While vol. 3 is "REBELLION", Just to avoid confusion.

Rating:
Summary: Wish it Were Longer!
Review: This second installment of Italian cartoonist Giardino's graphic novel series about a Jewish boy growing up in Communist Prague finds Jonas Finkel unable to attend school due to his father's status as political prisoner. Forced to work, he toils as a laborer on a building site before falling in with Slavek, a fatalistic, drunken storytelling plumber. From this substitute father-figure, he moves on to work in a bookstore, where his love of books can be nourished, and where he meets a club of teenage intellectuals who meet in the park to read forbidden poetry and sing banned songs. Jonas's outsider status is highlighted by his awkward fumblings in trying to attract the attention of Tatiana, one of the intellectual girls. Interspersed with his is some of the political goings-on of the time, the death of Stalin, counter-revolutionary efforts by the secret police, and soforth. These feel rather forced and shoehorned in when contrasted with the simple tale of Jonas growing up without his father. Perhaps the effect is lessened when the series is read in its entirety, instead of in sparse 48-page installments. It'll be interested to see where it'll all lead. As to the art, the story is drawn in the lovely realistic style I tend to associate with European cartoonists, and colored with an appropriately subdued palate of greys and browns.