mehsi's review against another edition
5.0
Wauw, dat is alles wat ik over dit boek kan zeggen. Oh, en lees het.
joshuanovalis's review against another edition
"If only this was a different world."
4 stars for the artwork, 2 stars for the story. In Yossel's introduction, Kubert explains that unlike the common practice of drawing in pencil, then filling the page in with ink, he chose to keep the artwork of this book as simple pencil drawings, in hopes of effecting a sense of immediacy to the story. It's an excellent choice that really lends the graphic novel an inescapable feeling of fleeting hope, of impermanence--the fear that the memory of these horrors may be scrubbed out, forgotten. As a result, the act of reading Yossel becomes an act of memorialization, of immortalizing those who may have been otherwise lost.
Unfortunately, I couldn't shake the fact that the actual writing in the work contradicts those feelings at nearly every turn. Kubert has a tendency to overwrite, putting phrases like "teutonic precision" and "turgid water" into the mouth of a 16-year-old boy on the run from soldiers. In doing so, each page emits a profound dissonance between the text and visuals, between the form and content. The immediacy evoked by the artwork is undone by writing that just feels too written. Regardless, I'm thankful to have been able to bear witness to this retelling of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
4 stars for the artwork, 2 stars for the story. In Yossel's introduction, Kubert explains that unlike the common practice of drawing in pencil, then filling the page in with ink, he chose to keep the artwork of this book as simple pencil drawings, in hopes of effecting a sense of immediacy to the story. It's an excellent choice that really lends the graphic novel an inescapable feeling of fleeting hope, of impermanence--the fear that the memory of these horrors may be scrubbed out, forgotten. As a result, the act of reading Yossel becomes an act of memorialization, of immortalizing those who may have been otherwise lost.
Unfortunately, I couldn't shake the fact that the actual writing in the work contradicts those feelings at nearly every turn. Kubert has a tendency to overwrite, putting phrases like "teutonic precision" and "turgid water" into the mouth of a 16-year-old boy on the run from soldiers. In doing so, each page emits a profound dissonance between the text and visuals, between the form and content. The immediacy evoked by the artwork is undone by writing that just feels too written. Regardless, I'm thankful to have been able to bear witness to this retelling of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
dajna's review against another edition
4.0
Ottima graphic novel semi-autobiografica. Le vicende si svolgono nel ghetto di Varsavia, uno dei pochi che si è ribellato alle SS e che per questo è stato raso al suolo. L'autore, un affermato fumettista americano, immagina cosa sarebbe accaduto a lui e alla sua famiglia se non fossero riusciti ad emigrare negli USA poco prima che Hitler invadesse la Polonia.
chelseamartinez's review against another edition
4.0
An imagined alternative future of the author, if his family had not left for America before Hitler's Holocaust. The book, told in flashback, from the sewers, is efficiently and effectively sketched in charcoal, and tracks the author's imagined alternate self, family, and community members through forced labor, sequestration, and whispers about what happens outside of the ghetto to those who are shipped away; the book captures well how this was mysterious to contemporaries (would you really believe what happened was real without photo evidence, survivors, or, well, being born after the Holocaust?)
powermetalgirl's review
I can't really say much for the story (as it's based so much on reality and is heartbreaking), but I was fascinated by the drawings in this graphic novel. The story itself didn't have the ending I had hoped for, so I was left feeling both depressed and unfulfilled. Thank goodness for the beautiful art. This is not a story I will feel the need to read again.
bloodravenlib's review
5.0
See my note on it here:
http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/booknote-yossel-april-19-1943.html
http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/booknote-yossel-april-19-1943.html
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