Reviews

Unterzakhn by Leela Corman

kikiduck's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Boy, New York really did a number on poor Isaac. 

ericarf's review against another edition

4.0

This graphic novel is about immigrant life in early twentieth century New York City. Esther and Fanya, Jewish twin sisters, take radically different paths into adulthood. Esther becomes a dancer and a prostitute, while Fanya becomes an assistant to a "lady doctor" providing contraception and abortions. A tragic story and recommended historical fiction.

sizrobe's review against another edition

3.0

Meh. Some parts were decent, including a character's time as a prostitute, but it's mostly just bleh.

marielulus's review against another edition

challenging sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, and Death

Moderate: Violence and Abortion

oliviak07's review against another edition

3.0

Esther and Fanya's individual journeys and conclusions can still be relatable to today's generation of women, world wide.

Whether you find a connection based on their own experiences with gender roles, reproductive rights, professions of women then and now, or the immigration/assimilation experience, each will make you think and construct a discussion with fellow readers about how these twin sisters embraced their roles in their family, their gender, and their world.

The illustrations are delightfully bold and angular, common with the time period in which Esther and Fanya grow up in. The Art Deco and Ziegfeld style fashion and language (mixed with a comforting smothering of Yiddish) grabs the attention of the reader and does not let go until the final curtain call.

I would love to discuss the book and it's themes with others, so please explore it and add what you thought about Leela Corman's work!

linneaandspybat's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

awhipp17's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this was a unique graphic novel that had me not sure how i felt at the end. i appreciated the general story, following Jewish immigrants in NYC (and their father back in Russia), and seeing the things they had to deal with in their daily lives around WWI. the story skips certain key events (but we know they happened because of the characters reacting to it), circles back to some events, and generally ends with a feeling of "...ok". i feel like the father and Fanya were similar, they had book and street smarts and were maybe more secure in who they were and what they wanted in life. Esther (and Meyer) was more like taking life as it came to her.

Spoiler

but the father ended up a broken shell/ghost of a man, and Fanya ended up dead, at least partly from stubborness. i wasn't sure if we were supposed to take from it that even "smart" people make mistakes, or that there is something negative about being liberal and/or smart, or just that life is the luck of the draw? i guess these and more are available as feelings at the end of the book. for a graphic novel, i don't usually expect such open-endedness in the story. it was a nice change.

 

lesbiankarlmarx's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Body horror, Sexual violence, Genocide, and Rape

robertrivasplata's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Bleak story of a Jewish family in early 20th century New York. Coming of age story in century-ago New York City that's sweet at times, but ends tragically for almost all of the characters. Paints New York of a hundred years ago as a very very different sort of life than today; it was still the age of people just dropping dead all of the time from things we take for granted don't kill people anymore (e.g. the flu, pregnancy, abortions). Even with the services of the “lady doctor”, gynecological & obstetric care pretty much consisted of hoping for the best. Basically, it's the world that conservatives, including a good portion of corporate America, wants us to go back to. I thought Fanya's death was especially bitter, since the book begins with her as a child witnessing how she dies later as an adult. Feminism of the day was completely circumscribed by patriarchy. The local lady doctor is so afraid to bring up contraception & family planning that she instead campaigns against sex after marriage. Compares the life of the respectable family life with that of the life of the whores & dancers over at the bordello, with the book seeming to come down in favor of the bordello. Affecting & thought provoking. 

lindacbugg's review against another edition

4.0

Unterzakhn
by
Leela Corman

or Underthings in Yiddish
is a bawdy tale of twin
sisters in New York's lower
East Side at the turn of
the century. One works
for the lady-doctor who
secretly performs abortions
and one works for the woman
who runs the burlesque and
whorehouse.

Tragedy ensues but not
where you'd expect.