A review by awhipp17
Unterzakhn by Leela Corman

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.