This was definitely a let down. It’s a very choppy, roundabout look at the history of the Bund, which is such an invigorating and interesting topic that somehow fell dead flat in these pages. The text itself often stops suddenly while learning of an individual or historical event, and is either too brief to fully understand what is happening or getting too off topic just because the author thought something was interesting. It was dry, and not much fun, and not even in a satisfying way robust learning can be.

Ultimately, it seems the author couldn’t decide who their audience should be: People with no background on Jewish history? People with no background in labour history? People with no background in Eastern European history? I have pretty firm grip on the first and latter, but sections of this were still sometimes confusing. The novel lacked a through-line and driving generation of knowledge a history book should be and instead presented a string of historical instances surrounding the Bund as its history. How can I learn when new faces, new places, and new ideas keep coming up page after page without context? Why do I feel like this is only appreciated by people who already know everything within its pages, and can fill in the necessary knowledge gaps to make a comprehensible history? I don’t know, someone tell me I’m insane!

This book also has an agenda, which is fine if you are aware and willing to engage with it, but not what I look for personally in my history. Half of the blurbs in and outside of the book purposely note an explicitly anti-Zionist intent, though it does not really reflect the work itself, oddly enough. Maybe the publisher was just trying to sell more books? The text is an accurate and well-tuned representation of the movement (even if does make some generalities that are a bit disingenuous), but not mentioning any influence on it from the founding of Israel was very apparent and a bit odd. What about Labour Zionism? What about the diaspora that moved to Israel? I understand not liking either of these histories, but ignoring the massive shift it wrought felt… intentional. It didn’t surprise me then that the book was funded in part by the DSA—when I’ve received books by Gefen Publishers for review, a Conservative Jewish and Israeli-owned publisher, I have to walk a similar right-rope line of reviewing a text that is forthright in its slanted intent and agenda. My only moral code is call it out, so this is me doing it here.

To conclude… I will await other graphic stories of this fascinating history. Even if you agree with their intent, it’s not a strong graphic novel by a mile. ( )