Leela CormanBesprekingen

3.5⭐️

Unterzakhn by Leela Corman is a moving story that revolves around themes of social class, inequality, generational trauma, social convention and morality, family sisterhood and survival.

The narrative follows identical twins Esther and Fanya, daughters of Jewish immigrants, as they navigate their way through life – their childhood in the tenements of New York’s Lower East Side (circa 1910), the people they meet and the choices they make that lead them in different directions and how their paths cross over the years. The narrative also features a past timeline featuring their father and the events that led to his emigrating from his homeland.

There is a lot about this novel that is praiseworthy – notably, the sense of time and place beautifully captured and presented through the author’s remarkable artwork and how the author addressed several social and feminist themes from the era (many of which remain relevant in the present day). However, what keeps me from giving this a higher rating is that I found the narrative a tad uneven and thought that much of the story was lost in the time jumps. Though Esther’s storyline is well developed, we do not get to know Fanya as well as we do Esther. I also felt that the storyline revolving around their father could have been explored further. However, the supporting characters were well thought out and the narrative did flow well despite the tad disjointed/ abrupt nature of the story. I was invested in the sisters’ respective journeys and was immersed in the story from the very first page and finished it in one sitting.

I chose to pick up this graphic novel after reading Leela Corman’s Victory Parade, which I loved. Though I did not find this novel as well-crafted or intense as Victory Parade, overall, I did find it to be an emotionally impactful read.½

Review also found on my blog! :)

This book was 100% not on my TBR, but like usual, seeing an attractive cover at the library is totally irresistible for me. When I read the blurb, I was drawn into wanting to read this even further: it sounded like a story of an interesting slice of history told through the eyes of strong female leads – much like another favorite graphic novel of mine, Persepolis. So, I decided to give Unterzakhn a shot. What I found was a promising story that didn't totally live up to my expectations.

Unterzakhn covers an aspect history which I frankly don't know much about: the beginnings of the Lower East Side of New York. Traditionally a place for immigrants and later the working class, the people here lived a tough life, yet created a hub of culture unlike anywhere in America. We follow twins Fanya and Esther through their lives, exploring the different paths they take and how the cultural climate around them shapes their choices. This entire concept really pulled me in, but in some ways I was left wanting more. 

For instance, the focus of the plot ends up not being on what it was like living as a Jewish immigrant in New York, but on strong feminist subjects instead. Fanya ends up working for a woman who performs illegal abortions and other basic gynecological work as well. Famya quickly learns who crappy it is for women in her era, who basically get married then become "birthing cows" (the author's words) for their husbands. This was a pretty radical take on marriage in my opinion, but the fact that women had no options (not even condoms or birth control) was definitely an interesting subject to read about. Esther, on the other hand, starts working at a brothel. At first she serves drinks and food to clients, then gradually ends up being a prostitute herself. With Esther's story, themes of sexual freedom are explored during a time when extramarital sex basically made you a social outcast. While I found these themes really important and I think they should be explored more, however, I was curious to read more about life as an immigrant, rather than just reading about life as a woman at the turn of the century. The immigrant aspect of the story is definitely put on the back burner for most of the book, and comes up almost as an afterthought throughout.

The biggest issue I had with this story was the way the narrative is handled. The narrative is very nonlinear, and so choppy in some parts that I had a hard time following what is going on. Something will be happening over four sets of panels, then the next will be a completely different occurrence, then the next set would go back to the first occurrence. Some aspects of the narrative were also not explained very well, so the reader is left to kind of guess or assume what is going on. Honestly, this book is a great example of how sometimes there can be too much showing, and not enough telling. Tying things back to the subject matter, the narrative seemed to be very brief about the important issues it was addressing. In some ways, it felt really rushed – like I was being given a "taste" of these issues, and left wanting them to be explored more.

Finally, I found the ending to be rather abrupt and unimpressive. Without spoiling anything, the ending basically gives the two girls very ironic conclusions to their stories. I think perhaps it was a message about how life doesn't take the turns you expect it to? But I'm still not sure. I just didn't feel like the use of irony in this instance worked very well. Moreover, the author just simply didn't wrap up the story in a very satisfying way. I may have appreciated the irony more if the ending was a little more conclusive. 

Despite what I disliked, I actually enjoyed the artwork, and thought the Corman's style worked really well with the story. The author has a really clean use of line, and utilized texture in really interesting ways. The work is purely in black and white, which works really well with some of the darker, grittier scenes. The art really reminded me of the style you see in Persepolis.

Overall this book was a fairly interesting diversion from my studying for finals. I did expect a lot more out of it – I know graphic novels aren't supposed to be super long, but this story could have definitely been more fleshed out. Would I recommend it? I think if you want a good introduction to feminist issues women dealt with at the beginning of the 20th century, do read it. If you're looking for a good peek into life as a Jewish immigrant, I would read something else. In the end, I gave this book three stars. 

Final Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

*Many thanks to Pantheon Books for the gifted copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book was published on April 02, 2024.*

Set in 1943, Victory Parade by Leela Corman is a brutal yet profoundly moving meditation on the horrors of war and trauma, the challenges faced by the women who contributed to the WWII effort back home while they waited for their men to return from the war front, Jewish refugees fleeing persecution and the physical and psychological scars left on those returning from home.

The narrative, presented in vivid watercolor, follows the cast of characters among whom are Rose, a married woman employed as a welder in Brooklyn who is involved in a relationship with a disabled veteran; Ruth, a German Jewish refugee taken in by Rose who finds a violent outlet to vent the simmering rage she harbors; and Sam, Rose’s husband who returns home destined to be haunted by visions of what he witnessed in the liberated concentration camps. Through haunting imagery illustrator Leela Corman presents their stories - perspectives from their past, present and beyond– real and surreal – cathartic, nightmarish and devastating.

Intense and dark yet brilliantly composed, this graphic novel is an experience that I would not hesitate to recommend to those who read WWII fiction.

...and once again the blurb is just kind of bizarre -- related to the book, but not accurate. Anyway. Love the artistic style, love the Yiddish throughout, love the storytelling. It's a little bit one note, in that it feels like all the stories are about sex in one way or another -- the filter each character is seen through, almost, but it's hard to put down, and it paints a vivid picture of turn of the century New York.

Oh! I loved this tale of Jewish twin sisters whose lives take divergent paths--one becomes a dancer and prostitute, the other a protégé of an OBGYN who performs illegal abortions. The stark black and white was just perfect for the turn-of-the-century New York setting, and the use of Yiddish really puts you right into their community. This is SO SAD but SO GOOD.

graphic novel. twin girls growing up in an immigrant family in the Lower East Side of NY. Tragic, painful treatment of girls and women

Corman's absorbing book follows the lives of twin sisters Esther and Fanya, the children of Russian Jews, on the teeming streets of New York's Lower East Side. Beginning in 1909 when the six-year-old girls work alongside their seamstress mother, the tale follows each of their divergent lives. The young Fanya attracts the attention of the "lady-doctor" Bronia, who performs illegal abortions. Bronia teaches her how to read and mentors Fanya in the medical arts. Corman's evocative portrayal of health care for women in those pre-Roe V. Wade days effectively showcases why abortion must remain legal. Esther finds paying work for a woman who runs a burlesque theater and a whorehouse. While there, she learns about and eventually relies on her sexuality to find her place in society.
Unterzakhn (Yiddish for "Underthings") follows the twins throughout their lives, chronicling their loves, successes, failures, and losses, while exploring the roles -- sexual, intellectual, familial -- of women. Corman produces an exceptional portrayal, deserving much laudatory praise and acclaim, of immigrant and Jewish life on par with the works of [a:Will Eisner|1642|Will Eisner|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1202618782p2/1642.jpg] and [a:Art Spiegelman|5117|Art Spiegelman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206557373p2/5117.jpg].

Unterzakhn tracks the lives of two sisters, Esther and Fanya, living in New York at the start of the 20th century. The twin daughters of Jewish immigrant parents, their lives take divergent paths. One enters a brothel, eventually becoming an actress, and the other trains as a midwife and helps perform illegal abortions. Time eventually reunites the sisters, though only briefly.

Corman broaches a number of controversial topics, many of which center on women's reproductive rights, though her treatment of these issues is not extensive. Still, I did appreciate her willingness to explore these topics, controversial as they are, even though she didn't engage them fully. Her characters are, in turn, humorous, intelligent, decisive, naive, self-righteous, and pitiful - they are real. But they are also underdeveloped and major components of their individual plots are glossed over.

Unterzakhn also has structural shortcomings. It opens with little in terms of introduction and ends even more abruptly. It often transitions awkwardly and haltingly from one section to the next, jumping to a different story line or era. This has an overall confusing effect and makes it difficult to fall into any rhythm. Various back-stories and tragedies are picked up, dropped, and forgotten with regularity. In short - it was all over the place.

I liked the illustrations, which seem to be completely hit or miss for people. They lent the story an atmosphere that would have otherwise been absent. It's highly stylized, yet it's almost crude at the same time. I've read that the illustrations were styled after folk art, paying further homage to the immigrant experience. Knowing that, I think it was a smart stylistic choice.

Did I love it? No. But historical graphic novels are hard to pull off. They can't all be Maus or Persepolis. But they continue to be a unique medium for telling these stories and visualizing the past.

A tale of two poor Jewish sisters growing up in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. Artwork is reminiscent of Persepolis, but more busy and cluttered. The Jewish banter was amusing. Sometimes it was hard to tell the sisters apart. There was an odd flashback to Poland in 1895 where the girls father found himself persecuted by Cossacks (a little Maus-like). Although it added to the story, it was not one of the the main characters whose past we saw and there were no other flashbacks in the novel, so it was jarring.

Set in New York's Lower East Side in the early 1900s, "Unterzakhn" tells the story of twin sisters Fanya and Esther as they grow from children into women and life takes them in different directions. Life is hard for these daughters of Polish Jewish immigrants. A gentle father whom they love and a tough mother who runs a corset shop and has strong ideas about what a girl should do with her life - which doesn't include time-wasting activities like learning to read. Pogroms, ladies doctors, burlesque and brothels, tough streets, and tough choices abound. Corman's bold, largely black and white art work reminds me of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels such as "Persepolis"; but Corman's artwork is more immediately expressive in its line and texture. A brilliant book with a lot of story and great graphics.