Berlin Book Two: City of Smoke (Bk. 2) [Paperback]

Jason Lutes (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 19, 2008 | Series: Berlin (Book 2)

The second installment of the epic historical trilogy

 

The second volume of Jason Lutes’s historical epic finds the people of Weimar Berlin searching for answers after the lethal May Day demonstration of 1929. Tension builds along with the dividing wall between communists and nationalists, Jews and Gentiles, as the dawn of the Second World War draws closer. Meanwhile, the nightlife of Berlin heats up as many attempt to distract themselves from the political upheavals within the city. The American jazz band Cocoa Kids arrives and quickly becomes a fixture. The lives of the characters within Lutes’s epic weave together to create a seamless portrait of this transitory city. Marthe Muller follows her lover Kurt Severing as he interviews participants in the May Day demonstration, but she moonlights in the city’s lesbian nightlife.Severing acts as a window through which the political shifts within the city and its participants can be seen. As with Berlin Book One: City

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Berlin Book One:

“A comic of impressive scope, taking place in Weimar Berlin and touching on the issues of politics, aesthestics and technology in that cultural ground zero.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“[Berlin] will be the longest, most sophisticated work of historical fiction in the medium. Lutes has a natural, clean, European drawing style, much like Hergé’s Tintin . . . This book has the density of the best novels.” —Time

About the Author

Born in 1967, JASON LUTES is an American cartoonist whose work includes the ongoing Berlin trilogy, and the graphic novel Jar of Fools.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly (August 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897299532
• ISBN-13: 978-1897299531
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.6 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #601,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Drawn and Quarterly

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's getting better September 17, 2008

By H. D. Bennett

Format:Paperback

In Berlin, City of Smoke, Jason Lutes picks up where the first book, City of Stones, left off - after the events of May 1929. The storytelling has improved, both in terms of the narrative and the actual art itself. It's a bit more cohesive and streamlined - the work of a master at his craft, honing his skills even further. Not that the first book wasn't good .. far from it! It's just that this one's better.

The character art work has gotten noticeably better - characters are more consistent and fluid in their movements and especially in their facial expressions. It's always great to see an artist at the top of their game - in any field - and this second edition of the Berlin trilogy is Lutes' best work so far.

I won't give away anything from the story itself but will say it gets more interesting and a little easier to follow. This is a fascinating piece of work, both with the historical content and in the story itself. Lutes' has much to say about the many facets of the human condition and does it in a such a finessed way .. he doesn't hit you over the head with anything, he lets the story come first and weaves in the "sub messages" lightly, just like a writer of good prose would do.

Like the best comic storytelling, it's an easy first read that rewards repeated reading. Highly recommended - at the price listed on Amazon, this is a steal. And a gorgeously depicted Josephine Baker even makes an appearance .. what more do you want?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "What is the fate of the Weimar Republic?" July 23, 2009

By doc peterson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Picking up immeadiately following the May Day, 1929 demonstrations, Jason Lutes continues his story of journalist Kurt Severing and student Marthe Muller in the waning days of the Weimar Republic. As with in Berlin: City of Stones: Book One (Part 1), the voices of other Berliners weave in and out of the narrative - including a sub-plot involving some American jazz musicians that I partiuclarly enjoyed.

The story is bitter-sweet, not only in terms of the relationshipe between Kurt and Marthe, but for the city of Berlin itself. Again Lutes creates both a sympathetic view of Berlin in the late 20s and early 30s (as one character puts it, "Its a madhouse - things are on the verge of collapse! Can't any of you feel it? The air is thick with imminent disaster, and we spend our time doodling the days away like children") showing how Germany's post-war republic gradually dissolved into a fascist dictatorship.

A closer read shows a real appreciation for the city - from the slang (referring to police as "Bulls" - slang that is not as benign as "cop" nor as acidic as "pig" - but somewhere in the middle) to depicitions of the city - especially the neighborhood Wedding (referred to as "Red Wedding" for its strong working-class feel) to bits of dialoge about the Spree or a scene of the Seigelsaule. Clearly Lutes knows his stuff.

While graphic novels may not be to everyone's taste, I would without hesitation recommend this book to anyone given its strengths.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Things fall apart September 15, 2008

By Kerry Walters VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've eagerly awaited the appearance of Jason Lute second volume of Berlin. Now that it's appeared, I realize that it was well worth waiting for. But it also seems to me that there's a bit of a decline in the meticulous craftsmanship that characterized the first volume.

The story line continues in expected ways from an historical perspective, but in quite unexpected ways from the perspective of the characters. The most searing change is in the relationship between Kurt Severing, the increasingly disillusioned pacifist, leftist, and political journalist, and his young love Marthe Muller, whom he introduces to the cultural life of Berlin.

What happens to Marthe and Kurt seems to parallel what's happening to the Weimar Republic in general: things fall apart. Much of City of Smoke follows the breakdown of the Republic: the increasing violence between fascists and communists, the virulence of anti-Semitism, the suppression of intellectuals. Jazz, lesbianism, homosexuality, and a general sense of fin de siecle are some of the themes that Lutes explores.

Two shortcomings, while not at all fatal to Lutes' project, make the second volume of Berlin less wonderful than the first. At times, in order to add some historical detail to his story, Lutes becomes overly didactic (especially pp. 120-124). A weightier problem is the occasional sloppiness with which the panels are drawn. The artistry in Berlin, City of Stones was breathtaking. Here, occasionally, it seems cartoonish--for example, Lutes draws conventionally cartoonish clouds of anger above characters' heads instead of letting the anger showing on their faces tell the story (see, for instance, bottom panel on p. 173). In other places, the drawing lacks perspective and strikes one as preliminary sketches that were never completed (see, for example, the panels on p. 35).

Still, Jason Lutes' is creating a masterwork with his Berlin saga, and I now await the third volume as eagerly as I did the second.