Customer Reviews

Rebellion (Jew in Communist Prague) (v. 3)

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This third installment (following Loss of Innocence and Adolescence) of Italian cartoonist Giardino's graphic novel series about a Jewish boy growing up in Communist Prague concentrates on the developing relationship between title character Jonas and fellow teen Tatiana Gostrov. Of course, since he's the son of a political prisoner and she's the daughter of a Soviet diplomat, they are forced to see each other in secret. Meanwhile, the bookseller for whom Jonas works is coming under increasing scrutiny by the secret police. Over the course of the short (56 page) book, Jonas moves from outsider in his group of intellectual teenage friends, to a leader of them. As with the other books, the story is drawn in the lovely realistic style I tend to associate with European cartoonists, and colored with an appropriately subdued palate of grays and browns. And, as with the other books, it's all too brief-one day this series will be assembled an excellent single volume.

the art is forceful, somewhat stylized. Faces and personalities are delineated with simple precision. The adaptions the characters make to live under a dictatorship while remaining human and intelligent give the reader hope for our civilization. As soon as you finish you turn to the front and start reading it again!