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"A mesmerizing, heartbreaking graphic novel of immigrant life on New York's Lower East Side at the turn of the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of twin sisters whose lives take radically and tragically different paths. For six-year-old Esther and Fanya, the teeming streets of New York's Lower East Side circa 1910 are both a fascinating playground and a place where life's lessons are learned quickly and often cruelly. In drawings that capture both the tumult and the telling details of that street life, Unterzakhn (Yiddish for 'Underthings') tells the story of these sisters: as wide-eyed little girls absorbing the sights and sounds of a neighborhood of struggling immigrants; as teenagers taking their own tentative steps into the wider world (Esther working for a woman who runs both a burlesque theater and a whorehouse, Fanya for an obstetrician who also performs illegal abortions); and, finally, as adults battling for their own piece of the 'golden land,' where the difference between just barely surviving and triumphantly succeeding involves, for each of them, painful decisions that will have unavoidably tragic repercussions" -- from publisher's web site.… (more)
User reviews
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.