Soviet daughter : a graphic revolution

Title:

Author:

Summary:

"The story in comics of Lola, the author's great-grandmother, who lived an adventurous life as a feminist, secret service agent, military nurse, and Jewish refugee in the soviet Ukraine. The story is interweaved with the author's political and romantic coming-of-age a century later in present-day Chicago"-- Provided by publisher.

General Note:

Graphic novel.

Physical Description:

191 pages : illustrations, map ; 20 cm

Genre:

Biographical comics.

Nonfiction comics.

Graphic novels.

Comics (Graphic works)

Subject Term:

Jewish women -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Publisher:

Microcosm Publishing,

Publication Date:

2017

ISBN:

9781621069690

Publication Information:

Portland, OR : Microcosm Publishing, 2017.

Call Number:

741.5 ALEKSEY

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003216374	Adult Nonfiction	741.5 ALEKSEY	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

This is the story of Julia Alekseyeva and her great-grandmother Lola. Born in 1910 to a poor, Jewish family outside of Kiev, Lola lived through the Bolshevik revolution, a horrifying civil war, Stalinist purges, and the Holocaust. She taught herself to read, and supported her extended family working as a secretary for the notorious NKVD (which became the KGB) and later as a lieutenant for the Red Army. Interwoven with Lola's history we find Julia's own struggles of coming of age in an immigrant family in Chicago, and her political awakening in the midst of the radical politics of the turn of the millennium.

Author Notes

Born in the former USSR and raised a proud citizen of Chicago, Julia Alekseyeva is an author-illustrator as well as an academic. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at Harvard, specializing in the avant-garde and film practices in France, Japan, and the former USSR.

Julia has received press from publications such as Reuters , The New York Times , and Bloomberg Business for illustrating the first graphic novel legal brief, submitted as an amicus brief in U.S.A. vs. Apple. She has lived in Kiev, Chicago, New York City, Paris, Cambridge, Kanazawa, and Yokohama, and currently lives in Brooklyn with her partner.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this debut graphic memoir, Alekseyeva presents a history of strong women finding their way in hostile systems. Alekseyeva feels isolated after moving to America as a child in 1992, but she finds a kindred spirit in her great-grandmother Lola, a tough-spirited Ukrainian Jew who cut her own trail in a patriarchal, anti-Semitic Soviet Union. The bulk of the memoir is Lola's incredible tale of pluck, joy, and hard-fought survival, graduating from factory work to a position at the exalted and feared Stalinist secret police, the NKVD. Lola faces brutality, near starvation, and the death of most of her family, but she keeps the spark of idealism and romance alive in her independent-minded flings and bookworm ways. Alekseyeva's "Interludes," in which she traces her own evolution as a millennial dreamer and activist, make for interesting bookends but strain too hard to tie her own experiences to Lola's. A panoramic personal history with fantastic raw material that suffers from some inexpertly drawn art and poor lettering. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Alekseyeva's first full-length graphic memoir serves as a loving tribute to her great-grandmother Lola while intertwining her own immigrant experience in America. Lola was born outside of Kiev, Ukraine, in 1910 to a poor Jewish family. She lived through some of the most perilous times in history, including the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, civil war, Stalinist purges, and the Holocaust, which took the lives of her parents and other family members. Although she experienced near starvation and death, Lola managed to survive and start a family of her own. After the frightening Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Lola immigrated to America with her family, which included Julia. Throughout, the author weaves in her own narrative of assimilating in a new country, including learning a new language, being asked by her mother to deny her Jewish heritage, and later being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The black-and-white watercolor illustrations convey an intimate style that works well for this very personal account. Verdict This authentically rendered story of strong, independent women will appeal to both adults and teens, especially those who enjoy graphic biographies such as Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.-Lucy Roehrig, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.