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.