On Vox: book thoughts: Berlin: City of Stones & Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon History of Hiroshima

[orangerful]

Berlin: City of Stones: Book One (Part 1)

I just happened to pick up both of these books at the same time, each of them recommended by two different friends for different reasons.  But I found it interesting to read them one after the other, since they are connected in a few different ways.

Barefoot Gen 1

Keiji/ Project Gen (TRN)/ Spiegelman, Art Nakazawa

'Barefoot Gen' is the story of a Japanese family living in Hiroshima during WWII (based on the actual life of author/artist Keiji Nakazawa).  Their father does not agree with the war or Japan's part in it.  My knowledge of the pacific front is very low - everyone tends to focus on the European front in school, books, movies etc. And even less do we hear about what life was like for the normal people living in Japan at the time.  When Gen's father openly criticizes the Japanese government (and by doing that, insulting the Emperor), his family is shunned by the town.  Abused even. 

I found some of the violence a bit shocking, but then again, its a very militaristic culture.  The father is constantly beating the boys when the misbehave, and other random people also smack them around!  Not sure if this is just a convention of the manga medium or actually reflective of the time.  Still, it happened a LOT. 

The drawings are very simple, reminding me of Persepolis, where the point was for this man to tell his story, not make great leaps and bounds in the art and style of Manga. 

I found this book fascinating and think it would be great to give to a teen who loves manga, slip a little history in there.  I've only read volume 1 but I'm looking forward to the rest of the series and seeing what happens after the bomb falls.

Berlin: City of Stones is about Germany before WWII.  Again, the focus is on everyday people, their lives, and their reaction to what their government is doing (the rumor of weapons being stockpiled even though Germany wasn't supposed to be doing that).  Again, I felt as though I learned a bit while reading through the stories, especially about the Communist party in Germany. 
The art is a bit more advanced than Barefoot Gen, but not by much.  A few times I had an issue with telling the female characters apart.  If it hadn't been for their male counterparts, I might have had issues following the story. 

If you're looking for a way to vicariously learn about history, these two books should fill that need and get you thinking about the other side that we don't really get to see in 'Band of Brothers' or 'Saving Private Ryan'...not that they were misunderstood, but just in general what was going on with the average person during those war years.

Originally posted on orangerful.vox.com

Comments

[ekaterin24.livejournal.com]

Great review of Barefoot Gen! I'm glad you loved it also. Nakawzawa's portrayal of what ordinary Japanese people went through in WWII is one of the things I love most about it--and one of the most painful. Yeah, the art's pretty simple. I think it's classic 1970s style, from what little I know of that era of manga.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Thanks! As soon as I'm done with my current pile of books, I'm going to order volume 2.

[toothlesshag.livejournal.com]

Cool, I'm interested in the barefoot gen book.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I would definitely recommend it...Anne Arundel doesn't have it, but you can MARINA it from another county (that's how I got it)

of course, now I'm wondering what the reaction to the book was like in Japan...

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

wow, I guess I haven't been here in a while, I totally missed this. Yeah, you're right about the faces in Berlin- I sort of forgot about that. He would have been better off making them all mice- haha. What really bugged me was that he can't seem to draw a convincing kid, which is unfortunate because in the 2nd book the daughter of the communist mother's story is picked up, and you really wish he would draw her better because she's a good character. The thing about the drawing that made me love the book, though, was all the background because I'm a city nut and I like seeing how things might have looked back then. And the city is sort of a character too.

I'll wait for the third book to come out before I decide whether to recommend that you go on, because I thought the 2nd book was weaker. What I didn't like about it was that it seemed like some of my favorite characters (Kurt, Marthe the art student and her school friends) got backgrounded in favor of new less interesting stories that honestly I can't even remember at the moment. And I liked the communist mom, and of course she's not around in book 2. I have a feeling that it's the "part two of a trilogy" syndrome and that book 3 will be better, but I'll let you know.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

keep me posted...I'm not even sure if anyone around here has book 2...and if Kurt and Marthe aren't in it, why bother???? I mean, they were the central characters for me! Yeah, let me know if book 3 makes book 2 worth going through.