I'm not sure why I am surprised really . . . but I find it most intriguing and even a little surprising that graphic novels can tell such a good and satisfying story. I mean one which is done really well feels so complete, not like an episode in something that you expect to be much longer (am thinking, I suppose, of comics I read as a kid which were just serializations). I love Rutu Modan's writing and her illustrating. I loved Exit Wounds, and I think I like The Property even more. It really is a little curious that I find her characters so compelling and real in their way. But why not, really. I feel that way when I read a novel, but in this case there are illustrations that go along with the story and help tell it. The expressions of the characters, all the little visual details, just flesh (sorry, am not trying to be punny here) it out a little more.
Once again Modan tells a story that has a mystery at its center. Maybe it is better in this case to say a secret that will be revealed over the course of the novel. It is a secret that goes back to pre-WWII Warsaw, Poland. It's a story that is about one thing on the surface but something a little more private underneath. The story takes place over the course of one week as a woman and her granddaughter return to Warsaw, ostensibly to try and get back a piece of family property that was lost during the war.
Regina Segal is not a Holocaust survivor. She relocated to Israel, then Palestine, before the war and never returned but left behind people she loved. So many years later, after the death of her son she returns with her granddaughter Mica. Regina is a tough-minded sassy older woman and Mica an independent younger version. There is an obvious affection between the two but it's easy to see that Regina is holding something back from Mica. As Mica sets off to sightsee and try to find her grandmother's former home, Regina has another agenda entirely. One that is heartbreaking as she sifts through her memories of her life as a young woman in Warsaw.
As Mica navigates her way through modern-day Warsaw she is followed by a family-friend also traveling to Poland supposedly to attend a convention but he keeps Mica in his sights. She in turns falls in with a Polish tour guide who more than once saves her from the social snare of her fellow Israeli compatriot, who has his own hidden agenda concerning the Segal women. Yes, lots of criss crossing paths here and each with its own hidden agendas. It's as if each character holds a part of a snapshot, tells a little bit of the story from a different angle.
As Mica falls for her tour guide, and he almost seems too good to be true (a few of his own missteps threatens more confusion to untangle), Regina discovers that not everyone she loved and expected would be gone is actually lost. It throws her for a loop both physically and psychologically and lays her low. And Mica is none the wiser, at least in understanding why. The reader works it all out just as Mica does, a journey we all take together.
I thought this was such a clever and entertaining bit of storytelling. I am not sure graphic novels are the sort of work I might return to again later, but in the case of Rutu Modan's books, they are most definitely keepers. Two entirely different stories but they are signature Rutu Modan-style. There is a lot of wit in her storytelling, a nice amount of realism to imagine the characters stepping out of the book and into real life. Apparently the story is based on or inspired by events in Modan's family history so maybe the reverse is true--the people, the stories or inspiration step out of real life and into the pages of her books.
I wish she would publish more. I have already ordered Jamilti and Other Stories, which is a collection of her shorter works ordered and eagerly await its arrival in my mailbox. She has a couple of juvenile storybooks that look like easy-readers for young children. Otherwise I think I will have to dig around a bit online to see some of her other work, like War Rabbit which appears in the 'Graphic Lit' section of Words Without Borders (there is quite a lot of graphic works there which might be a good place to get a taste of other artist's/writer's works). There are also a number of shorter works by Modan that have appeared on the New York Times website as well as in the New York Times Magazine. I am especially interested in the works appearing on the website as they are also about Modan's grandmother who fled Warsaw before the war--though I am not sure if she is the same 'character' as Regina Segal or if Mica makes an appearance. I would happily read more about any of the characters from the two books. A complete list of her work is found on her Wikipedia entry.
I'm not sure if I will squeeze in anymore books by Israeli authors this year, but I will most certainly have a few lined up in 2016. After Jamilti I will have to look for a new graphic artist to try. Someone recommended Adrian Tomine, whose work I am sure I have seen in the pages of the New Yorker. Any other suggestions? If you are familiar with Rutu Modan, someone working in a similar vein (different subject matter of course but similar storytelling styles perhaps) would be of interest. Closest to hand at the moment, however, is French Milk by Lucy Knisley, which sits right next to my bed. I think its time has come.