Natan Sharansky, hero of a graphic novel

Once upon a time, the Jews of the Soviet Union were living under a government at least as oppressive as the Pharaon of Egypt during the Pesach story.

For the very young readers, Natan Sharansky and his fight against the enormous power of the Soviet Union may not mean too much. After all, who does remember the Soviet Union if never lived there or in its vicinity? However, in another reality, this conglomerate of nations, cultures and languages kept Jews captive either by refusing them the right to a passport and to their trip to Israel - or out of the country - or simply imprisoning those who reclaimed their identity.

Sharansky was born in the same year with the state of Israel - 1948 - in the nowadays Ukraine. A passionate chess player, he enroled in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology - one of the few accepting Jews in the Soviet Union. Belonging to a very secular family, as many other Jews from all over the world, he became inspired by the victory of Israel during the 6-Day War. He reclaimed his identity, by being interested to learn Hebrew and eventually become closer to religious practice. As he was employed by the Institute for Oil and Gas in Moscow, his visa was denied due to his familiarity with ´state secrets´. His wife, Avital, that he married one day before she left for Israel, was waiting for him and soon she will become his voice and supporter. Arrested in March 1977 and brought to Lefortovo KGB Prison he will spent over 400 days touring the Soviet prisons. His liberation was requested at public gatherings all over the world and was finally decided following the 1986 meeting between Gorbatchev and his American counterpart, Ronald Reagan.

In the context of the lockdown stories, Sharansky - now living in Israel and since then holding various official positions, including as the top head of Jewish Agency for Israel - shared how he was able to survive solitary confinment while imagining various chess moves. This helped him to keep his brain sharp. 

The graphic novel featuring all those stories long forgotten, Natan Sharansky. Freedom Fighter for Soviet Jews is the team work of Blake Hoena (text) and Daniele Dickmann (illustrations). The text is dense and includes a lot of useful information. I was not very impressed by the illustrations but it´s a matter of personal taste and expectations. Overall, it is an useful book, aimed to remind about a very dramatic episode in the history of contemporary Jewry. Hopefully, there will be more such works that will keep the memory alive, for a variety of readership.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Personal Histories in Comic Strips

There is no other graphic way to express the tragi-comic historical drama than through strongly visual appealing images. Bring it the broken bodies with blood and enormous hearts taken out of the body, multi-dimensional realities and psychotic thoughts.

The Realist, by Asaf Hanuka - which I've read in the German translation - is an autobiographical comic book about an illustrator living in Tel Aviv. Although some of of the interpretations might be considered as breathing a dramatic pessimism, it is not a wrong-placed feeling. It makes sense to be like this when you feel that life and its masters are faster than you. But I don't think that one should read this book with a sad twist. That's the realism, the title refers to that is the best way to describe this life: you are sinking into debts for reaching a minimum life standards, you work a lot and still unable to make your family happy, you feel under threat of various military attacks, you dream - realistically - that the protests for the unbearable costs of the living are the beginning of a better life (it was just a dream). Besides the personal story, there are other information intertwinned in the story, such as stories of Iraqi Jews coming to Israel or even about some long forgotten bands from the 70s.

I've followed the multi-awarded Asaf Hanuka for too long to remember when and how I actually discovered his works. His illustrations were published in Forbes, Politico and Wall Street Journal, among many others, and he was a contributor to Waltz with Bashir. His twin brother Tomer, is also an illustrator. 

It is fascinating how he succeeds to create through colours and multi-dimensional illustrations fantastic emotional stories. The images are not only alive, but able to transmit feelings - raw, some of them - and strong impressions. There is a strength of the images that leads you into the story without asking. You are becoming part of the story told. For me, it is the perfect way to make comic strips reliable mediums for story telling, regardless what kind of stories do you want to tell.