Unterzakhn

Unterzakhn by Leela Corman (2012) 208 pages

Earlier this year I saw Book Riot's list "22 of the Best Graphic Novels of All Time." I added all the ones I didn't already have on my reading list to my "Want To Read" list. This historical fiction graphic novel sounded particularly interesting. It is about two sisters growing up on New York's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century. The title is Yiddish for "Underthings." We start in 1909 when Esther and Fanya are six. We progress to 1912, then there is a flashback to 1895 to learn how their father came to America. The story of the sisters continues in 1917 through 1923. Fanya finds education and work with an obstetrician, Bronia, who provides illegal, but desperately needed abortions for the poor immigrant population. Esther finds a different type of education and work with Miss Lucille, a madam of a brothel/burlesque house. The parents of Fanya and Esther, from the old world, have perhaps less influence on their lives than these two women. The book deals with many adult themes. The later portion of the story sees Esther taking a slightly larger role as she becomes a jazz age Broadway star. The ending is tragic and ironic, so the author leaves us with a short flashback to a funny, carefree episode when the girls were young.

A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York / Liana Finck

A charming new graphic novel.  The narrator receives an old notebook full of newspaper clippings, from which emerges the ghost of Abraham Cahan, famous founder of the Yiddish paper the Forward.  (I wrote about an interesting Cahan bio recently.)  Together the narrator and Cahan look at letters from Cahan's 100-year-old advice column, The Bintel Brief.  Finck brings the stories to life with quietly effective drawing, and shares Cahan's response to each letter.  Alongside the letter stories, which evoke Lower East Side life at the turn of the last century, Cahan and the narrator carry on their own dialogue, and before he departs Cahan has advice for our author as well.  Moving but not sentimental, this would make a great gift.  Recommended.