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A review by booksaremyjam
Berlin Book One: City of Stones by Jason Lutes
3.0
Simply drawn but complicatedly written, Berlin, Vol 1 is a groundwork graphic novel. Jason Lutes tackles 1920s Berlin and the unrest there which arguably allowed Adolf Hitler to come into power and do everything he did. Lutes gives us both sides, so the reader can begin to try to understand how every day people got swept up in such evil hate and malice. There are times where the narrative gets very very dense - but I suppose what better medium than a graphic novel to give a history lesson in 1920s German politics.
My only gripe (and this may not be fair) is that the drawings are so simple, and the timeframes not explicitly noted, that I sometimes got confused about which character I was following at which time, and what exactly they were standing for, and how I should feel about what is happening to them. I had to flip back on more than one occasion to reorient myself to a different character or space.
Oh, and bravo to Lutes for bringing a queer lens to this story. We damn well need more of those.
My only gripe (and this may not be fair) is that the drawings are so simple, and the timeframes not explicitly noted, that I sometimes got confused about which character I was following at which time, and what exactly they were standing for, and how I should feel about what is happening to them. I had to flip back on more than one occasion to reorient myself to a different character or space.
Oh, and bravo to Lutes for bringing a queer lens to this story. We damn well need more of those.