Soviet Daughter
Description:
Soviet Daughter provides a window into the life of a rebellious, independent woman coming of age in the USSR, and the impact of her story and her spirit on her American great-granddaughter, two extraordinary women swept up in the history of their tumultuous times.
This is the story of Julia Alekseyeva and her great-grandmother Lola. Born in 1910 to a poor, Jewish family outside of Kiev, Lola lived through the Bolshevik revolution, a horrifying civil war, Stalinist purges, and the Holocaust. She taught herself to read, and supported her extended family working as a secretary for the notorious NKVD (which became the KGB) and later as a lieutenant for the Red Army. Interwoven with Lola's history we find Julia's own struggles of coming of age in an immigrant family in Chicago, and her political awakening in the midst of the radical politics of the turn of the millenium.
At times heartbreaking and at times funny, this graphic novel memoir unites two generations of strong, independent women against a sweeping backdrop of the history of the USSR.
My review:
A horrendously gripping graphic novel. A nonfiction historical memoir of Khinya Ignatovskaya (Lola), written by her great grand-daughter Julia Alekseyeva.
“Lola had written a memoir and instructed us not to read it before she died. What lay inside was astonishing. This is the story held within her memoirs, growing up over the course of the 20th century. In between each chapter of Lola’s life, you will find a short slice of my own 21st century coming of age. It’s a story of our two generations, separated by 80 years-but somehow united in spite of everything.” –Julia Alekseyeva p.6
This tribute is absolutely stunning in content in every way. The story, the plot, the timing, the artwork. All created by the talented great grand-daughter.
I stumbled upon this novel purely by accident snooping through graphic novels locally because I am always on the hunt for historical fiction and non-fiction reads. I am so glad I found it because it is AMAZING. It is the true accounts in history and humanity that get to me the most. I sometimes think that reading them is my way of saying, it is not forgotten and you’re sacrifice is not lost.
This is the blurb you can find on her websitehttp://www.jalekseyeva.com/news/ as well as an interview of the author and all her other works:
“Soviet Daughter is the story of Julia Alekseyeva's great-grandmother Lola. Born in 1910 to a poor, Jewish family outside of Kiev, Lola lived through the Bolshevik revolution, a horrifying civil war, Stalinist purges, and the Holocaust. She taught herself to read, and supported her extended family working as a secretary for the notorious NKVD (which became the KGB) and later as a lieutenant for the Red Army. Her family, including 4-year-old Julia, moved to the U.S. in the wake of Chernobyl and forged a new life. Interleaved with Lola's history we find Julia's own struggles of coming of age in an immigrant family and her political awakening in the midst of the radical politics of the turn of the millennium.”
“At times heartbreaking and at times funny, this graphic novel memoir unites two generations of strong, independent women against a sweeping backdrop of the history of the USSR. Like Sarah Glidden in How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, or Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis, Alekseyeva deftly combines compelling stories of women finding their way in the world with an examination of the ties we all have with our families, ethnicities, and the still-fresh traumas of the 20th century.”
Soviet Daughter was published January 10, 2017-- 100 years after the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
I highly recommend this graphic novel to historical fiction and non-fiction readers alike and I will be on the lookout for future works of her. I have a feeling we will be seeing, hearing and reading a lot more from this talented lady. Very well done and it will stay with me for a long time I'm sure.