Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

An ambitious debut by a graphic artist whose work succeeds on multiple levels, both visually and in terms of the textual narrative.Toward the end of what is billed as a graphic memoir, Kurzweil (Writing and Comics/Parson School of Design) reflects, "the women in my family have certain stories to tell. Why does it feel like I'm not the protagonist of my own life?" And she isn't of her own memoir, at least through one of the predominant strains intertwining in this narrative of the relationships among three generations of women in one family. The most dramatic is the one she relates of a time even before she and her mother were born: she shares her Jewish grandmother's story, in her Bubbe's words, of escaping from the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto, living among gentiles as an orphan, and then marrying a Jewish man and reclaiming her identity. The author's story encompasses that of her grandmother and also the author's mother, a psychotherapist from whom her frequently anxious daughter learned, "psychology is a container. It grows that which would go wild. It civilizes." Thus her mother's perspective and the typical mother-daughter tensions become integral to the author's quest for identity. What kind of daughter is she? What kind of Jew? What kind of artist? The drawings are excellent, including maps that provide the psychological dimension of Kurzweil's interior life, dreamscapes, and travels, including study abroad in Israel. She ultimately makes a life of her own in Brooklyn, as an artist, with a series of apartments, where "to order the objects of real life, the things I can feel and name, reminds me that my life is my own, and it has not, although it might seem otherwise, been pre-written." A debut that enriches and extends the potential of graphic narrative.

ALA Booklist (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Early in Kurzweil's autobiographical first graphic novel, she depicts her young self asking her psychoanalyst mother why therapy takes place on a couch. Her mother answers, "It's a comfortable way to travel!" In these pages, in her black-and-white cartoons, Amy does just that, through her own childhood and self-discovery as an artist, on visits to her grandmother and trips to Israel and Germany and to Holocaust-era Poland, where her Jewish grandmother struggled to survive when a young girl by disguising herself as a gentile. Moving fluidly back and forth through generations and her own life, Kurzweil considers the influences of ancestral experience upon one's present. High-contrast, simplified images suit the often heavy subject matter well and leave plenty of space for text, some of it her grandmother's harrowing story in typewritten font and in her grandmother's own words. Kurzweil's personal challenges, such as her exploration of which Jewish identity to adopt and her grandmother's current, giggle-inducing behavior as an aging Polish American, offer, when placed alongside her grandmother's unimaginable hardships, a unique way of considering the context of one's life.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

An ambitious debut by a graphic artist whose work succeeds on multiple levels, both visually and in terms of the textual narrative.Toward the end of what is billed as a graphic memoir, Kurzweil (Writing and Comics/Parson School of Design) reflects, "the women in my family have certain stories to tell. Why does it feel like I'm not the protagonist of my own life?" And she isn't of her own memoir, at least through one of the predominant strains intertwining in this narrative of the relationships among three generations of women in one family. The most dramatic is the one she relates of a time even before she and her mother were born: she shares her Jewish grandmother's story, in her Bubbe's words, of escaping from the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto, living among gentiles as an orphan, and then marrying a Jewish man and reclaiming her identity. The author's story encompasses that of her grandmother and also the author's mother, a psychotherapist from whom her frequently anxious daughter learned, "psychology is a container. It grows that which would go wild. It civilizes." Thus her mother's perspective and the typical mother-daughter tensions become integral to the author's quest for identity. What kind of daughter is she? What kind of Jew? What kind of artist? The drawings are excellent, including maps that provide the psychological dimension of Kurzweil's interior life, dreamscapes, and travels, including study abroad in Israel. She ultimately makes a life of her own in Brooklyn, as an artist, with a series of apartments, where "to order the objects of real life, the things I can feel and name, reminds me that my life is my own, and it has not, although it might seem otherwise, been pre-written." A debut that enriches and extends the potential of graphic narrative.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Kurzweil intersperses loose anecdotes from her own life with stories of her grandmother-s survival in Poland during World War II, to present portraits of three generations of women in her family. As a child, Amy is anxious and frequently unable to sleep. Her mother, a psychotherapist, offers wordy lectures on stress management. Amy-s grandmother Bubbe is introduced as a tanned, tube top-wearing retiree who protects her carpets with tacky beach towels. Bubbe-s struggles during the war are the strongest part of this book, but unfortunately Kurzweil-s cartoony drawing style, mostly devoid of backgrounds or traditional panel structures, often fails to do these harrowing experiences justice. Kurzweil is clearly a devote of Alison Bechdel, but this book lacks the refinement of Fun Home. One revealing page juxtaposes an image of Amy standing mournfully beside the Wailing Wall with one of her smiling and giving a peace sign while riding a camel. Is she a sojourner or a tourist? The various strands of this book never quite come together. (Oct.)

School Library Journal (Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Gr 7 Up-An intergenerational exploration of identity and family history in graphic memoir format. Jewish comics artist Kurzweil narrates her own coming of age as she contends with her therapist mother and her sometimes distant World War II survivor grandmother. The three women's stories interconnect as the young Amy goes from neurotic child to Stanford University graduate and working artist. Sprinkled throughout is her grandmother's testimony as a Polish Jew who escaped the Warsaw ghetto by pretending to be a gentile. Themes of guilt, Jewish identity, and the complex relationships among daughters, mothers, and grandmothers are central to this work and are expanded upon with humor and honesty. The loose, sometimes sketchy drawings are done in black-and-white and often fill the page, giving the volume a larger-than-life, all-encompassing feel. The images communicate what is often left unsaid by the characters. Joy, horror, connections, love, and family fill the spreads, reflecting the strength of each character. Because of the age of the narrator and most of the subjects, this book is better suited for older readers, especially those interested in the traumatic effects of war on families. VERDICT A good choice for libraries looking to bolster their graphic memoir collections, especially those seeking titles on the Jewish experience. Shelley M. Diaz , School Library Journal

Voice of Youth Advocates

Kurzweil may be standing on the shoulders of giants like Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, and Gene Luen Yang with her debut graphic novel, but she is in no way standing in their shadow. Her tale intertwines three generations of her family: her grandmother, her mother, and herself. The centerpiece of the narrative is her Bubbe, who survives the Holocaust by escaping her Warsaw Ghetto and pretending to be a gentile, but Kurzweil also delves into her relationship with her mother, a child therapist, as well as her own journey as a young Jewish woman looking to discover her identity and voice as an artist.Kurzweil breathes life and uniqueness into her memoir by focusing on the details of existence, such as her and her mother sharing a laugh at Bubbe's expense for confusing "good s'American" for "good Samaritan." She takes an unflinching look at her own childhood neuroses, presenting a subtle perspective on how she, while not having experienced the literal traumas endured by her mother and Bubbe, still carries scars echoing those of the women who have shaped her life. This is a highly recommended title for purchase in libraries serving young adult readers. Those who enjoy graphic memoirs will love this unique story.Sean Rapacki.