A Life Force

It's the early 1930s and times are tough at 55 Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx. There's not enough work to go around, most of the powers that be don't want to admit how bad things are, and people have to hang together to get by. And for the most part, they do. Jacob Shtarkah, a carpenter, after completing a five-year building project for the synagogue, finds they don't need his labor any longer. He also has a bad heart, and his wife isn't in such great shape either. Then there's Elton Shaftsbury, who manages to lose his inheritance, his position as a broker on Wall Street, and much of his self-respect. He ends up in the Bronx, where the living is cheaper, trying to find work and contemplating suicide -- and becoming acquainted with Jacob's daughter, Rebecca. The Black Hand is trying to get by, too, by pressuring illegal immigrants whom they helped to enter the country. Angelo, also a carpenter, is one of those -- but he and Jacob may be able to help each other. Willie, Jacob's teenaged son, is flirting with Red revolution, . . . but he'll choose his mother's cooking any day. And there's Frieda Gold, trapped in Nazi Germany, who turns to her old boyfriend -- Jacob, of course -- for help in escaping. But you know they'll all survive because they all share the life force, as exemplified by the cockroaches in the alley. Eisner practically invented the graphic novel form singlehanded, and the more of his stories I read, the more he takes me into his world. But this volume isn't just a "story." It's literature, a saga of immigrant striving, of muddling through against the odds. Great stuff.

This is an examination of the hopes, fears and daily lives Bronx residents during the 1930's and 40's. It takes place during a time period which contained The Great Depression and WWII, but with focus on residents of a Bronx tenement, and how these global events have impact on their lives.Again, Eisner has created art so real, you actually feel these tenement dwellers emotions.