City of Smoke

Picking up immeadiately following the May Day, 1929 demonstrations, Jason Lutes continues his story of journalist Kurt Severing and student Marthe Muller in the waning days of the Weimar Republic. As with in Berlin: City of Stones: Book One (Part 1), the voices of other Berliners weave in and out of the narrative - including a sub-plot involving some American jazz musicians that I partiuclarly enjoyed. The story is bitter-sweet, not only in terms of the relationshipe between Kurt and Marthe, but for the city of Berlin itself. Again Lutes creates both a sympathetic view of Berlin in the late 20s and early 30s (as one character puts it, "Its a madhouse - things are on the verge of collapse! Can't any of you feel it? The air is thick with imminent disaster, and we spend our time doodling the days away like children") showing how Germany's post-war republic gradually dissolved into a fascist dictatorship. A closer read shows a real appreciation for the city - from the slang (referring to police as "Bulls" - slang that is not as benign as "cop" nor as acidic as "pig" - but somewhere in the middle) to depicitions of the city - especially the neighborhood Wedding (referred to as "Red Wedding" for its strong working-class feel) to bits of dialoge about the Spree or a scene of the Seigelsaule. Clearly Lutes knows his stuff. While graphic novels may not be to everyone's taste, I would without hesitation recommend this book to anyone given its strengths.

Jason Lutes takes us on a wild and seemingly dreamlike story of Berlin going mad. The development of the characters of Marthe Muller and Kurt Severing goes on a severe roller coaster ride as is indicative of the political times in this Prussian Capital. The development of the various subplots, with the Communists and the Jewish family, play out a rather chaotic display of emotions and political thought. Also Lutes introduces American Negros into the cabaret lifestyle which ran rampant in the Pre-Nazi Berlin. Jazz, liquor and cocaine along with a decadent Teutonic advent guard populace were common mainstays in the "City built on a Marsh". The Author develops a flowing and quick prose along with a grand black and white depiction of a Berlin heading into the abyss of Nazism. Although this graphic novel is fiction, the very basis is historically accurate. Mr. Lutes is to be commended! Six Stars!! No Problem!!!

I've eagerly awaited the appearance of Jason Lute second volume of Berlin. Now that it's appeared, I realize that it was well worth waiting for. But it also seems to me that there's a bit of a decline in the meticulous craftsmanship that characterized the first volume. The story line continues in expected ways from an historical perspective, but in quite unexpected ways from the perspective of the characters. The most searing change is in the relationship between Kurt Severing, the increasingly disillusioned pacifist, leftist, and political journalist, and his young love Marthe Muller, whom he introduces to the cultural life of Berlin. What happens to Marthe and Kurt seems to parallel what's happening to the Weimar Republic in general: things fall apart. Much of City of Smoke follows the breakdown of the Republic: the increasing violence between fascists and communists, the virulence of anti-Semitism, the suppression of intellectuals. Jazz, lesbianism, homosexuality, and a general sense of fin de siecle are some of the themes that Lutes explores. Two shortcomings, while not at all fatal to Lutes' project, make the second volume of Berlin less wonderful than the first. At times, in order to add some historical detail to his story, Lutes becomes overly didactic (especially pp. 120-124). A weightier problem is the occasional sloppiness with which the panels are drawn. The artistry in Berlin, City of Stones was breathtaking. Here, occasionally, it seems cartoonish--for example, Lutes draws conventionally cartoonish clouds of anger above characters' heads instead of letting the anger showing on their faces tell the story (see, for instance, bottom panel on p. 173). In other places, the drawing lacks perspective and strikes one as preliminary sketches that were never completed (see, for example, the panels on p. 35). Still, Jason Lutes' is creating a masterwork with his Berlin saga, and I now await the third volume as eagerly as I did the second.