To the Heart of the Storm

by Will Eisner

Overview

An extraordinary autobiography story from a legend in American comics.

A historical novel touching on prejudice, assimilation, and anti-Semitism, this sweeping saga takes us from New York in the eighteenth century to Vienna before World War I, and finally to America during the depression and World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393328103
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Born in New York City, Will Eisner (1917–2005) was the author of the legendary comic strip The Spirit, as well as fifteen graphic novels and three influential instructional textbooks. The comic industry’s top awards, the Eisner Awards, are named in his honor.

Editorial Reviews

Structured around the induction of a young man much like himself into the army in 1942, Eisner's ( A Life Force ) autobiographical graphic novel examines the lives of Jewish immigrants and their children in pre-WW II Europe and America. As young Willie's troop train heads south, his window is transformed into a view of his family's past, full of the suffering and blunt anti-Semitism that characterized the times. Willie relives the death of his mother's father, who had immigrated to America in 1880, and the dispersal of her family among relatives and strangers. Willie's father--an aspiring artist in old Vienna--comes to the U.S. after the outbreak of the first world war to become a small-time businessman. Eisner's story is appealing but marred by schmaltzy confrontations and melodramatic graphics. He excels at recreating the family's daily struggle to survive, yet his characters and situations incline toward stereotype and his depictions of emotions--tearful eyes raised to heaven in joy or archly furrowed brows at the delivery of bad news--border on cliche. A vivid but flawed work from an acknowledged master of the comics medium. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly