The Property
Ratings6
Average rating4.3
INCLUDED ON MORE THAN TEN BEST OF THE YEAR LISTS, INCLUDING THE GUARDIAN, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, SALON, AMAZON, AND THE WASHINGTON POST! "Modan delights in bringing the subtlest emotional shadings to vivid and often comical life on the page...[The Property is a] wryly funny and ultimately wrenching graphic novel." —NPR The award-winning author of Exit Wounds returns with a story about secrets, money, and the bonds of love The Property is a work that will inspire, fascinate, and delight readers and critics alike. Savvy and insightful, elegant and subtle, Rutu Modan’s second full-length graphic novel is a triumph of storytelling and fine lines. After the death of her son, Regina Segal takes her granddaughter Mica to Warsaw, hoping to reclaim a family property lost during the Second World War. As they get to know modern Warsaw, Regina is forced to recall difficult things about her past, and Mica begins to wonder if maybe their reasons for coming aren’t a little different than what her grandmother led her to believe. Modan offers up a world populated by prickly seniors, smart-alecky public servants, and stubborn women—a world whose realism is expressed alternately in the absurdity of people’s behavior and in the complex consequences of their sacrifices. Modan’s ever-present wit is articulated perfectly in her clear-line style, while a subtle, almost muted color palette complements the true-to-life nuances of her characterization. Exit Wounds made a huge splash for this signature combination of wit, style, and realism, and The Property will cement Modan’s status as one of the foremost cartoonists working today.
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This story does a wonderful job of illustrating the pain our own cultural and familial barriers cause us. The way a person's personal shame and secrets can be passed through the generations is a theme that is timeless. How we navigate these things is like sculpting. It in part shapes us to who we are and in part reveals who we are deep down. Fantastic story.
Beautiful artwork and an intriguing family history/discovery story. Good read.
This was such a beautiful, understated book, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page.
Modan's artwork is clean and beautiful, and kind of reminded me of a cross between Tintin and infographics. It truly shines when depicting wide views of scenery or commotion like large public spaces, plane cabins or mountain views.
The story unfolds at a steady pace, weaving together personal relationships and history, and though the twists are not sudden or very surprising per se, they were earned and interesting. You don't end up feeling like you know the characters any more than at the beginning of the book, but more like you've just been dropped into their lives to observe a small window of their lives and then pop out again, which is a style of narrative that I really enjoy. Modan also is quite inventive in the way she communicates story elements, like the flashbacks and the speech bubbles full of scribbles when the pov character doesn't understand the language being spoken.
It's hard to describe the way that the book delivers its emotional punches. The same subject matter in another medium or a different author might have had my eyes watering and my chin quivering, but Modan handles things with restraint in a very understated, pragmatic way. While it may not have elicited as many outward reactions from me, it was no less affecting or satisfying as a more tear-jerking avenue might have. I was absorbed into the story and characters from beginning to end, and my reaction built up little by little, until it had me hugging the book tightly when I finished it.
If I had to muster up some criticisms, there were two characters in particular that felt a little tonally off from the rest of them, but they served a purpose, and weren't too distracting, and one or two of the subplot resolutions were a little pat, but while they could have been fleshed out more, they didn't feel like cheap wrap-ups.
I borrowed this from the library but I will definitely be buying a copy of my own to keep.
