Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir

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.