I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This: A Graphic Memoir

Gr 10 Up–Yelchin wrote about his early life of growing up in Cold War Russia in his previous children’s book, The Genius Under the Table, with a mix of prose and illustration. This follow-up is a graphic memoir about his life in his 20s, still behind the Iron Curtain, still an artist, and now much more aware of the KGB’s stranglehold on citizens. His choice to stay close his mother and grandmother and exhibit his art underground leads to a chance encounter with Libby, an American woman, interested in understanding Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union. Her limited Russian and his limited English make for an oddly romantic connection from the start. The graphic memoir asks for a lot of prior knowledge from readers, and those with only an understanding of present-day Russia may require additional aid in contextualizing that country’s push into Afghanistan, the 1980 Olympics, and anti-Jewish sentiment. But what the book lacks in foundation, it makes up for in tone. Through dialogue and black-and-white illustrations, Yelchin captures the harsh reality of being forced to choose between immigrating, serving time in the military, or marrying an American—only to end up in an asylum, separated from both family and Libby. The tumultuous time is evenly distributed among the short chapters, introduced by a few punctuated words to usher in the drama.