Marzi: A Memoir

A collection of episodes from Sowa’s childhood form an engrossing picture of growing up in Communist Poland on the cusp of revolution. With the wide-eyed and skinny characterization of her child self (drawn by Belgian cartoonist Savoia), Sowa tells stories that evoke classic images of the Iron Curtain—long lines into sparsely stocked grocery stores, concrete apartment buildings, and factory smoke stacks—with a personal perspective. A sensitive and observant girl, Marzi is the perfect guide to her world as she tries to understand the workings of the Soviet-controlled state as well as the interactions of adults around her. Many of the panels are drawn from a child’s eye-level, fully pulling the reader into Marzi’s point of view. Marzi’s relationships with her father, an affable man whom she adores, and her mother, with whom she frequently clashes, are particularly well-developed and complex. Although each page has the same six-panel layout, the attractive cartooning, dialogue, and the quality of the narrative capture not only Marzi’s childhood but the story of Poland itself. Without being heavy-handed or sacrificing any of its singular charm, the book subtly invokes a comparison between the place of the children in society and that of the oppressed under authoritarian regimes. (Sept.)