Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir

Chinese artist-activist Weiwei’s poignant, meditative graphic memoir debut opens as he speaks to his son about the past, and the “powerful men”—such as Mao Zedong—who “made decisions for everybody” during the cultural revolution, including what few books people were allowed to read. Weiwei interweaves his family’s story and that of his own development (and persecution) as an artist alongside Chinese fables and folktales as an act of resistance. Dividing the work into chapters named for the 12 signs of the Zodiac, Weiwei philosophizes through anecdotes (“You like speaking in metaphors,” says his partner and mother of his son) that unfold in understated yet intricately drawn black-and-white comics by Constantini. Among other memories, Weiwei recounts living in exile underground with his family as a child (“in a burrow dug in the desert”) and how his father, Ai Qing, an “enemy to the party,” first turned from painting to poetry while jailed. “An artist has to be the beginning of a story, not the end,” Weiwei opines, emphasizing the potential of art to connect people and ideas. “We must combat fear with the truth.” This is a sage and inventive embroidery of philosophy, family memoir, and cultural history. Agents: (for Weiwei) Peter and Amy Bernstein, Bernstein Literary. (Jan.)