Will Eisner

Chronicles the lives of ordinary people surviving the Great Depression in the Bronx, portraying the economic collapse, leftist politics, and rise in Nazism.

A Life Force

Bryan Alexander

I just came across this thanks to a friend of my daughter's. An Eisner I haven't read - excellent.

Life Force is a novel about characters living in a Brooklyn tenement during the early Great Depression. They are a rich mix: Italian and Jewish immigrants, a ruined WASP, children, gangsters and carpenters. Their individual aspirations and cross-hatched interactions build the very energetic plot. We get love affairs, broken hearts, left-wing organizing, business plans, murders, dealing with the disabled, Nazis, fires, and lots of food.

Above all there are Eisner's character portraits. Such faces, such bodies! 

The title refers to one leading character's quest for meaning. Jacob Shtarkah is a Jewish carpenter (ahem) who obsesses over cockroaches and people, wondering how and why we continue in life. Eisner keeps this theme before us throughout the book, nicely avoiding either overwhelming the story or letting the tale devolve into soap opera. Each character confronts this ancient problem, with Shtarkah a kind of framing character. 

There are more Eisner tales about Dropsie Avenue? Can't wait.

A Life Force

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