Belonging a German reckons with home and history
Ratings17
Average rating4.2
Graphically beautiful and almost like a scrapbook. This book is exactly about what it says in the title and I highly recommend it. Belonging, home, one's people and places - warts and all.
Belonging is a nonfiction comic about family history, specifically a German woman's search for the role her ancestors played in Nazi Germany. Krug talks about the impact of the Holocaust on German collective identity. She was born decades after WWII, but had several school trips and lessons about the progression of the regime. She includes scans of assignments where she and her peers annotated Hitler's speeches, analyzing how Nazis used propaganda. Even so, Krug brims with unanswered questions about where her family fits into all this.At one point, Krug talks about American Germans having an almost American-like pride in German culture. While Germans in Germany carry shame over the blood shed on their soil, Germans in the US wave German flags with fervor in American streets. Want to feel good about being German? Just do it in America. The exceptionalism will trickle down.Belonging explores messy, complex, human topics: family, history, culture. The epistolary artwork is a perfect representation of Krug's ongoing efforts to piece together identity. I liked the depiction of research—as including both archives and thrift shops, both historians and obscure internet forums. If you have interest in archival research, genealogy, or liked [b:Good Talk 36700347 Good Talk A Memoir in Conversations Mira Jacob https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534098775l/36700347.SX50.jpg 56227420], I'd recommend Belonging.
A fantastic graphic memoir that deals with the inherited guilt that comes with being German.
