Berlin: City of Stones Part 1 [Paperback]

Pure distilled Lutes. If you liked "Jar Of Fools", you'll love this volume as well.
The plot follows the lives of several individuals, normal people in abnormal times, small wishes trapped in a nation that is slowly going mad. A secluded journalist, a shy artist girl, a middle-class jewish family, a prole german family, a down-to-earth policeman, and then war veterans, art students, faction leaders, demonstrations, desperation, dreams, violence, love... they all mix up to paint a vivid landscape of the unstable Berlin between the two Wars, without ever being didascalic, always looking at the people, what they see, what they feel... and the end of the volume is just heartbreaking (if a bit predictable).

As someone who studied the Republic of Weimar quite thoroughly, I have to say that Lutes is careful with the references; but this book is mostly about the emotional portrait of a generation that didn't recognise the blowing wind of history, and was unable to put in practice the fragile equilibrium of modern democracy. Weimar will always be a memento that democracy is not just in the structures and rules of parliamentary debate, but in minds, bodies and souls of the people who compose it; and Lutes knows it.

Jason Lutes' Berlin stories struck me straight away as being suited to the collected graphic novel form rather than series. At the time that the first monthly books were published by Black Eye Productions the other series I was reading were Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Dave Sim's Cerebus and Gary Spencer Millidge's Strangehaven. Berlin was a very different experience in subject matter and drawing style but it immediately drew me in with the rhythm of the story telling.

It has an impressive style and fascinating characters. The opening setting of Berlin in 1928 felt as overwhelming in its detail to read as it is for Marthe Müller, the initial character you meet, as she arrives from the provinces to study at an art school. The detail continues to be mostly superb throughout both books. The characters and the time period can be vivid, unsettling and confusing. This is not meant as a criticism for the greater part; the main characters themselves are reflecting and dealing with the larger political and cultural upheavals through their personalities. I knew only a moderate amount about the Weimar Republic before reading Berlin and, whilst I wouldn't suggest that this would be the most informative and logical way to learn about the political issues of the day, it definitely does show a commitment to getting historical facts right as much as possible.

There are multiple story threads: the art students, the cynical journalist, the politically motivated workers, the ordinary families effected by events. Marthe's thread I see as a coming-of-age story, despite the fact that she is a grown woman. She is the naive provincial faced with all the glamours and temptations of city life. In this book it is her relationships with fellow students, the newspaper journalist she meets on the way to Berlin, the boarding house she has been instructed to stop at by her father and her reactions generally that act as an anchor. As the story progresses more characters crop up and this is where it can become a confusing read, in a negative sense. Some of the initially peripheral characters can be easy to lose track of, they fall by the wayside only to return in a prominent role, and you may not remember where they first appeared. This can be resolved by backtracking, of course. There's also the tendency for some significant things to happen off stage, it leaves you guessing at what exactly may or may not have happened. However this goes alongside such a mastery of expression that the defeated sadness in the lines of a character (Gudrun Braun for example) does not need a detailed explanation.

There's increasingly hefty segments relating to politics. Where this is displayed alongside social history elements (workers in slum dwellings, political marches that erupt in violent clashes, the upper classes at parties) it can be absorbed in the first read. It can be a challenging read in the speech-making aspects. Some sections, particularly where it is focused on discussions of Communism, do require more than a passing acquaintance with the subject matter or a very strong interest in how the characters are talking about the issues. These I tended to skim read. One tiny, but noticeable, point is that in the drawings there is a noticeable absence of the swastika symbol from armbands and flags displayed by NSDAP supporters. Now there are quite a few reasons that decision might have been made but I won't speculate on why. It just leaves an odd continuity gap when the symbol has achieved a terrible notoriety in the Western world due to the Nazi Party.

In conclusion: I think this is a marvellous book despite my opinions on some less positive aspects. I'd happily recommend it for those interested in a different style of novelistic writing - although with the caveat that it is does have concentrated passages on politics and political history, which may not be every person's idea of interesting subject matter. I find the characters make it worthwhile and knowing (in hindsight) what their world is becoming you wonder how they will react.

This book starts the series Lutes has devoted years to creating, the story of Germany between the wars. The story follows the lives of several people, a journalist riling against the rise of fascism, a young art student conflicted with her feelings of love for other women, a married woman who is thrown out of her family by her husband for her leanings toward communism, as well as others. The story shows rallies for various political parties as well as peoples' feelings for Hindenburg and of course the first showings of the fledgling Nazi party.

The drawings are beautiful with Lutes adopting Herge's line and crafting detailed panoramic views of the city as well as amazing crowd scenes and convincing period detail. There isn't a plot to the book, just a meandering toward the inevitable start of WW2.

My only criticism is that it's boring. I'm sorry if that sounds like a shallow dismissal but there's no getting around the fact that nothing much happens in the book. Mostly all you see in this book are the poverty, the disabled soldiers begging on the streets, money slowly becoming worthless. I was hoping Lutes would do something different given the material, take a different angle perhaps, but he's just retold what happened. I've studied this period of history both at A-level and university level and I'm well aware of what went on. As a comic book series it's very dry and unfortunately Lutes cannot bring out the drama of the situation to make a gripping read. Mostly it's as dull as a history lesson populated with unconvincing characters. I wanted to like it but couldn't get into it. I struggled to get to the end and won't be looking at the next in the series. There are better comics out there.