arts&life
books
Getting
Graphic
For an adult reader, to pick
up a graphic novel can be
a comfort and a challenge.
This season’s newest titles
delve into memory and
history, sometimes fusing
the two, with marks of
creativity and originality
extending beyond the
frames and panels.
SANDEE BRAWARSKY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
I
t’s hard to imagine a better way to tell the story
of a couple who see possibility in dishes and
bowls stored away for years in Bowery base-
ments than a graphic memoir, with drawings that
perfectly capture their spirit and humor.
Minding the Store: A Big Story about a Small
Business (Algonquin) details the life of the New
York housewares shop Fishs Eddy (see exam-
ples in “At Home” on page 38). Julie Gaines, the
author, founded the store with her husband, Dave
Lenovitz, in 1986 on a Gramercy Park street, before
expanding to other parts of town. Their son Ben
Lenovitz contributes the illustrations.
Fishs Eddy sells items like dishes, glassware,
bowls and other items that you might not find
elsewhere, some that were vintage oversupply from
hotels and restaurants and others manufactured for
the store with the work of New York designers.
Gaines and Lenovitz started out by renting a
shop and filling it with items from Pennsylvania
flea markets and her mother’s garage. On the
Bowery, Gaines and Lenovitz discovered troves of
dishware of another era, from Howard Johnson’s
and Bernstein’s Fish Grotto, and they hauled it back
to their store.
“Dave and I were unearthing a slice of American
history,” Gaines writes.
For a while their two mothers manned the shop
— captured with hilarity by their grandson — one
reading magazines and the other snapping at cus-
tomers (“I didn’t ask you to come in here, did I?”
appears in a bubble above Dave’s mother’s head,
as she is facing a customer). From this experience,
the entrepreneurs learn that “Our dishes would sell
themselves.”
Lenovitz draws in panels and on full pages,
including clever openings to chapters with titles
like “Doing Dishes,” “Bully in a China Shop” and
“Dishing It Out.”
The book, drawn and colored in shades of
brown and green, chronicles the ups and downs of
the business — as they expand, hire professionals,
fire them, hire others, trying to keep doing what
they love even in the midst of Gaines’ multiple
sclerosis diagnosis and the store going bankrupt —
and eventually the ups again. Along the way, they
find luck, make mistakes, achieve success, build
a family, face personal losses and keep going —
keeping the plates in the air.
Honoring the spirit of Anne Frank, Anne Frank’s
Diary: The Graphic Adaptation adapted by Ari
Folman with illustrations by David Polonsky
(Pantheon), is in full color, beautifully presented. This
first-ever graphic edition of The Diary was authorized
by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, whose stated
goal is to have the diary reach as wide an audience as
possible.
Featured are selections from the original text,
emphasizing the most introspective sections. Folman’s
Anne has large knowing brown eyes and a mane of
dark hair that flips.
This graphic novel looks more formal than some of
the other books, with straight lines framing the text,
and a more realistic drawing style, which resembles
animation. In fact, Folman, who directed the Oscar-
nominated Waltz with Bashir, was invited by the
Foundation to work on an animated film to be called
Where is Anne Frank? Polonsky was the art director for
Waltz with Bashir.
Included in the book is a page detailing what each of
the people hidden in the attic would most like to do if
they could get outside again — for Margot it was two
days in the bath, and she’s seen covered with bubbles
and eating pudding, reading, serenaded by a violin; her
mother was dying for cup of real coffee and she is seen
at a café table. Peter would have wanted to go out on
the town, which appears in pinks and reds, and Anne
would like to go back to school — she is seen in her
class, as in the beginning. The drawings are based on
historical research.
jn
December 13 • 2018
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