46 | AUGUST 10 • 2023 

I

n a little more than one 
decade, Jewish women have 
authored dozens of book-
length graphic works focused 
on their personal lives as they 
navigate the conditions of 
modern Jewish life. 
Consumers of so-called 
“comics” have long appreciat-
ed the many Jewish men who 
contributed words and draw-
ings to the genre. Since Will 
Eisner’s influential A Contract 
with God, those authors have 
used the works to express their 
concerns as Jews. Now, Jewish 
women — seemingly all of a 
sudden — have begun pro-
ducing a profound library of 
works on contemporary Jewish 
life. 

Victoria Aarons’ Memory 
Spaces (Wayne State University 
Press, 2023) focuses on a few 
of the most outstanding of 
these works. Aarons opens 
with observations about the 
genre of graphic narrative. 

Many of these works do not 
fit neatly into the category of 
fiction. Though Aarons some-
times uses the term “graphic 
novels,” she prefers “graphic 
narrative,” for good reasons. 
The genre includes biographies 
and autobiographies, generally 
considered non-fiction, and 
other works that fall between 
the categories, partially fic-
tionalized autobiographies or 
autobiographies with dream 
sequences. 
Graphic narratives convey 
time as space. The events get 
inscribed in panels, usually set 
off with borders and gutters 
between each panel, that guide 
us to read them sequentially. 
But we always have the full set 
of panels before us; as we read 
on, we remain aware of the 
previous set of panels, and can 
easily back up into the past. A 
prose work gives less freedom 
to go back; the author sets the 

sequence of events and we 
ordinarily keep on reading. 
Videos artists have even stron-
ger control of the sequence 
of events. Graphic narratives, 
though, allow us to look back 
easily. The whole narrative lies 
exposed as we move forward. 
Autobiographies in any 
medium present at least two 
versions of the author: The 
author puts a version out 
for the audience, but, as she 
creates this edited version of 
herself, she does not complete-
ly hide behind the scenes. In 
graphic narratives, each panel 
contains an additional version 
of the author as presented, 
so that the finished work has 
a multitude of takes on the 
author. Sometimes the author 
of a graphic narrative makes 
use of this effect by placing 
multiple versions of herself in 
the same panel. 
Aarons then focuses on 

how Jewish identity 
impacts graphic narratives by 
women: Jewish identity, even 
in the modern age, involves 
memory and adaptation. Each 
Jew receives impressions of the 
Jewish past, experiencing them 
as attractive or problematic. 
Choosing some predecessors 
as role models, and rejecting 
others, modifying traditions to 
a new reality or rejecting them, 
each Jew forms his or her own 
relationship with Jewishness. 
Modern Jewish women may 
struggle with available models 
from an ancient, patriarchal 
system that still belong to us. 

ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS 
VARY
Aarons then focuses on specif-
ic artists of graphic narratives.
In The Book of Sarah (2019), 
British artist Sarah Lightman 
retells the biblical story of our 
matriarch, who yearned for a 
child, received a Divine prom-
ise of a child, and miraculously 
gave birth in her old age; but 
Lightman also tells her own 
story — “Since I was not a 
mother until age 39, and, in 
contrast to the biblical women, 
I never received a promise of a 

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

Victoria Aarons explores visualizing identity in 
Jewish women’s graphic narratives.
Memory Spaces

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

