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mollywetta's review against another edition
There are a lot of details and anecdotes, but the writing is very dry.
kailawil's review against another edition
2.0
I was really let down by this. A graphic novel about the anarchist activist? Sign me up! But something about this is just...off. I think there's too much information and not enough story. I'll just have to read the memoir she wrote herself instead.
dawnoftheread's review against another edition
3.0
Very informative, though tries to pack too much I perhaps...felt cluttered much of the time.
steds's review against another edition
2.0
Loved learning more about Emma Goldman, but didn't like the style of drawing and the flow was haphazard. Helped by pro/epilogues.
mrsthrift's review against another edition
5.0
this illustrated biography is based mostly on emma goldman's autobiography living my life. i felt like the illustrations greatly enhanced the story of Red Emma's journey from Russia to the States and back. Through sweatshops, lecture circuits, publishing, organizing, deportation, love and loss, Goldman's story is a fascinating bedtime tale for the nostalgia of modern-day revolutionaries.
Thanks, Carnegie Library!
Thanks, Carnegie Library!
brogan7's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.25
Emma Goldman led such an amazing life. It's hard to imagine her now, when we don't have the category of work she most passionately did--a public speaker, a rabble-rouser, a public philosopher.
I thought she was amazing before I read this and now I think there's even more to ask questions about....
I find her ideas challenging and fascinating (don't advocate for an eight-hour day, look to dismantle capitalism; don't ask for the vote for women, invent a new society)...she is/was delightful.
One small detraction: I didn't like any of the sex scenes...they seemed crude and unrelateable (I don't think that was Rudahl's interest)...and often in fact I didn't like the art, which seemed too caricatured.
But Emma--and the era that she lived in... fascinating.
I thought she was amazing before I read this and now I think there's even more to ask questions about....
I find her ideas challenging and fascinating (don't advocate for an eight-hour day, look to dismantle capitalism; don't ask for the vote for women, invent a new society)...she is/was delightful.
One small detraction: I didn't like any of the sex scenes...they seemed crude and unrelateable (I don't think that was Rudahl's interest)...and often in fact I didn't like the art, which seemed too caricatured.
But Emma--and the era that she lived in... fascinating.
kfrench1008's review against another edition
4.0
Good overview of the great anarchist's life. The arrangement of the pictures and captions is a bit confusing sometimes, though.
antlersantlers's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars.
I didn't really like this much at all. I think Emma Goldman is FASCINATING (though I disagree with many of her beliefs), but this as a graphic novel was not great. The pages were crammed (cramped!) with text and information to the point that it took me a very long time to get through it. Or maybe it just felt like a long time because reading each page was so labor intensive. The illustrations are so marvelous, but I just can't get over how much stuff was on each page. There was so much cool information that I tracked down this documentary of her that was on American Experience. There was even so much info in the book that I caught a lil error in the documentary! Haha! Still, too much stuff on each page!
Additionally this is one in a very annoying trend of graphic biographies/non-fiction that doesn't have a bibliography. The Author's Note says that almost everything is in her autobiography [b:Living My Life|51695|Living My Life|Emma Goldman|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309282997s/51695.jpg|28303], but I am sure there was more. It was certainly more deplorable in [b:Superzelda|16678351|Superzelda The Graphic Life of Zelda Fitzgerald|Tiziana Lo Porto|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355905174s/16678351.jpg|22893614], which had NOTHING in terms of works used/bibliography, but if either were a general non-fiction book that would be totally unacceptable! SHOW YOUR WORK, PEOPLE.
I didn't really like this much at all. I think Emma Goldman is FASCINATING (though I disagree with many of her beliefs), but this as a graphic novel was not great. The pages were crammed (cramped!) with text and information to the point that it took me a very long time to get through it. Or maybe it just felt like a long time because reading each page was so labor intensive. The illustrations are so marvelous, but I just can't get over how much stuff was on each page. There was so much cool information that I tracked down this documentary of her that was on American Experience. There was even so much info in the book that I caught a lil error in the documentary! Haha! Still, too much stuff on each page!
Additionally this is one in a very annoying trend of graphic biographies/non-fiction that doesn't have a bibliography. The Author's Note says that almost everything is in her autobiography [b:Living My Life|51695|Living My Life|Emma Goldman|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309282997s/51695.jpg|28303], but I am sure there was more. It was certainly more deplorable in [b:Superzelda|16678351|Superzelda The Graphic Life of Zelda Fitzgerald|Tiziana Lo Porto|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355905174s/16678351.jpg|22893614], which had NOTHING in terms of works used/bibliography, but if either were a general non-fiction book that would be totally unacceptable! SHOW YOUR WORK, PEOPLE.
hauntedlibrary's review against another edition
3.0
This is a graphic biography of the Jewish anarchist activist Emma Goldman, and it definitely fills a niche that was lacking in my history classes. It goes into detail about her upbringing, education, personal life, and travels while chronicling her political career. However, I found it a very slow read, mostly because the text-to-image ratio is just too high for a graphic novel in my opinion. Combine that with busy composition and black and white sketch-style art, and the result is a page spread so cluttered that it is not pleasing to my eye.