Letting it Go

Graphic Memoir

One Shot

A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR STRUGGLES TO LET THE PAST GO

Miriam Katin's debut graphic novel, the 2006 memoir We Are On Our Own, was a unique portrait of how one family survived the Second World War. A companion to We Are On Our Own, Letting It Go shows Miriam, now an adult, dealing with her son Ilan's recent move to Berlin. As Miriam struggles to accept his decision, she realizes that her hesitations have more to do with longheld grudges than any sort of legitimate concerns. Whereas We Are On Our Own probed Miriam's loss of faith and talked about her experiences during the War, Letting It Go examines the lasting trauma of surviving World War II from a very different vantage point, focusing on Miriam's life as a middle-aged New Yorker. The flowing, expressive style employed in We Are On Our Own has been refined in this fullcolor masterpiece. A panel-less style lets the story flow, with wise and funny anecdotes along the way. Katin has the light hand of a master storyteller in this, an insightful, serious, but wry account of the myriad ways trauma inflects daily existence, both for survivors and for their families.