Publisher's Weekly Review
Lehmann packs emotional wallops into a nuanced graphic novel debut about a closeted German man whose sexual liasons have left him isolated from his family in the aftermath of WWII. Karl Kling feels adrift after retiring in 1980s West Germany and decides to reach out to his estranged daughter, Hella. Through flashbacks, he reveals the secrets she sensed he was hiding. Soon after returning from the frontlines of WWII, Karl is outed as gay (he makes an unwanted pass at a man at a bar, then later is caught with another man) and gets run out of town by his father-in-law. Forced to abandon his first wife and son, Karl moves in with the family of a friend in Leipzig, where he starts another straight relationship with a woman named Liselotte. They marry when Liselotte gets pregnant with Hella, but Karl resorts to cruising for men. When he's arrested for having sex in a public bathroom, Liselotte takes Hella to the west and gives Karl an ultimatum. After dithering, and with the border between East and West Germany soon to close, Karl follows his family--but eventually invites Helmut, a male prostitute, to rent their spare room, which leads to explosive consequences. Lehmann's black-and-white drawings have a soft, almost unfinished quality. While the tropes can feel well-worn, the stylish art and empathetic characterizations carry through a tragic tale of the pains and traumas of repression. Though it falls short of revelatory, this has depth. (June)
Kirkus Review
A gay man leads a life of quiet desperation in repressive postwar Germany. This poignant graphic novel, translated from German, tells the story of Karl Kling, beginning with his World War II service as a cook in the German army, through two unsuccessful marriages, long years spent at a factory job, estrangement from his adult daughter, and lonely retirement in the 1980s. Karl's desire for men--and his unwillingness to sacrifice it for a conventional domestic life--is the novel's throughline; these men include a fellow soldier with whom he had a romantic friendship, a man encountered swimming at a countryside pond, and a "rent boy" he brings home to board in the apartment he shares with his wife. (Predictably, that doesn't end well.) Framing the story of Karl's life is a letter he's drafting to his daughter, Hella, in hopes that they can reconnect after eight years of silence. "Lies and deception create distance," he writes. "But I didn't see that at the time." Karl's story is handled with delicacy and restraint, especially his marriage with Lieselotte, the sympathetic daughter of his Leipzig landlady, with whom he shares a genuine bond, if not a sexual one. Lehmann's gorgeous black-and-white artwork establishes the melancholy tone with its depiction of bombed-out cities and gray East German streetscapes. A somber, compassionate remembrance of life in the closet. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Written by Lehmann and translated by Hahnenberger, this follows Karl Kling from the end of his career as a soldier in WWII to his retirement from factory work in 1980s Germany. Told mostly through a letter to his estranged daughter, Hella, Karl describes the double life that oppressive homophobia and criminalization of homosexuality forced him into. He marries twice, desperately seeking the stability and security of a family, but strays constantly, staying out drinking with friends and picking up strangers for casual sexual encounters. The lies, absences, and emotional distance lead to divorce both times. Isolation and alienation follow Karl throughout the work as he pursues the relationships he most fervently desires while struggling to keep his family and work friends from learning his secrets. A moving portrait of a man at odds with society's harsh punishment of those it refuses to understand, this demonstrates how lack of community, lack of opportunities for equal treatment, and lack of support for love trap people in tragic circumstances.
