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The Contract With God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue (The Contract With God Trilogy #1-3)
by
Will Eisner
With graphic narrative that "was closer to the writing of Bernard Malamud or Isaac Bashevis Singer than any comic art which had preceded it" ("The Economist"), "Contract with God," originally published in 1978, was the first graphic novel: the prototype; along with "A Life Force" and "Dropsie Avenue"; for such seminal works...more
Hardcover, 498 pages
Published
November 21st 2005
by W. W. Norton & Company
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I liked this book, but it was an oddly long, slow read, considering how much of it is pictures. Of course, it's also technically three books in one, which could explain it.
The art is amazing and amazingly detailed, and the stories are good though rather dark and depressing -- partly b/c many of them take place during the actual Depression. I think the books get progressively better, with Dropsie Avenue being my favorite, as it follows a neighborhood throughout 100 years of history an...more
The art is amazing and amazingly detailed, and the stories are good though rather dark and depressing -- partly b/c many of them take place during the actual Depression. I think the books get progressively better, with Dropsie Avenue being my favorite, as it follows a neighborhood throughout 100 years of history an...more
I finally got around to reading Contract With God and the rest of the trilogy. Often named as a milestone in the development of the graphic novel, I found the title book to be the weakest. Contract With God seems to me a little forced. Would anybody really think a contract you write yourself would get a binding result from God. Eisner full all of the books with Jewish flavor which I probably shouldn't comment on. BUT, I kind of thought Jewish history was filled with God's people having unfair ex...more
logankstewart
rated it
Will Eisner is a rather significant individual in the history of the graphic novel, as well as the comic world at large. He is, after all, sometimes referred to as the Father of the Graphic Novel. In fact, the Eisner Awards (the comics' equivalent to the Oscars) are named after him. Of course, any serious fan of graphic novels has read some Will Eisner. Well, color me red and call me a strawberry, I can finally say I have.
The Contract with God trilogy is one large collection of t...more
The Contract with God trilogy is one large collection of t...more
Bucket
rated it
Shelves:
american-dream,
culture,
generational-epic,
history,
literary,
politics,
religion,
reviewed,
graphic-novel
I found the first 'graphic novella' (A Contract with God) a bit depressing, but this general downtrodden feeling grew on me as I worked my way through the other two sections of this trilogy. The nitty-gritty artwork definitely added to this mood. The characters in the second and third sections also came to life far better than those in the first section. I fell for Abie Gold and Rowena especially, but Ruby was also wonderful. Jacob Shtarkah was probably the most well-rounded character in all t...more
Wow, what a difference 3 or 4 decades will make! Having just read The Best of the Spirit (review here:View all my reviews.)it was pleasantly jarring to slip immediately into A Contract with God.
Great, great, book. There's four separate stories, all of them packed with complex characters (something I felt was pretty much lacking in the Spirit stories)--the most complicated of which was the super from the third story. I particularly liked the interwoven story lines of the fourth s...more
Great, great, book. There's four separate stories, all of them packed with complex characters (something I felt was pretty much lacking in the Spirit stories)--the most complicated of which was the super from the third story. I particularly liked the interwoven story lines of the fourth s...more
SOME OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:
"Doesn't he understand? It wasn't just a living... I was making a something. A reason for living! ...Otherwise, how is a man different from a cockroach??"
"So?? Mister cockroach. What are you struggling for?? To maybe stay alive a few days more? Well... To tell the truth so am I trying to stay alive! So, then, what's the difference between us?? You, being only a cockroach, just want to live! For you it's enough! But...more
"Doesn't he understand? It wasn't just a living... I was making a something. A reason for living! ...Otherwise, how is a man different from a cockroach??"
"So?? Mister cockroach. What are you struggling for?? To maybe stay alive a few days more? Well... To tell the truth so am I trying to stay alive! So, then, what's the difference between us?? You, being only a cockroach, just want to live! For you it's enough! But...more
Okay, I gotta admit. I've never read a graph novel, because I looked down on books with too many pictures, and non-fiction in general. But when i saw a facebook post about this book, I was intrigued. So I went to the library, and checked out the trilogy, and WOW.. I couldn't put it down! Its amazing. The pictures really don't get in the way, as I expected, and they add a lot. Its almost like reading a movie, slide by slide. And although its fiction, it sure feels real. Its feels like the differe...more
Three gra[hic novels, each composed of smaller stories and each dealing with the same neighborhood in the Bronx are combined in this one volume that focuses on life in the Bronx in the 20th century.
Somehow Will Eisner manages to make these incredibly sad and historical tales compelling and beautiful. Muted artwork, showing characters cleanly and neatly, or ugly and messy as befits their actions. Background scenes that pull you in to the neighborhood and convey what it felt like then ...more
Somehow Will Eisner manages to make these incredibly sad and historical tales compelling and beautiful. Muted artwork, showing characters cleanly and neatly, or ugly and messy as befits their actions. Background scenes that pull you in to the neighborhood and convey what it felt like then ...more
What can I say? When Will Eisner was shopping the first book of this trilogy - A Contract with God - around to publishers, he had a bit of a dilemma. What exactly was this book he had created? It certainly used all of the devices of a comic book, but it certainly didn't have any superheros, wasn't necessarily action packed, didn't appeal to kids, and wasn't all that funny. So he dubbed his little four part literary book a graphic novel. Now, I'm not so fond of using that term, with its pret...more
Eisner’s trilogy (“A Contract with God,” “A Life Force,” and “Dropsie Avenue”) is widely regarded as a seminal work in the realm of graphic novels. I enjoyed it, though might have liked it more in three installments than one straight read. Parts are brilliant; other parts tedious, repetitive, and, as far as the storytelling goes, hackneyed. The weaknesses dominate in the end. Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx is the setting for all three parts of the book. Gritty, grim, and filled with incidence of vi...more
It was a good read. From a historical perspective, this is supposedly one of the first graphic novels and the stories are interesting from a historical perspective as well, as it is placed in pre-depression, depression and post-depression settings. This is actually three books in one, hence the "trilogy". The art is tremendous throughout, but the stories get better toward the end. The early stories are good and pertinent, but they are somewhat terse, chopped off early, and are comm...more
The father of the graphic novel put this compilation together a few years before his death. The artwork and integration with the text and storyline, particularly in the Trilogy section, is unparalleled.
This dark view of life during the Great Depression seems a lot more relevant today than it might have felt 10 years ago. A classic. You could not tell the story without the graphics.
Not for kids, this is adult material.
This dark view of life during the Great Depression seems a lot more relevant today than it might have felt 10 years ago. A classic. You could not tell the story without the graphics.
Not for kids, this is adult material.
I've heard a lot about Will Eisner's influence on comics over the years... this was my first experience with his work and I can see why so many people love him. The Contract with God Trilogy was beautifully done, filled with tons of emotions.
With many comments about the human condition, in Eisner's stories about a neighborhood, we can see the life of a street and how it resembles the life of a person.
With many comments about the human condition, in Eisner's stories about a neighborhood, we can see the life of a street and how it resembles the life of a person.
Okay, so its a little bit of a lie that I read this completely. I actually gave up on reading towards the end and needed to get it back to the library - and honestly just wasn't that into finishing it. I will say that the topic is interesting and the concept is different, but it was a disjointed and didn't flow well. The different characters barely interact and there is no real connection in the book other than they all live in the same slum apartments. You just end up reading really short depre...more
Increible tratado visual sobre la humanidad alrededor de una callejuela de New York, donde a lo largo de un siglo la modernidad llega, las migraciones pasan una tras otra, pero los ninhos son siempre ninhos, los ladrones cobardes, los amantes sordidos, y los humanos son tan solo eso: humanos.
Es una novela grafica mas que un comic, presentado magistralmente por el papa del genero: Will Eisner.
Es una novela grafica mas que un comic, presentado magistralmente por el papa del genero: Will Eisner.
Those who know how much I enjoy reading and learning about graphic novels maybe surprised to read that this is my first encounter with this much lauded tome. Clearly everyone who knows anything about Will Eisner already knows how important this work is and yet I just have to add how thoroughly immersed in his world I became during my lunch hour today. This compilation includes a wonderfully written intro by the author.
Although I like this collection better then the other work by him that I've read, something always seems to inherently rub me the wrong way about Eisner.
I do like his aesthetic style though, and appreciate how the piece was a breath of fresh air when it comes to the narcissistic nature of semi-autobiographical graphic novels - this collection had a slightly more mature edge to it over all.
I do like his aesthetic style though, and appreciate how the piece was a breath of fresh air when it comes to the narcissistic nature of semi-autobiographical graphic novels - this collection had a slightly more mature edge to it over all.
I think I appreciated this work more than I enjoyed it. Eisner is a (maybe THE) major player in graphic art and you can't deny his place in its history. Parts of this trilogy are brilliant, others mundane and repetitive. I don't think you can call yourself a graphic novel or comics fan without reading Eisner and giving him his due (which is enormous), so if you haven't, read him.
The first graphic novel. Eisner coined the term to describe his Contract with God the semi-autobiographical story centered around 55 Dropsie Avenue in Brookline. Together the 3 books trace the history of the tenement from Dutch Settlers through modern day, each new group of immigrants despised by the ones there before them. Groundbreaking.
Not at all what I expected. Understandable why the term "graphic novel" was for all intents and purposes coined for this work. An expansive tale about a neighborhood in the bronx and the changes throughout the century. No superheroes, no fantasy, just people living through change. While some characters were more stereotype than authentic it is still worth the read.
Given the age of these works, I didn't expect them to be as good as they were. Contract with God was good, but A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue were both brilliant, sprawling things with tons of characters and miniplots, managing to draw you in to many characters simultaneously. It's easy to see why Eisner is so well-respected.
I can't finish this one. The art is as marvelous as only Eisner can draw it... but the stories in it are so dark and brutal that i personally cant bear to read them. Murder, cruelty, rape... i hate to say it but id rather read his The Spirit comics because there is a chance of joy or maybe a smile in them.
This book was really hard for me to wrap my head around. As a graphic novel, it's pretty minimal, at least in the sense of how much of the page it takes up. I know Eisner is supposed to be this awesome genius, but I was pretty annoyed with him by the end. The stories are good, but it all felt really self-indulgent.
This graphic novel trilogy highlights the dark, grimey truths of New York City 20th century history - the tenement slums, the violence between immigrant groups, the corruption. It is a sad story of a Bronx neighborhood that flourishes only to die out as a burned out carcass of what it had once been.
man, this was GREAT! to think that it was all done around the 40s-50s, contains nudity and excited emotions and sympathy in the reader!
i'd read a few Spirit comics and thought, "it's typical fare for the time. what's the deal with Will Eisner?" then i read these books, and boy, did i ever learn! Eisner was definitely decades ahead of his time.
i recommend this to comic fans and comic haters alike. i think you will be moved regardless.
i'd read a few Spirit comics and thought, "it's typical fare for the time. what's the deal with Will Eisner?" then i read these books, and boy, did i ever learn! Eisner was definitely decades ahead of his time.
i recommend this to comic fans and comic haters alike. i think you will be moved regardless.
Rarely could you find a graphic novel that contains story other than fantasy genre. This one is one of them. Telling the story of various characters in fictional Dropsie Avenue in New York, the book succeeds in bringing our imagination alive. The characters are ranging from Hasidic Jew to earlier inhabitant of Dropsie Avenue, the Dutch. The story also give you glimpse of the social change in America for decades, the arriving of the English, the Irish, then the Jew and Italian, and the Black Amer...more
This is a poignant evolution of Dropsie Street through the transitions as people moved in and moved out. There are a number of individual stories that are very moving in which characters question the meaning of their lives and of God's hand in it all.
Interesting to start - got tired of the self-biographical as graphic novel aspect. Dropsie Ave got my interest again cause reminded me of Dad's description of Paterson and waves of immigration - still over-presented though.
I haven't read this book in 20 years. It's hard to believe that there was a time when there were no graphic novels. The storys are so human and the characters so real that you are able to slice off a piece of New York's bygone days.
Startlingly ahead of its time, even for Will Eisner. This book has what graphic novelists today are still working towards: life, death, love - and the 'complete' history of an entire New York City street. Eisner broadens his focus to all peoples, and does not fill the book with any specifically mentioned stories of his own time growing up on Dropsie Ave.
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WILL EISNER was born William Erwin Eisner on March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. By the time of his death on January 3, 2005, following complications from open heart surgery, Eisner was recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he coined.
In a career that spanned nearly seventy years and eight decades — from the dawn of the comic book to the...more
More about Will Eisner...
In a career that spanned nearly seventy years and eight decades — from the dawn of the comic book to the...more
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