Under Review

Reviews by Robert Blaisdell

In this graphic-biography of the world’s greatest and perhaps most sensitive author, Katya Gushchina uses very simple elements: cut-outs from historical photos of Tolstoy and his family, of his Yasnaya Polyana estate, of his rooms; she inks line-drawings onto or around the photos for comic and illustrative effect; on every page she pastes in enormous blue tears rolling down and off Lev Nikolaevich’s face. Gushchina depicts the biggest trauma of his life, losing his mother before he was even two years old: “He did not have time to remember [her]… but he cherished her bright image in his heart all his life and placed it in his works.” She then depicts how “In his first work, Childhood, he so convincingly described the feelings of the main character who lost his mother… he burst into tears himself.”

Imagine an art exhibit in which you walk through a maze of the moments and events of Tolstoy’s life. “Such sensitivity and receptiveness to others’ pain,” writes Gushchina, “not only helped him create his most famous works, but also saved many lives!” That is, he raised money and gathered supplies for starving peasants when the government wouldn’t during the famines of 1891-92. Gushchina allows us to witness in brief quotations and descriptions the charms, pleasures, sadnesses, and shames Tolstoy felt in this world.