Review: "Parallel" by Matthias Lehmann

 

Parallel by Matthias Lehmann, translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger
English translation published June 2023 via Oni Press
★★★★

1950s Germany: the war might be over, but for Karl, the struggle is only beginning. He wants love, romance, sex—but despite marriage and children, what he really wants is love, romance, sex with men. And in 1950s Germany, those are not safe desires for a man.

Parallel is told in two timelines, the first of which takes us through the 1950s with Karl as he struggles to stay married—to want to stay married—and to quell the desires he's not allowed to have. Germany is not yet divided by wall and death zone, but it's not a safe place to be different. His life is split in two, one part in which he is a husband and father and reliable worker, and the other part spent sneaking around in the woods, in alleys, searching for a life he can't quite imagine. In the second timeline, Karl is newly retired, still holding on to his secrets, and wondering whether there is still a chance of building a new relationship with his estranged daughter.

The art here is lovely—black and white, strong lines and extensive use of shadow and shade. I could imagine a version of this in color, one with slightly different palettes for the two timelines, but the greyscale works for the story. I'm reminded a little of Fun Home, of Bechdel's father trying to be someone he is not—there is the same sense, here, of "what could have been" in a different time, a different place. (That "what could have been" is doubled down on in some of the ways the two timelines collide, but I'll stay vague there.)

At 450-odd pages, this is something of a tome of a graphic novel, and at times I would have liked to see less of Karl's isolation and the violence and uncertainty he faces and more of the lives around his—Liselotte's, Hella's. But there's also an extent to which that would dilute Karl's story, which is about that isolation. I was particularly interested in the time frames, though: both highlight Germany on the cusp of major change, with the wall going up and, later, the wall soon to come down. Cold War Germany, but a story within that setting that doesn't often get told. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in graphic novels and queer history.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.