Reviews for Two Cents Plain: My Brooklyn Boyhood

The average rating for Two Cents Plain: My Brooklyn Boyhood based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-08-30 00:00:00 Brad Mcghee I consider TWO CENTS PLAIN: MY BROOKLYN BOYHOOD (2010) an exceptionally fine example of its genre. In a tapestry of drawings, photographs, and words, Martin Lemelman offers a personal history that reveals a big and important picture. The whole comes in the size of a piece -- a real deal that is "the real deal." So I want to say that this book will be widely treasured. I want to say, "Hey, except for two three-month stays in Washington, DC, I have never lived anywhere but North Carolina." I want to say, "My great-grandparents were in America at least fifty years before Nazis were sending Jews to gas chambers." And I want to say, "If Lemelman can take a Tar Heel into his early life in Brooklyn, NY, and into the world of his parents, one having survived five years of serving in Stalin's army, the other having survived two years of hiding in a hole, isn't it likely that a broad spectrum of readers will appreciate his book?" That's what I really want to say, and I'd be telling the truth about my background -- just not the whole truth. My mother spent the first nineteen years of her life in Brooklyn. Some of my favorite memories of my childhood were made in Brooklyn, where my grandfather and other relatives still lived. Like my mother, my husband grew up in Brooklyn. What the Nazis did to members of Lemelman's mother's family, they did to members of my husband's grandmother's family. I should also mention that I'm familiar with the sometimes untranslated Yiddish expressions that appear in Lemelman's work. I can hear his parents, whose voices largely determine the sound of the book. In short, I am well acquainted with the places, the smells, the lifestyles, the events, etc. that Lemelman remembers and artistically renders. I believe (or want to believe) that TWO CENTS PLAIN has elements that can touch the heart of anyone not missing an "empathy gene." But I also believe that, if you're not Jewish or "sort-of Jewish," if you have never known Holocaust survivors or their children, if you aren't old enough to remember JFK's assassination, then Lemelman's work probably won't find a home in your heart. I entered the Goodreads giveaway for a copy of TWO CENTS PLAIN -- the result: free book to good home. By the way, as Lemelman is ending his September trip "to Brooklyn to see what was left of [his] childhood," he tells us: "Next month, I'll be 59 years old"(310) -- so will I. But the number to remember is 5, the number of stars above this review.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-06-16 00:00:00 Anthony Parker This graphic novel beautifully depicts the author's boyhood in Brooklyn. The captivating drawings, overlaid with vintage photographs, capture the essence of the time and place. Lemelman's biography also chronicles the story of his parents as young people, survivors of World War II. There are several moments in the book that leave the reader cringing in horror, as the ways that hatred did not end with the war, even in the land of promise and opportunity, are revealed. Lemelman's story is hopeful. We are given enough information to know that life turned out very well for this young boy from Brooklyn, who is now in his 60's. As a reader, I would love to know more about the intervening years, as the young man makes his way in the world as an artist.