Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘A Letter To Jo’ is a graphic novel by Joseph Sieracki, with art by Kelly Williams, that depicts the experiences of the author’s grandfather, Leonard Sieracki, during World War II as a Polish-American gunner. The account is based on Leonard’s letters to his wife, Josephine, who was his fiancée at the time. While the story draws from these letters, Joseph Sieracki adds some fictional elements, such as dialogues between Leonard and his comrades on the front lines.
Joseph Sieracki begins A Letter To Jo with a quote from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (which also has a graphic novel adaptation) that reflects on how wars are fought by “babies”—young men barely out of adolescence. Leonard was only 18 years old, fresh out of high school, when he fought against the Krauts in World War II.
About 144 pages long, ‘A Letter To Jo’ starts by exploring Leonard and Josephine’s romance, with the couple getting engaged right after high school and just before Leonard leaves for the war. The graphic novel then shifts its focus to Leonard’s experiences in the trenches, confronting death and the horrors of war daily. Kelly Williams’ artwork is gritty at the outset, though often sketchy in detailing the more violent scenes at the front lines. Given that the author took some creative liberties to fictionalize parts of Leonard’s experience, I feels like the story could have been expanded into a longer length graphic novel.
Readers also get glimpses of Josephine’s side of the story, which mainly involves her coping with anxiety, stress, and fear over Leonard’s fate as she waits for him to return from war. Her character comes across as too mopey and one-dimensional. In its current form, ‘A Letter To Jo’ lacks the kind of artwork that might elevate the storytelling, and it doesn’t have enough emotional depth to truly move the reader. Despite its flaws, the graphic novel is an interesting story that serves as a reminder of the countless untold stories of men and women who lost so much to war.
Rating: 3 on 5. ‘A Letter to Jo’ is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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