Dear Jordan,
Thank you for your kind words. Indeed, I have recently read "Replay" with great
pleasure, and not only because the great illustrations support my meager
knowledge of French. No, the graphic novel is, as you rightly stated, a link
between the generations. In many families, there is someone who annoys everyone
else with genealogical persistence. He's usually old (like me), has little or
no hair (like me), wears spectacles (like me), reads a lot (like me), and
travels a lot (like me). The family members are actually grateful to him
because they don't have to do the research by themselves and can rely on him.
It's practical, but it's "uncool".
With "Replay" as a gift for the upcoming holidays, that has changed. Now I am
"cool" for my six related families living in France, and especially for the
young ones! I sent six of the seven copies available on Amazon France to them
to the greater Paris area, Brittany, Charente and to Marseille. Let's see if I
follow the books in the summer of 2024 and do my motorcycle tour as a "Tour de
France"; if so, I'm prepared to include "your" Montpellier, where I've never
been, into my itinerary.
That's no less cool that "Replay" will soon be available in English and
congrats on the "Chateau de Cheverny" Prize!
Edgar Hauster [MacBook]
________________________________________
From: bounce-127940271-8322...@list.cornell.edu
<bounce-127940271-8322...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of Jordan Mechner
<jor...@mechner.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2023 15:09
To: czernowitz-l@list.cornell.edu
Subject: [czernowitz-l] Replay - A Czernowitz family memoir
Dear fellow members,
I've had the great pleasure to meet some of you in person, in France over the
past months, thanks to book signings of my autobiographical graphic novel
"REPLAY - Mémoires d'une famille."
The book is a multi-generational family memoir in the form of a 320-page comic
(bande dessinée). It tells my own story as an American creator of video games
("Prince of Persia"), interwoven with my grandfather Adolph Mechner's youth in
Czernowitz in 1900-1914 (and as a teenage soldier on the Russian front in the
1914-18 war) – and his son Franz Mechner (my father’s) later odyssey as a
Jewish child refugee in Nazi-occupied France.
In October I had the great honor of receiving the 2023 prize "Chateau de
Cheverny" awarded to "Replay" at the "Rendez-vous d'histoire" book festival at
Blois.
I thought “Replay" might be of interest for both younger and elder
Czernowitzers to share within their families-- because of its visual depiction
of 20th-century Czernowitz and Vienna, and also because a theme of the book is
transmission: the ways in which the past is present, even for the young, and
often without our conscious awareness.
I'm unable to attach images to this post, but you can see some in my website
page about the book:
English: https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/replay/
French: https://www.jordanmechner.com/fr/books/replay/
The book's visual representation of Czernowitz can also be seen in chapter
notes, like this one, in the online "Annex" (containing historical commentary
and additional background material, for those who have already read the book):
https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/library/replay-annex/chapter5/
https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/library/replay-annex/chapter4/
The Annex (and REPLAY itself) also contain my note of thanks to our Edgar
Hauster, who generously helped me with the research to be able to depict my
grandfather's home town as it was in the 1900s.
For those who read French, the graphic novel is now available in France (in
bookstores and from publisher Delcourt, or through any of the links on my
website : https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/replay/). It can already be
pre-ordered in English (will be released on March 19, 2024, from First
Second/Macmillan).
Thanks for taking the time to read this long post. I hope the book will
stimulate good memories, conversation and connection for those of you who
discover it. I welcome your comments. Happy holidays!
Jordan Mechner (author of Replay, and Prince of Persia)
Montpellier, France
https://jordanmechner.com
________________________________
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This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Beginning in 2021,
archived messages can be found at:
https://www.mail-archive.com/czernowitz-l@list.cornell.edu/
To send mail to the list, address it to <czernowit...@cornell.edu>.
To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at
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