Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg

I wish I could give this 6 stars out of 5. This was absolutely gripping and unbelievably drawn and lettered. Rosa Luxemburg is almost overwhelming as an image - a larger than life woman who was almost unreal when I started learning about leftist politics. As with Jason Lutes' Berlin - there is something chilling and horrifying about the banality of evil that is seeping in around the edges, especially when you know how the story ends. Edward and I stumbled upon Rosa's memorial on the edge of Tiergarten this summer when we were in Berlin, and reading Red Rosa just makes all of that seem more real, more astounding, more horrifying. Rosa is an unbelievable woman, and her words, her vicious words, are sharp and even more alive in this show more biography. A must read for any woman. Bravo! show less

Converts are always the most enthusiastic!

For many years, I was distinctly sniffy about graphic books. They were for children, right? Wrong!!! Books like this, give a fantastic introduction to the world of Rosa Luxemburg. The images in this book are particularly good. The author has a clear empathy with Rosa and it flows from every page.

The great thing about it is that it doesn't stop at giving an insight into Rosa's life: it also provides an opening into her philosophy. Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist but she found herself at odds with Lenin's decision to ban anybody, or group that disagreed with him. Rosa believed that "Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for those who think differently."

In Communism, as in life, we could do with show more more female leadership (but NOT from Liz Truss!!!) show less

I enjoyed Kate Evans' Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen , so I thought I'd give this dramatization of the life of Rosa Luxemburg a try even though my only exposure to her previously was as a side character in Jason Lutes' Berlin.

Luxemburg is presented as a feisty and thoughtful socialist activist and scholar. She's also sex-positive, resulting in more sex scenes than I'm used to seeing in a history -- which is a plus, mind you. While her personal energy carries the first half quite well, the second half drags at times as she gets caught up in a variety of internecine arguments and power struggles within the revolutionary movement.

Luxemberg has some interesting insights into Marxist thought -- capitalism vs. the working class show more -- but honestly, my favorite scene in the book is Luxemburg and her friends toasting the revolution with drinks served by a maid standing in the corner rolling her eyes. (" . . . some animals are more equal than others.")

I like how Evans adapts the dialogue for Luxemburg from her actual letters and other writings, though this can result in some pages being more text-heavy than I prefer for a graphic novel. I recommend this book, but be aware, you're gonna be hunkered down with it for a while, especially if you read through the extensive notes giving the full text from which the dialogue was sourced. show less

One of the best graphic biographies on a socialist revolutionary I have read so far. In reality this is only the third one, but still the sentiment holds true.

The first time I actually read Rosa Luxemburg was in my freshman year of college, I was writing a paper on the anti-war movement during World War I, it was supposed to be a comparison of the American and European movements through Eugene Debs' "Canton Speech" and "Address to the Court" and Luxemburg's "Junius Pamphlet," well in the end the paper was just about Debs. I was immediately drawn into Rosa's words and I grew an affinity for her. In my junior year I had the pleasure of reading more of her works for a class on the history of socialism, and I was blown away. I remember show more sitting in class arguing the Luxemburg understood Marx's own ideas of Revolution better than Lenin. I think I lost some friends that day, but I was convinced, and I ended up convincing the professor.

Whenever I read her works I feel an excitement well up in me, and this biography did something similar. The way Evans was able to use Luxemburg's own writings to help show her life, was well done. Instead of just having her look at the reader and just start quoting, Evans used some artistic liberty to put her in dialogue with friends and colleagues. It helped to humanize her and make for a more coherent narrative, then just a typical historical work. I think graphic biographies need to take some liberties and fictionalize some events to help hammer home either the subjects own beliefs or humanize the lived experiences. I don't know if Rosa actually explained Marx's labor theory of value to her brothers with bread, a watch, and cutlery, but it was a great way to show her own radical education, and teach the reader something in the process.

Everyone interested in Rosa Luxemburg and socialism should read this, it is a quick fun read. show less

Excelente biografia em quadrinhos de uma das mais bem sucedidas mentes do comunismo no século XX, a forma que concatena as ideias e passagens da vida de Rosa Luxemburgo é interessantíssima e embora o traço muitas vezes não se equipare à construção geral das ideias alimentadas pelo quadrinho, quando o faz como nessa belíssima imagem da capa, o faz certeiramente.
Para além da vida da pensadora, temos um posfácio que delimita as injustiças e influências que sofreu e promoveu, como o fato de Luxemburgo ter sido relegada ao ostracismo na Rússia Stalinista tanto quanto o fora Trótsky, por representar um socialismo libertário que divergia do terror implantado por Stálin. Só a partir das últimas décadas do século XX que Rosa show more voltou a ser um objeto de pesquisa próprio da esquerda libertária. show less

Red Rosa by Kate Evans is a stunning work of both biography and visual art. In fact, because of the extensive appendix with citations for quotes and events in the book, this serves as an excellent research source (likely as an intro to Rosa and a springboard into other sources from the appendix).

Rosa's ideas are expressed clearly and are at least as relevant today as they were then. Her struggles as a woman within the movement are also on display, from which we can still unfortunately learn about not discounting people because they may belong to some group.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in Rosa's thought, for those who like good biographies (in graphic form) and for those who like quality graphic novels in both the show more drawings and the book materials.

Reviewed from an ARC made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

I had a bit of an issue with the "conflation" of characters, as the author put it, in which words someone else said had were put in someone else's mouth or someone was made to be a composite of several other historical figures in order to maintain narrative flow. This is clarified in the notes at the end of the book. But precisely because the narrative flows very well, unless you stop at every page to turn to the notes to see where the conflation or changes were, you might well miss it and reading the notes at the end, after reading the story, means that you might not catch it. So it's a bit odd, as it were, the "creative" nonfiction part of the whole thing, even if the author is upfront about it.

I also didn't quite get why in some show more instances the faces and figures were rendered with broad, crude lines that looked unfinished or rushed while the landscape and the background were always illustrated with clean, delicate lines. I was trying to see if the change in art corresponded to a particular moment of tension or change or emphasis in the narrative, but no--it seemed pretty arbitrary.

Otherwise a riveting and inspiring read and people complaining about the "Marx lessons" in this--well, it's the best part. show less