A power graphic novel that tells a generational story
To many people, the name Jordan Mechner is synonymous with the Prince of Persia series. But his story, and his family’s story, goes so much deeper than pixels.
In his book, Replay: The Memoir of an Uprooted Family, Mechner tells the tale of three generations of a family torn apart by war, by careers, and by the spectrum of life, and how the consequences of thoselife-changing situations affect more than a person’s path. Mechner really punctuates his personal story with his father & grandfather’s lives during the world wars, with the hardships and terrors that formed his family, and often the necessity to survive.
It’s meticulously maintained — from his grandfather keeping photos and notes, to his father writing his memoir, and to jordan maintaining his own journals and sketchbooks. This is three generations of a family that’s kept track of all of their stories. Mechner created all of the art, too, and did a cool thing with coloring — because the book jumps around between three different time periods, Mechner uses color variations and shading to let us know which era we’re in. Gray puts us in war time, when we see blue tones we know we’re in the 70s & 80s, and modern times (2017) bathe us in yellow. It’s effective, and beautiful.
This is a touching story that genuinely makes us feel for what one family can go through, and what struggles shaped their lives in the past and present — and perhaps even their futures. Jordan Mechner’s Replay is a can’t miss book.
This review is based on a digital copy sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. It originally appeared on the April 14th, 2024 episode of The SideQuest.
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