Book Review
Title: Parallel by Matthias Lehmann
Genre: Graphic Novel, Historical, LGBT
Rating: 5 Stars
I didn’t know much about the novel or the author before requesting it on NetGalley but the premise following an LGBT couple in 1950s Germany when homosexual relationships were illegal really drew me in especially since we are following older characters who have other lives including wives and families. We are introduced to Karl Kling as he is retiring as an old man, he discusses his terrible relationship with his daughter who he hasn’t seen for eight years but doesn’t go into detail as to why but it is clear to the reader. Karl then begins to look back on his life and where things went wrong for him, it seems he was a young man in the Second World War and he seemed to have a crush on a fellow soldier and friend, Willi but he never returned from the war. Karl denies even to himself that he is gay but he makes stupid decisions when drunk especially since he can be killed for being gay.
Eventually, after the war he settles down with Anna and has a child but he quickly ends up in a relationship with another man, Paul but he is constantly worried about being found out and what that would do to his family. It does happen when Anna confides in her father that she believes Karl is having an affair and the father knew Karl was gay or liked men and warned him to keep his behaviour in line. Karl ends up getting beaten up by men hired by his father in law and his wife kicks him out on the same day that he ended his relationship with Paul. He turns to a friend for help although he doesn’t tell him why but he seems to know and offers Karl a way out by offering to let him stay with his mother and sister so he isn’t in the same town and he decides to take that offer since it is better than what he has right now. This is broken up by older Karl in the present trying to write a letter to his daughter, Hella, explaining why he was such a bad father and the true reasons why their family fell apart.
In the past, Karl escapes to the East in order to start over after the collapse of his marriage with help from Manfred. There he meets Manfred’s mother and sister, Lilo and they quickly end up in a relationship which brings some normalcy back to Karl’s life but he still feels something is missing. This only gets worse when Lilo learns she is pregnant and Karl has to marry her and he repeats his mistakes when he ends up having an affair with a man named Alfred shortly before his daughter is born. While Karl was semi-honest with Lilo in a way he wasn’t with Anna he could have been honest with her since neither her or her mother have shown any contempt to those who are more inclined to the same sex but he is still holding a part of himself back because of the way gay men are treated in society because homosexuality is still illegal at this time.
Karl does end finding some friends that are also gay like him and he is able for the first time in his life to share the struggles he is having both emotionally and physically but when he gets arrested for being gay everything comes crashing down for him again. When he is released, Lilo is distraught and leaves from the west with Hella and Karl is broken since he loves his family but he doesn’t want to have to hide who he loves and pretend for the sake of society. This is a situation we see coming up again and again as Karl is forced to choose between being accepted by society and being himself and it gets to him. Considering Hella was too young to fully understand what was happening when she left with her mother I was wondering what happened between her and Karl to make her leave. Karl in the present is also showing signs of something like Alzheimer’s since he is becoming increasing forgetful.
After a while, Karl decides he is going to try and make things work with his wife and moves back west and for a time everything seems good until one night he meets Helmut and he feels like he has found his soul mate. For Karl, this is the first time he has felt these kind of feelings towards a man and even moves Helmut into the family home where he becomes a huge part of their lives especially Hella’s but bit by bit he is pulling away from Karl. Eventually he comes out and tells Karl he isn’t gay and was only selling himself because he didn’t have any other choice and he wants nothing to do with Karl which is a hard blow for him because he felt he finally found what had been missing from his entire life and it is snatched away from him.
However, as time passes it becomes clear there is something going on between Helmut and Lilo and she confirms this when she tells Karl she believes she is pregnant with Helmut’s child and this is the final blow in their relationship which ends in divorce. Karl looking back on it knows he made mistakes but he was fumbling around in the dark unable to be himself and unable to figure it out without hurting the people he cared about like Hella and Lilo but in the present he is finally able to say aloud that he is gay to his best friend and his friend continues to support him. Months before he wrote a letter to Hella asking her to visit so he could explain everything to her without lying like he did in the past and he doesn’t believe she is going to come but in the final pages she arrives with her child completely stunning Karl. Overall, this was a heart-breaking story and while I wish there was a happy ending for Karl I did like the fact it was realistic in showing that not every story has a happy ending. As for the art style it has a muted almost watercolour quality to it so it is easy on the eyes but I did wish for a bit of colour. I think the art style mirrored the tone of the story but colour in the happier moments would have made them pop and made the dark times really hit home as you returned to the greyscale pages.
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