Book-A-Day #111 (11/4): A Life Force by Will Eisner

This is the second of the three books included in the massive compendium The Contract With God Trilogy, which I read early yesterday morning, because I was sure the day was going to get hectic later (as it did).

This one has twelve related stories, all set in the same tenement as A Contract With God, with recurring characters, also set in the mid-30s (and so is roughly simultaneous with Contract). The stories in Life Force are much darker, though, with a repeated metaphor of a cockroach standing for a life without purpose. This time, we also have Italian gangsters and a WASP (who recently lost his fortune) to go with the usual Jewish cast -- they are individuals, and characterized pretty well, but parts of it felt a little bit like Stereotype Theater. (Especially the Jewish Mother stuff, of which a little goes a very long way.)

It's more ambitious than Contract, and I think more successful -- it all adds up to one over-arching story (in the way people like the Hernandez brothers structure their stories these days), but each individual story also works on its own. And, again, Eisner may seem to lose points because he pioneered styles that others did better later -- but, still, he did do it first.

The Fabulous Book-A-Day Index!