Memoir: The Wall by Peter Sis

Through Peter Sis's words and art, this book depicts his life growing up in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War.  Identified as a talented artist as a young child, Peter gradually learned the realities of life in his country that was dominated by the Soviet Union. The art is detailed, filled with symbols, and beautifully rendered. It's worth looking at this book many times to find more and more meaning in both the prose and art.   Through the art and his actual journal entries, the reader is taken along on Sis' journey eventually leads to his freedom.  He attributes the music of the west, particularly the Beatles, as the entry point for an expanded consciousness about the world, and shows how longing for the west and western culture eventually brought the Czech people freedom.  The Wall is both a personal story and a story about freedom at the same time.

Amy Gray