Luna Park (First Edition)

Alik is a former Soviet soldier who has relocated to Coney Island only to become a gangland enforcer. He's haunted by memories of his past, and the only thing that soothes his angst is booze, heroin and his lover, the prostitute Marina. But as much as Alik encourages her to break away from the ganglord who owns her, Marina can't because of her daughter, who never leads the ganglord's side. So Alik comes up with a desperate plan to save all three of them, and in doing so, he'll find he's destined to repeat the past over and over again, including a past or two he might not even be aware he has, in a story that flashes from present- day run down Coney Island to the Russia of 10 years ago during the Second Chechen War to turn of the 20th century Coney Island, when the area was at its peak amusement park glory and wonder.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by by Dan Kois "Luna Park" is the first graphic novel by Kevin Baker, author of the best-selling City of Fire trilogy, but its craftsmanship suggests that he's thought long and hard about the storytelling strengths of comics. Spare and thoughtful, "Luna Park" is a reverie on the horrors of Russian history masquerading as a gritty New York crime story. It tells a noir tale through muscular language, vivid scenes and arresting images drawn by Croatian-born Danijel Zezelj. If "Luna Park" doesn't quite hold together, losing its emotional thread in an extended, dreamlike finale, it's still a ghostly and interesting book. Alik Strelnikov, once a Russian soldier stuck in the brutal Chechen war, is now an enforcer for a penny-ante gangster in Brooklyn. As he wanders the wintry wasteland of Coney Island, he feels his world "getting smaller all the time," Baker writes, offering a downbeat snapshot of "the boardwalk over to the aquarium, where feral cats stalk the penguins in their cage." A local crime boss is razing the old amusement parks and squeezing out the criminal competition, including Alik's gang. The only things that get Alik through the nights are heroin, old Russian records and visits from Marina, whose tarot cards introduce an element of the supernatural into the hard-boiled narrative. Soon, readers are dropping into flashbacks not just of Chechnya but also of 1910 tenement New York, the battlefields of World War I and even 10th-century Kiev. By the end of "Luna Park," as Baker ties the incessant cruelty of Russian history to one of America's greatest tragedies, it's clear that he has veered wildly from his tale of lowlifes in love. Maybe too wildly. But the one constant in this at-times uneven graphic novel is Zezelj's lyrical and brutal artwork, full of stark shadows cast over images of terrible beauty. (The colors -- mostly the red of blood and the greens and blues of a fresh bruise -- are by Dave Stewart.) In addition to his own influential graphic novels, Zezelj has illustrated the Viking adventure series "Northlanders," set in a kind of snowy hell on Earth, and he demonstrates with "Luna Park" that he's equally adept at illustrating the internal hell of a tortured man who can't escape his own history, or his nation's. bookworld@washpost.com
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Starred Review. Taking a break (mostly) from his powerful and painstakingly constructed stories of historical New York in novels like Dreamland and Paradise Alley, Baker takes a welcome dive into the graphic novel field with this punchy and ghostly modern-day noir. The setting—today's rusted and listless landscape of Coney Island—fits the dead-end daydreaming of his protagonist. Alik Streinikov is a former Russian soldier fleeing nightmares of the cruelties he witnessed in Chechnya and now working as an enforcer for a sideshow mob fragment that's about to get pushed out by a more vicious gang. Alik's already iffy toehold on society's ladder is complicated by a serious drug habit and worse addiction to Marina, a hooker/fortune teller whose every card reads like bad news. Marina keeps reminding Alik of his nightmares, and before long he's spiraling through alternative pasts (from early 20th-century New York to the Russian civil war), which repeat the same inescapable tragedies. The artwork by Zezelj (Northlanders) has a windswept, slashing quality to it that captures Coney Island's bitter, salty ocean air on the page. A tough-nosed crime story redolent with magic and sadness, Luna Park serves as a fine showcase for two great artists working to the best of their abilities. (Nov.)
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Historical fiction, crime thriller, and political suspense are perfectly blended and balanced in this gut-wrenching view of the cycle of history, its wars, romantic love, and personal betrayal. Titled for the site of Coney Island’s once grand attractions, the story shifts from the amusement center’s ruined interiors to its glory days, from the protagonist’s American life to his Russian roots, from the battlefield of contemporary street-drug wars to the Russian Revolution. In every incarnation, Alik is aware not only of others’ shortcomings and the likelihood of love’s betrayal but of his own implication in evil. The ending of his travails arrives with a perfect unexpected twist. Despite the changing cast and the dreamlike quality of some portions of the story, each character comports herself or himself with an individuality that allows the reader to follow the changes. The amusement park is as disturbingly grotesque as the battlefield, and the arrangement and sizes of panels on each page emulate the ebb and flow of ever increasing dread. --Francisca Goldsmith