A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Will Eisner published in 1978. The book’s short story cycle revolves around poor Jewish characters who live in a tenement in New York City. Eisner produced two sequels set in the same tenement: A Life Force in 1988, and Dropsie Avenue in 1995. A contract with God cemented Eisner’s reputation as an elder statesman of comics.
About A Contract with God in brief
A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Will Eisner published in 1978. The book’s short story cycle revolves around poor Jewish characters who live in a tenement in New York City. The stories are thematically linked with motifs of frustration, disillusionment, violence, and issues of ethnic identity. Eisner produced two sequels set in the same tenement: A Life Force in 1988, and Dropsie Avenue in 1995. The term ‘graphic novel’ did not originate with Eisner, but the book is credited with popularizing its use. A contract with God cemented Eisner’s reputation as an elder statesman of comics, and he continued to produce graphic novels and theoretical works on comics until his death in 2005. He used no profanity in the book, and according to critic Josh Lambert the sex in Contract is not so much erotic as disturbing, the characters frustrated or filled with guilt. In his introduction to the 2006 edition of the book Eisner first wrote about it and the feelings he felt toward God that were reflected in the story. The story drew from Eisner’s feelings over the death at sixteen of his daughter Alice. In the preface he stated his aim to keep the exaggeration in his cartooning within realistic limits. The books’ sexual content is prominent, though not in the gratuitous manner of underground comix’ celebration of hedonism, which contrasted with the conservative lifestyle of Eisner the middle-aged businessman.
In it he attributes success in life to good deeds; he attributes it to good luck in life, and to God in his later years. He wanted a mainstream publisher for the book and to have it sold in traditional bookstores, rather than in comic book shops. The small press Baronet Books released A Contract With God in 1978 and marketed it as a \”graphic novels\”, which thereafter became the common term for book-length comics. It sold slowly at first, but gained respect from Eiser’s peers, and since has been reprinted by larger publishers. The book contains four stories set in aTenement building; they derive in part from Einson’s personal memories growing up in a 10ement in the Bronx. The main character \”Willie\” even carriesEisner’s own boyhood nickname. In Russia, the young, deeply religious Hasidic Frimmeme carves a deal with God on a stone tablet to live a life of good deeds. He adopts an infant girl, Rachele, who is abandoned on his doorstep. When she dies of a sudden illness, Hersh is infuriated and accuses God of violating their contract. He becomes a miserly businessman in a penthouse with a gentile mistress. He uses a synagogue that he had lived in to buy the tenement building in which he lived when he lived. He abandons his faith, shaves his beard, and lives a simple life. In The Super, a racist is led to suicide after false accusations of pedophilia.
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This page is based on the article A Contract with God published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
