Book Review: Petar & Liza by Miroslav Sekulic-Struja

In Miroslav Sekulic-Struja’s Petar & Liza, a graphic novel translated by Jenna Allen, the former country of Yugoslavia is awash in dark grays. The skies are mostly ominous, dull, and hold little promise. When something sticks out of the background, a bright red piece of paper, perhaps, then it is definitely trash wending its way down the windy, chilled streets. There are endless piles of garbage everywhere including every room Petar enters. Petar is given a lot of time alone in the opening scenes after finishing his years as a conscripted soldier in the Yugoslavian infantry. Petar is mostly homeless or living in squalor for the first few years.

This is a languorous story to wallow in as Petar and Liza don’t bump into each other until (and they quite literally bump into each other) page 53, but it isn’t until more than halfway through the graphic novel that they meet for real on page 85. In other words, it is a slow, precise story that takes all the time it takes to come to its conclusions. Petar is a wandering soul after conscription. His life doesn’t have much meaning and there isn’t much to do. Petar has lots of friends, though; or, that is to say, there are lots of people around. 

Liza is vibrant and exciting. She sees more joy in the world than Petar is able to see. Liza lifts the pages, and Petar, as much as possible, lifts them with her. But it becomes obvious that Petar is seriously depressed and needs real help. His work as a cook is filled with mistakes and fistfights; his work on his novel is slow and losing its luster. Liza tries really hard to make a committed relationship that works, but Petar is unable to work on a relationship when what he needs is to be working on himself.

While the artwork and the relationship tend to skew toward the bleak, there is no denying that both are wondrous and entertaining here. There will be other complications, and there is a period of separation that is probably a healthy tactic. Late in the story, Liza says, “Maybe there’s nothing to say, and it doesn’t matter. You wanted to write about war. But what more is there to say about war?” (pg. 144). There is at least one more story to tell about war. There is Petar & Liza by Miroslav Sekulic-Struja, and it is a beautiful book to get lost in.