Victory Parade
I need to warn you that Victory Parade is not an easy read. It consists of intertwining stories of Rosie, Ruth, Sam, Rosie’s lover, Mr. 
Finlay, and the aftermath and effect of WWII.
The story begins in Brooklyn, 1943, where Rosie is working as a riveter (Rosie the Riveter was a cultural icon during WWII for women who worked in factories and shipyards. They took over the jobs held by men who went to war). Rosie is struggling because her husband Sam is in Europe fighting the war, so she takes solace with her lover George, who lives in her building. George lost part of his leg in the war, and he is struggling with his place in the world.
They read Sophocles, the ancient Greek author of tragedies, to each other after they make love while they struggle with their current lives. When Rosie finds out Sam is coming home, she has no opinion of his return. It is suggested they were amicable to each other, but this is not a love match. Her relationship with Mr. Finlay is a love match, of sorts, something she needs to get through her life.
The second story intertwines Rosie’s story with that of Ruth, a young German woman who arrives on a boat before the war with other children. It is not explained how Rosie knows Ruth, but the relationship suggested is that they are related by chance but not by blood. Ruth works in a diner where she is often sexually harassed. When she takes down a customer, she is fired.
As she leaves the diner, she’s approached by a smarmy women’s wrestling promoter who convinces her to join his team. Ruth has found a new calling as a woman wrestler and feels that this is helping her cope with the horrors of the war and how she grew up. She’s painted as the heel, the villain, for being a German Jew, but according to the wrestling promoter, this makes them more money. She fights against this stereotype, but then uses it to her advantage to work out the aggression in her life. She’s killed in a bout, and Ruth’s story ends a few pages later, when we are given a glimpse of Ruth’s afterlife and that she is finally free.
We are then shown an intimate scene with Pauline, Sam’s lover, and Sam when they run across each other in New York. It is touchingly set up that they will never see each other again. Now we know that neither Rosie or Sam were faithful to each other, which is a part of the casualty of war.
We’re sent back in time to Berlin 1936 to glimpse Ruth’s life before she leaves for America, where she trades favors (but it is not implied it is sex) for food. It is also explained that Ruth’s mother sleeps with men or does something with men to earn money. She tells Ruth to lock her door at night to protect her, which Ruth does, but then we are shown that Ruth, horrified, listens at the wall to what is going on. It’s implied that the men that Ruth’s mother entertains are Nazis.
We are flipped back to Brooklyn 1943, which I found confusing as Corman does not indicate we’re now in the present. It’s difficult to say if this was intentional or not. It could be argued that the effect of the war on the characters causes disorientation and concern.
Corman heavily uses the stark colors of red, black, and white during interludes where she examines the characters’ subconscious. Death, nightmares, and regrets are heavily illustrated. At some points, it can be unsettling, which is the point.
She also writes about the concentration camp liberation and the new freedom of the prisoners who had been locked up for so long. The American GIs are shocked and disgusted at the actions of the Germans.
The ending is not tied up in a neat bow. Page after page of illustration of what happens in the afterlife of the Nazis, and those killed by the Nazis, can be upsetting. WWII was 80 years ago, but the aftereffects still reverberate in the 21st Century.
The final pages show Sam, now a cab driver, picking up a passenger. They make small talk about the war, and when Sam is asked about his feelings on the topic, he ends with, “Nothing special.” But the car’s exhaust is built of the dead bodies who died from the war, whether it was on the field or in their daily lives.
Victory Parade is compared to Art Spiegelman’s Maus, which is based on Spiegelman’s interview with his father, who was a Polish Jew and a survivor of the Holocaust.
As mentioned earlier, Corman plays around with stark colors like red, black, and white to impress the feeling of despair, destruction, and death, which is the book’s highlight. However, there is some hope intertwined within the story. Rosie and Sam’s daughter, Eleanor, has bright red hair and wears colorful clothes. Ruth, who tried so hard to move past how she grew up and is perceived as a German Jew, was a blonde with colorful clothing.
I will stress again that the book is unsettling, but it’s a great book to introduce what WW2 was like and the complicated feelings, desires, and actions that drove the world at that time. As a group, we talk about cultural shifts during the generations, but WW2 most certainly impacted more than just the soldiers, and Victory Parade does a great job illustrating that.
While the book is not nonfiction, I think it’s a good starting point for learning more about the war, especially from different perspectives. It could be a launching point for research into the horrors and the hope of what happened.
Victory Parade
By Leela Corman
Schocken, 2024
ISBN: 9780805243444
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
