An Irish single mother and her daughter begin a new life in New York City in 1870 while she waits for her husband to arrive from across the pond. A young Irish singer/songwriter tries to make it in showbiz in 1960 New York City. A rich Irishman looks for the truth behind his favourite song, Gone to Amerikay, in 2010. All, er, “storylines”, are tenuously connected but amount to basically a shrug!
There’s nothing to any of the three storylines. Life was grim for Irish immigrants in 1870 and showbiz is sleazy – oh, big whoop! The 2010 thread was entirely superfluous. They’re such unimpressive, boring stories, I don’t get what the point was. And the conceit of connecting them failed completely in adding anything of substance to the overall book. This person is the grandchild of this person who’s sort of related to this person – yeah, so?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: comics – books in general really – do not convey music well at all and should never be used as a plot device. When you centre a comic around music, like this does, you notice its failings all the more. The titular song is apparently a powerful, epic ballad, but that’s just something you’re told by the writer – all I saw was bad poetry, some musical notes and absolutely no sense of the music itself.
Gone to Amerikay is one long yawn - it’s an obscure comic for a reason. I’d suggest watching Gangs of New York instead for a vastly more entertaining, and about as informative, look at Irish immigrant life in 19th century New York.
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