Shocking
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This was my first venture into graphic novels. All my life i've never been able to get into fiction, I'd stick to books on religion, war etc so when a friend pointed out that there are graphic novels/comics based on real events I thought I'd give it a go (I always assumed graphics novels were about fantasy figures/men in tight spandex outfits throwing balls of fire at women with blue hair)
I read "Palestine" in about 5 sittings, I read it before bed for about an hour each night until I was too tired, I couldn't put it down. Some of the interviews/reports really did shock me and I had to put it down a couple of times. Not just the stories themselves shocked me but the fact that I had no idea these events happened/are happening. Can't recommened this enough.
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An important book
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An outstanding, sensitive and compelling work. Be in no doubt, this is not a graphic novel. Sacco is a superb journalist who conveys the experiences of long-suffering Palesenians through remarkable illustrated interviews, but the illustrations serve simply to contextualise these harrowing true stories. If only this were required reading for the Bush administration...
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Offers a real insight
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This book offers an insight into the lives of the palestinians, it offers you the side of the story that is not told by the mainstream press. From what you learn about the terrible treatement of the palestinians, the israeli aggression and opression towards them one realises why they resort to such terrible things such as suicide bombing. This book instills sympathy for palestinians and automatically makes you hate all injustice in the world.
from reading this book, one cannot help to think that the israelis have only brought this on themselves, any suicide bombing (which of course is wrong) is only as a result of their inhumane ill-treatement of the palestinians, and they only have themselves to blame. Reading this book one realises the origins of the arab hatred toward the state of israel.
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History as lived by real people
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A truly wonderful book of journalism that shows the reader what it actually means to live, work, struggle, travel, have kids, survive and die as a Palestinian in the West bank and Gaza.
There are some truly heartbreaking stories in here, made even more so for me by the realisation that in years of hearing about the Middle East on the news I had never got any sense of what it means for a people to live their whole lives in these conditions.
Sacco tells his experiences in a self-deprecating way, never holier-than-thou or over-sentimental, always respectful. The artwork is at once simple and full of intricate detail, and beautiful to look at, even when it's subject matter is dark.
Ideally, it should make no difference to those reading this to know that I am of Jewish descent. But I find that for some reason, adding this point sometimes helps people avoid lazily dismissing reviews like this as "anti-Semitic" or somesuch.
Good honest hournalists like Joe Sacco are putting this stuff out there. How many of us choose to read and understand and then act on this kind of reporting (in the West, as much as in the Middle East) is, I think, what will decide how many more people suffer, for how long.
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A corner stone in comic book journalism.
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Bearing in mind that no documentary, especially not on war, is ever going to be objective and thus that any reader's reaction is bound to be subjective, this work is going to stir people's feelings.
Joe Sacco's work is unique in that unlike most journalists, not only has he chosen to use comics/graphic novels as a medium but also he has a much less superficial way of working. This book and the one on Sarajevo offer a real insight on the plight of people's life in a war stricken zone. The fact that the author does not restrict himself to citing historic facts but also goes in to show apparently meaningless details about the local population's daily life only makes the horror of it all more obvious.
Though showing the plight of the Palestinians during the first "Intifada", I do not feel this is antisemitic or whatever. Joe Sacco strives to expose the first victims of any conflict, the civilians, and how that suffering is used by the waring factions on both sides against the opponent.
This might be a "comic book" but it is also a major work showing this medium to be on par with written litterature or films at their best. It is no surprise this book has received so many awards from people who are not in the "comics" business.
A definite must read for anyone interested in good journalism or on this crisis.
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