Reviews tagging 'War'

Palestine by Joe Sacco

19 reviews

pmileham's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Colonisation, and War

kbeucler's review against another edition

3.5

If you’re one of the many people right now trying to educate yourself on the Israel/Palestine conflict, this is a great primer. Sacco, a Maltese American, is a graphic journalist who visited Palestine in late 1991 and early 1992, trying to himself understand the conflict. What I like about Sacco is his honesty. He has no illusions about what he’s there to do. He’s looking for a story, for anything good for the comic. He’s suspicious and questions everything. He tries to unravel the complicated history and current situation by sharing the stories of many Palestinians, and even a few Israelis.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Colonisation, and War

jannimk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

robinks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

A powerful collection of images and information about the occupation of Palestine. The comics cover a wide range of intersectional topics. Sacco also writes about and acknowledges his privileges in being able to travel safely and have comforts in Gaza. It is wild but also unsurprising that this was drawn based on experience in the early 1990s, and 30 years later, it still rings true based on news from journalists in Palestine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Excrement, Antisemitism, and Deportation

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, and War

beanmilkcantread's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

4.5

Palestine by Joe Sacco is a comic/graphic nonfiction work of journalism that documents his travels through Palestine in the early/mid 1990's. Alongside his own experiences, he tells the stories of many Palestinians that he interviewed. He is invited into many houses for tea and food while hearing stories of brutal imprisonment, death of children, political divides within the community, and much more. 

This work will certainly put the Palestinian struggle into perpective if you are unfamiliar. It also makes the crimes against humanity we are witnessing being livestreamed online even more horrific. For example: hospitals are being bombed now with doctors and patients inside, parallel is the story of a boy (15) who had already been shot by a soldier and sent to the hospital only to be beaten inside the hospital by soldier (his arm broken alongside the arm of a member of hospital staff who tried defending him). The horrors we are seeing now have a long history and this comic shows many small snapshots within that history.

Throughout the story of Sacco's time in Palestine, we see some of his thoughts and at times he outright discusses some of his biases. This was a self-aware framing that is supposed to (I think) show us some of the problems with the Western gaze. Even as I understood it, I still found some of it annoying in the moment. As I reflect on it, I do think that parts of this message are quite important in the context of journalism (particularly as we see how much western news has covered Palestine recently). I still have mixed feelings, but ultimately it's small parts that I have conflicted feelings about. 

Overall, this was an intense collection of experiences and an important read. I'd definitely recommend it to people who are unfamiliar and wanting to learn more about Palestine. It is western journalism that is self-critical and even if the jurry is out on my full opinion of exactly how he did that framing, I'm glad that it was there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

meganpbell's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.5

Eyewitness journalism meets comics in this landmark work of graphic nonfiction, based on over a hundred interviews in Gaza and the West Bank during the author’s visit in the 1990s. This book is intense, ugly, heartbreaking, and remains unfortunately not only relevant but urgent. The author comes across as pretty unlikeable—but you have to respect his transparency. I read this on the recommendation of Jewish author Sim Kern.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Mass/school shootings

jhbandcats's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Absolutely devastating. I’d been wanting to read this for ages - I love Joe Sacco - and with the fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza right now, it seemed the perfect time to learn some history. This was written in 1992-1993. Nothing has changed except the area is even more densely packed. 

Without citing specific examples, I’ll just say the situation is horrific, it has been horrific since 1948, it will always be horrific, and I see no hope whatsoever. 

This book should be required reading for everyone - EVERYONE - right now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

alexandracpedro's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and War