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belladonnashrike's review against another edition
informative
I do understand why this is often recommended and why it’s compared to Maus, but I don’t like how cavalier Sacco is about the occupation. I understand his tone, I get it, but I just don’t like it.
I think this comic is more suited for people who have absolutely no idea what’s going on in Palestine. I’m going to read the second installment because I think the stories he’s relaying are extremely important, and I do think an outsider’s perspective on the occupation does have some merit (should his voice be centered? absolutely not. but his story visiting Palestine mirrors many others who have gone on birthright trips, or who have visited for some other reason. they go in thinking it’s utopia-adjacent and leave knowing the horrors of apartheid after seeing walls and hearing gunfire. and I think that’s an important perspective to others not living in/anywhere near Palestine, because unfortunately some people are more willing to listen to someone who looks like them, or speaks the same language, or comes from the same country as them to believe injustices are happening).
I do really like how he illustrates traditional thobes. I’m not the biggest fan of how this comic looks but the stitching on the thobes is so gorgeous and honors that art form beautifully.
I think this comic is more suited for people who have absolutely no idea what’s going on in Palestine. I’m going to read the second installment because I think the stories he’s relaying are extremely important, and I do think an outsider’s perspective on the occupation does have some merit (should his voice be centered? absolutely not. but his story visiting Palestine mirrors many others who have gone on birthright trips, or who have visited for some other reason. they go in thinking it’s utopia-adjacent and leave knowing the horrors of apartheid after seeing walls and hearing gunfire. and I think that’s an important perspective to others not living in/anywhere near Palestine, because unfortunately some people are more willing to listen to someone who looks like them, or speaks the same language, or comes from the same country as them to believe injustices are happening).
I do really like how he illustrates traditional thobes. I’m not the biggest fan of how this comic looks but the stitching on the thobes is so gorgeous and honors that art form beautifully.
tawfek's review against another edition
4.0
okay i didn't expect to like this novel this much.
but Joe has a way of getting you mixed up in all his adventures.
of course i said adventures i mean this guy has actually risked walking among the very strict occupation forces with a camera in his hand while they were shooting and beating up Palestinians
and he got away with it only to find out that he is a journalist not a camera man and his photo sucked so bad that they couldn't use it..
and him mixing up with the Israels and the Palestinians is also a treat because of how much i love to travel and mix up with different people from different countries but then again i don't have money to do that so i might as well read about someone else doing it
joe made a very good case of writing about the state in the occupied country and nation of Palestine
(which is currently losing its capital to the occupied nation with the big OK from USA government)
he may have been not accurate or may have been judging and a wrong judge at some points
but he did a great job overall
and i couldn't help but read some of the reviews and their was this Arabian girl who said that beating woman isn't in our culture and that this whole book is BS
well well well we both know that isn't really true.
lets say a guy hits his wife in any civilized country she can sue him and put him in jail
but here no she goes to her family and they convince her to go back with her husband and he might even do it again to the point that if he is an insane wife beater they would eventually have to divorce because there is no way she can live with him after all the chances.
there is a whole generation of well educated open minded people and then again there is whole generations of people who will never get rid of all the things that make living among this culture a living hell.
but Joe has a way of getting you mixed up in all his adventures.
of course i said adventures i mean this guy has actually risked walking among the very strict occupation forces with a camera in his hand while they were shooting and beating up Palestinians
and he got away with it only to find out that he is a journalist not a camera man and his photo sucked so bad that they couldn't use it..
and him mixing up with the Israels and the Palestinians is also a treat because of how much i love to travel and mix up with different people from different countries but then again i don't have money to do that so i might as well read about someone else doing it
joe made a very good case of writing about the state in the occupied country and nation of Palestine
(which is currently losing its capital to the occupied nation with the big OK from USA government)
he may have been not accurate or may have been judging and a wrong judge at some points
but he did a great job overall
and i couldn't help but read some of the reviews and their was this Arabian girl who said that beating woman isn't in our culture and that this whole book is BS
well well well we both know that isn't really true.
lets say a guy hits his wife in any civilized country she can sue him and put him in jail
but here no she goes to her family and they convince her to go back with her husband and he might even do it again to the point that if he is an insane wife beater they would eventually have to divorce because there is no way she can live with him after all the chances.
there is a whole generation of well educated open minded people and then again there is whole generations of people who will never get rid of all the things that make living among this culture a living hell.
stunnerz25's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
A Timely and relevant piece of literature about what is truly happening between Israel and Palestine. Well written
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
A patron at the library filled out a form to have this graphic novel removed due to fact it was "lies" and "propaganda" so I was one of three people reviewing it. My verdict: return to the shelf immediately. Political? Yes. Offensive to Jews? No, but it is an indictment on the treatment of Palestinians in the 1980s and early 1990s.
taratearex's review against another edition
4.0
graphic novel about a guy travelling in palestine and israel. it's a really great account of what is happening in palestine and israel everyday. its an old book but the stories remain true. anyone with a passing interest in the conflict should read it. it made me think of a lot of the situations i ran into when i was there and the stories people told me.
hardcoverhearts's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
estherounette's review against another edition
4.0
Ça aurait été meilleur sans le dessin caricatural. Pourquoi des grosses dents partout?
sookieskipper's review against another edition
4.0
When you see a city/country/area/geography in conflict, you keep wondering why some of those people just don't move away from the said conflict. You don't understand how people can go out, walk into a small hotel, meet some friends and order some tea while being fully aware that there is a great possibility the hotel might be blown up before the tea is served. Sacco walks among people who lead their everyday life laced with worry and tries to draw them. He succeeds in capturing their everyday terror, depressing endings to days that began like any other, plight at the borders and the uncertainty of life.
Sacco provides the perspective of Palestinians only as the book is his experiences with them. The criticism that the book has received over the years has some credit to it. Sacco addresses this in his forward and in some of the passages in the second of the book. There have been enough material written about Israel and their standing in the conflict. Having been painted in generally negative undertones, Sacco captures the life in this conflicted area and offers a view that isn't generally seen.
My reading experience was similar to that of Sacco's earlier work: Safe area. Sacco spends pages in capturing lingering moments of everyday life - a shot of town square, panoramic view at the border, a zoomed in view of a kitchen, corruption in prison, people crumpled like livestock in a small area, etc. This is most effective as there are no words to accompany these cartoons and its readers prerogative to derive conclusions off them. This way his work is quite effective in offering a perspective without being sanctimonious about it. It is however evident that Sacco is weary of both the sides. His private thoughts seep into few of the pieces that take the form of a magazine article where he criticizes all the parties involved in this conflict, including the US.
Its heartbreaking that even after two decades of being published, this story is still relevant.
Sacco provides the perspective of Palestinians only as the book is his experiences with them. The criticism that the book has received over the years has some credit to it. Sacco addresses this in his forward and in some of the passages in the second of the book. There have been enough material written about Israel and their standing in the conflict. Having been painted in generally negative undertones, Sacco captures the life in this conflicted area and offers a view that isn't generally seen.
My reading experience was similar to that of Sacco's earlier work: Safe area. Sacco spends pages in capturing lingering moments of everyday life - a shot of town square, panoramic view at the border, a zoomed in view of a kitchen, corruption in prison, people crumpled like livestock in a small area, etc. This is most effective as there are no words to accompany these cartoons and its readers prerogative to derive conclusions off them. This way his work is quite effective in offering a perspective without being sanctimonious about it. It is however evident that Sacco is weary of both the sides. His private thoughts seep into few of the pieces that take the form of a magazine article where he criticizes all the parties involved in this conflict, including the US.
Its heartbreaking that even after two decades of being published, this story is still relevant.
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