Reviews tagging 'Death'

Palestina: En la Franja de Gaza by Joe Sacco

24 reviews

freschne's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25


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dailybee's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25


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eeriekeri's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75


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thura's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

Obviously incredible comics-journalism. Good introduction for anyone looking to learn right now. Emotional, vivid, challenging.

At times outdated, with sexist and racist undertones especially in its narrations of Palestinian women and militant resistance. Sacco’s voice is highly present and often threw me off, because my reactions to described experiences were very different from his then. 

The story I keep thinking about is Ansar III. 

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angievansprang's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This is the very first graphic novel I’ve ever read, and I don’t think I enjoyed doing so in a digital format. This was of course to no fault of the author, so I wouldn’t say it affected my rating. Another note I will add is that I did not do enough research about this author before picking up the novel, and I believed he was Palestinian which he is not. I think it is of the utmost importance to read from Palestinian authors at this time to hear their stories directly, and I certainly hope to do so soon myself. I thought this was an incredibly effective story to read at this time in history. Palestinians have been terrorized by Israelis and the IOF for so so long, and it was eye-opening to read this work which was written about the ‘90s and published in 2000 with the ongoing genocide occurring in the Gaza Strip. Sacco uses the medium well to illustrate both the living conditions and horrendous recounts of torture and unjust incarceration that he observed. I also felt that the artist captured facial expressions well, and I thought that added so much emotion to the text which was already wrought with it. An emotional, informative, and powerful read. Free Palestine, from the river to the sea. 🇵🇸

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jannimk's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0


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robinks's review against another edition

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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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beanmilkcantread's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5


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moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

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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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brookey8888's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced
I’m choosing not to rate this because I don’t think it would be fair. I did learn a lot and I liked hearing about Palestinian stories and what these people went and are still going through. That being said this was told in such a confusing way to me. I also did not like the art style either. These things made it harder for me to understand and learn about some of the things mentioned. I do think this was well done, but maybe pick something else up. 

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