A review by ollie_again
Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.5

This graphic novel is extremely important and powerful, while the art style is not the most elaborate, I think that the story does not need some beautifully detailed artwork to be told. Korean 'comfort women' aka women who were raped and abused by the Japanese army during the war, is a piece of history I was vaguely aware of but never really looked into it more. It is just as horrifying and tragic as one would imagine.

I would give this full five stars but the insertion of the author in the story didn't sit well with me, her stress about publishing Grass, getting the story out next to the actual experiences of the person she's writing about just did not seem right. Especially when she prodded the granny Lee Ok-Sun with the question about if there were some nicer soldiers that came because there might be less evil ones but they still came to rape those women just because they could. The last chapter about the author retracing the steps of Lee Ok-Sun was jarring because a few pages back there are traumas of the old woman bared naked and next there's the author complaining about airconditioning and air pollution. And on the same note, the afterword felt to me like the author got what she wanted from Lee Ok-Sun and didn't feel like vising her anymore.

Despite that, the book is something everyone should read at some point in their life.
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