What’s up slackers? I can only assume that the dearth of posts lately is due to everyone last minute shopping and then curling up in the evenings with their books and mulled wine. I haven’t been getting much reading done lately myself due to holiday mania and work travel. Luckily, I have a backlog of books that I still need to tell you guys about that will take up some of the slack. Next up is Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Bosnia 1992-1995 by Joe Sacco.
Remember that war? Remember how Republicans in Congress provided succor to our troops by rallying behind President Clinton during a time of war, providing him with their unwavering support? Me either. Luckily, this book isn’t about us. It is on the ground reporting of the impacts of war on real people in an UN-designated “safe area” during the war in Bosnia. Oh, and it is told in comic form. Read on below the fold.
I was not a big comics fan growing up, and I really had not read much of the adult-oriented graphic novels until this year. I read art Spiegelman’s Maus when it came out, and I think that it is something that everyone should read. After Maus, though, I quickly reverted to text-only snobbery. The attention that comix started to get over the last few years with Persepolis, the new Spiegelman, the McSweeney’s collection, and other titles, got me to have a second look. I am sold for the most part. I am convinced that there are some stories that are best told in this way.
Sacco’s war stories, I think, would have suffered if relayed in typical journalism or war-memoire styles. Any explanation of the players in the Bosnian war would require you to draw your own figure on a napkin outlining the ethnic and national groups and their relationship with one another just to keep them straight. Then there are the geographic regions and their alliances to keep straight. You’d need a chalkboard to keep going back to. Having Sacco’s images to go along with the text is so much more visceral and immediate than a column from the front lines. In relaying the horrors of war, it is also much more direct and honest. The author does not allow you to conjure a rose-colored sepia-toned romantic image of Gorazde, he supplies you the reality as he saw it on the ground.
Going into this book, I really had no idea what the whole Bosnian war was about. This book provided a basic back story of the break up of Yugoslovia, although it is principally about the war as it happened in a specific place. For more information, a big picture history would be the way to go. Sacco provides a “suggested reading” list at the end of the book. I enjoyed the book and felt better informed as a result of having read it.
Sacco is a war correspondent who has a few other books on the Bosnian war and a book about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. I will be checking some of those out in the new year.
Sadly, Persepolis 2 is subtitled The Story of A Return, rather than Electric Bugaloo.
Persepolis and Persepolis 2 are graphic novels about the fascinating life of the author, Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis 2 begins where the first book left off.
Persepolis ended with the young Marjane fleeing Iran for boarding school in Austria. from the beginning, the boarding school in Austria idea seems like a poor one – from a parenting standpoint. When things finally hot bottom, Marjane returns to an Iran that had been fighting Iraq for years. This book ends like her last book, with Marjane leaving Iran, this time for good.
Powell’s Bookstore has an interview with Ms. Satrapi that contains this nugget:
The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.
Amen, sister. This book is a worthy follow-up to Persepolis. So read them already.
That’s right. While I was supposed to be on vacation, I read Frank Miller’s 7th Volume of the Sin City series Hell and Back. Keeping it noire yall.
I also stayed up past my bed time, and I played video games, too. So there.
This is a graphic novel. Sin City was also a movie that did not feature any of the action in this book. I have not read any of the other Sin City books. I started with this one because I was unable to distinguish a “1″ from a “7″ on the spine. I’d say, on the whole, that this is not a “gateway” comic, but I enjoyed it plenty. Last week I worked during my planned vacation (hurricane); tomorrow, I go to work in Florida for the rest of the week. It’s crazy. I look forward to reading all of your posts when I return. Later.
I’ve just finished reading
Persepolis by
Marjane Satrapi.
Warning! for the comix adverse: please be advised that the following commentary involves discussion of a graphic novel. Govern yourself accordingly. Are you all gone? Good, now we can proceed…
As I mentioned, this is a graphic novel. It is the autobiographical story of the young Marjane as a little girl in Iran during the time of the Shah’s rule and the subsequent Islamic Revolution. It is a fascinating story, all the more so because it is true. Marjane grew up in many ways just like all of us. All she wanted when her parents went to Turkey for vacation was a Kim Wilde poster. Cool. Now she is apparently an Iggy Pop fan. Did I mention that Ms. Satrapi is really hot? Where was I?
Oh yeah, the story. There is a lot of back story on Iran’s history and its culture. I vaguely remember the Shah’s exile as a kid myself, and this a pain free way to learn what that was all about. I came to this book late. It’s sequel, Persepolis 2 came out to much critical acclaim, but I had to go back and read this one first, obviously. Persepolis takes us up to when Marjane was 14 years old and her parents sent her to Austria to live with a friend while she attended a French school. Persepolis 2, presumably will take us from there. Her most recent book, Embroideries, has just been released, and it is a collection of racy stories that she remembers old Iranian women telling one another. That may be a chick book, we’ll see. Look for future reports on the complete Marjane oeuvre coming soon. I will be reading them all. I can’t say enough good things about this book. If you are interested in finding out what the graphic novel hooplah is all about, this is an excellent “gateway” graphic novel.
Here’s a fun and unlikely fact. Persepolis was required reading this year for West Point cadets. Ms. Satrapi was invited to speak to cadets at West Point, where they got to hear her lecture first hand. She was not all that complementary about Senor Bush (who is). But she was fairly impressed that this country’s top military academy invited her to speak. Me too. Bookslut has an interview with her that you may find interesting.
Bonus comix: If you prefer the guy-with-cape style comic, Michael Chabon has been working on a quarterly old-school comic book based upon the action character developed by the fictional Kavlier & Clay, The Escapist. The conceit of these comic books is that they are a collection of Escapist stories that have been published over the decades by different authors and comic-publishing houses. So each issue has some completely made up history about The Escapist franchise and how it evolved. It is all completely straight faced, but it lets you in on the joke from time to time – if you are down. This allows for a wide range of guest artists, writers, and stories. It’s pretty cool. The next issue, #7, which comes out in July will be a full issue Escapist story by Micheal Chabon himself. Check it out.
My next book is the well regarded Marvel 1602 by Neil Geiman. Marvel, like the comic books? Yes, Marvel like the comic books.
Although, this is a graphic novel. It’s another “what if” book, that reimagines what it would have been like if some of the Marvel characters had existed in 1602 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and her succession by James I. I won’t bore you with any more of the plot, because none of the BgB crew care. It’s themes are familiar though: religious opression, fear and suspicion of the “other” – all that good stuff. I enjoyed it, and the artwork that begins each chapter is spectacular. I found out about this book from this year end review (#5)
Books, Comix, Non-Fiction, Review | Tim | 
December 21, 2005 1:41 pm | 
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