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soniek's review against another edition
3.0
The Fixer is about Neven, a fixer from Sarajevo. Joe Sacco met him in his first trip to Sarajevo during the seige in the 90's. While the story is about Neven, it describes the situation in Sarajevo during the war.
So far, I had only heard of Sarajevo in the song "Bosnia" by the Cranberries, and I remember hearing about Bosnian war in the news when I was a child. I only knew that there was a war in Bosnia, why was it fought, who fought it and who won, were things that I never got to, or cared to learn, because these were events in a country far away. And unlike the Middle Eastern conflict, European conflicts of the 90's were short-lived in global news.
And so, this novel answered all my questions (a quick Wikipedia reference of Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Sarajevo also helped!). The story jumps to and fro, it starts with the present when Sacco revisits Sarajevo in the 2000's and goes back in the 90's to when he first met Neven, to further back about Neven's alleged exploits in the war.
While Neven's own stories and claims are depicted to be doubtful because of his reputation, the major incidents, the 3 main paramilitary leaders who played key roles in the war, are accurate and help the reader get an idea of the situation in Sarajevo during the war. There are no right sides. Neven is a Serb who joins forces to fight the Serbs. He claims he's killed many people as a sniper. Others tell Sacco that Neven is bluffing. That many personal combats of his never even happened. Neven narrates "the true story" behind many major incidents which neither Sacco nor we have any way of cross-checking. By the end of the war, Neven as well as the 3 key leaders receive mixed responses. While "the war left behind Neven, instead of the other way around", the other 3 leaders meet different treatments from the government, some good, some bad.
Just like we are confused about the truth in Neven's stories, he and everyone who fought in the war are left confused about the purpose of the war: Who won? Who lost? Was it fair? Where do their loyalties eventually lie? Even the final death count is unclear. The only thing that is an obvious fact is that Sarajevo burned, it's citizens were trapped in their own city, evicted from their homes or killed inside.
The story is not very clear and concise. It runs as a narration by Sacco about what Neven told him. Maybe it is deliberate, to tell things straight from the horse's mouth and hence preserve the confusion in the mind of a fighter.
I also loved the visuals in this novel. Sacco's work is beautiful, it's dark and intricate. It clearly depicts the bloodshed, the filth, the cruelty, terror, pain and other emotions in people's faces. The 2 full pages showing Sacco entering Sarajevo during the war, against a backdrop of burning skyscrapers and an overcast sky (by clouds or smoke?) was the visual highlight of this book.
To summarize, I appreciate books like these which bring stories from underrepresented global events.
So far, I had only heard of Sarajevo in the song "Bosnia" by the Cranberries, and I remember hearing about Bosnian war in the news when I was a child. I only knew that there was a war in Bosnia, why was it fought, who fought it and who won, were things that I never got to, or cared to learn, because these were events in a country far away. And unlike the Middle Eastern conflict, European conflicts of the 90's were short-lived in global news.
And so, this novel answered all my questions (a quick Wikipedia reference of Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Sarajevo also helped!). The story jumps to and fro, it starts with the present when Sacco revisits Sarajevo in the 2000's and goes back in the 90's to when he first met Neven, to further back about Neven's alleged exploits in the war.
While Neven's own stories and claims are depicted to be doubtful because of his reputation, the major incidents, the 3 main paramilitary leaders who played key roles in the war, are accurate and help the reader get an idea of the situation in Sarajevo during the war. There are no right sides. Neven is a Serb who joins forces to fight the Serbs. He claims he's killed many people as a sniper. Others tell Sacco that Neven is bluffing. That many personal combats of his never even happened. Neven narrates "the true story" behind many major incidents which neither Sacco nor we have any way of cross-checking. By the end of the war, Neven as well as the 3 key leaders receive mixed responses. While "the war left behind Neven, instead of the other way around", the other 3 leaders meet different treatments from the government, some good, some bad.
Just like we are confused about the truth in Neven's stories, he and everyone who fought in the war are left confused about the purpose of the war: Who won? Who lost? Was it fair? Where do their loyalties eventually lie? Even the final death count is unclear. The only thing that is an obvious fact is that Sarajevo burned, it's citizens were trapped in their own city, evicted from their homes or killed inside.
The story is not very clear and concise. It runs as a narration by Sacco about what Neven told him. Maybe it is deliberate, to tell things straight from the horse's mouth and hence preserve the confusion in the mind of a fighter.
I also loved the visuals in this novel. Sacco's work is beautiful, it's dark and intricate. It clearly depicts the bloodshed, the filth, the cruelty, terror, pain and other emotions in people's faces. The 2 full pages showing Sacco entering Sarajevo during the war, against a backdrop of burning skyscrapers and an overcast sky (by clouds or smoke?) was the visual highlight of this book.
To summarize, I appreciate books like these which bring stories from underrepresented global events.
steds's review against another edition
3.0
i love sacco - not my favorite, but as always on point, intimately observed and well constructed. his amazing art really shines.
alisonannk's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Death
Moderate: Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Racial slurs, Rape, and Religious bigotry
crowyhead's review
4.0
Another journalistic foray into war-torn Sarajevo by Joe Sacco. I didn't find this as powerful as Safe Area Gorazde, but it was artfully drawn and unsettling nonetheless.
jasminegannaway's review against another edition
4.0
Definitely recommend to those who have read Safe Area Gorazde and those who are interested in comics journalism.
directorpurry's review
Read for the "Read the World" Challenge for: Bosnia and Herzegovina
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1141540.html[return][return]This is, in a sense, a sequel to Sacco's brilliant Safe Area Gorazde, but following just one person, Neven, a Sarajevo Serb, a former fighter on the Bosnian side in the war who Sacco got to know as his "fixer" when he first visited Sarajevo just after the war ended in 1995. (I first went there myself in early 1997, and the city of Sacco's book is definitely the one I knew.)[return][return]Anyone who has worked in that sort of environment knows the essential nature of the fixer. Sacco captures it well: but it's not just about Neven's murky past and dubious present, it's also about the dodgy wartime goings on between the "legitimate" government and its bully-boys (and one of the personalities featured in the book was in the news again recently, having apparently committed suicide earlier this month) and the inevitable resulting questions about who is right and who is wrong; and it's also about the effect that Sacco's observation has, not only on the people and situations he is observing, but on Sacco himself.[return][return]If there is a weakness in the book, it is perhaps that the casual reader might take Neven's experiences as in some way typical of the Bosnian (or any) war. Neven is a somewhat unusual character. But then again, we are all of us unusual characters, and perhaps Sacco is right to just take a single personality and follow him through the conflict, in his own words and as others reported him. Anyway, well worth reading.
thebobsphere's review
3.0
It's ok - this is from Sacco's time during the Bosnian war of the mid 90's and it's is about a corrupt character he met in Sarajevo. Not his best.