Scan barcode
longl's review against another edition
4.0
Reading Citizen 13660 made me reflect on how important captions are. Unlike typical/traditional graphic novels where text is integrated with the visual elements and embedded within the immediate narrative as dialogue or exposition in interjectory spaces, Citizen 13660 doesn't have that. Instead, we have a clear separation, a fence, between illustrations and text. In my opinion, they function like adjacent tellings that supplement, complement, or contradict each other to give depth and complexity to what we experience from them.
If Japanese American interment were to happen now in 2023, Mie Okubo's illustration and captions of day-to-day life would be what we'd be seeing on our feeds, and all the things that escape unsaid through the boundaries between post and caption would be what keeps us up at night and our thoughts suddenly arrested.
If Japanese American interment were to happen now in 2023, Mie Okubo's illustration and captions of day-to-day life would be what we'd be seeing on our feeds, and all the things that escape unsaid through the boundaries between post and caption would be what keeps us up at night and our thoughts suddenly arrested.
heatherhira's review against another edition
5.0
Citizen 13660 is told in a series of illustrations and accompanying text captions, in that manner it is almost reminiscent of a children's book, as the images weave a story as much as the text.
The story starts with Okubo's flee from Europe in the late 1930's with other European refugees through her time in the camps to her release. At times feeling more like a documentary than a memoir, Okubo's writing is largely objective almost to the point of being clinical as she recounts her day to day experiences in first an assembly center and then a camp. Despite this, her wry, witty humor, is evident from her illustrations, whether it be the collection of characters she has portrayed, or the juxtaposition of the specific text with the associated drawing.
Most of the emphasis is placed on the mundane actions we all take to live: sleeping, eating, washing, etc. The concern over such ubiquitous needs is put in stark contrast with the hyper-specific time and place in which Okubo made her drawings. Okubo manages to create a microcosm of human experience and still invoke a deep sense of personal narrative as she includes herself in nearly (if not all) of her illustrations. Okubo's ability to convey her honest experiences is balanced by her lack of bitterness, despite what she endured, which she addresses in her 1983 foreword. Her foreword remains especially relevant today as she explained the need to educate the county about the experience in the camps so as to repeat the same occurrence in the future.
The story starts with Okubo's flee from Europe in the late 1930's with other European refugees through her time in the camps to her release. At times feeling more like a documentary than a memoir, Okubo's writing is largely objective almost to the point of being clinical as she recounts her day to day experiences in first an assembly center and then a camp. Despite this, her wry, witty humor, is evident from her illustrations, whether it be the collection of characters she has portrayed, or the juxtaposition of the specific text with the associated drawing.
Most of the emphasis is placed on the mundane actions we all take to live: sleeping, eating, washing, etc. The concern over such ubiquitous needs is put in stark contrast with the hyper-specific time and place in which Okubo made her drawings. Okubo manages to create a microcosm of human experience and still invoke a deep sense of personal narrative as she includes herself in nearly (if not all) of her illustrations. Okubo's ability to convey her honest experiences is balanced by her lack of bitterness, despite what she endured, which she addresses in her 1983 foreword. Her foreword remains especially relevant today as she explained the need to educate the county about the experience in the camps so as to repeat the same occurrence in the future.
booksoup's review against another edition
4.0
I haven't seen many books of this illustrative style before, and I really enjoyed it. Thoughts to come, especially after we discuss this in class.