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A review by whatjaimereads
Palestine by Joe Sacco
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
5.0
First off I would like to thank @ells.books for her review of Palestine by Joe Sacco, without which I probably never would’ve found this gem.
Sacco’s graphic journalism covers his time spent visiting the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early ’90s, telling the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a collection of interviews. This makes for an impacting, but approachable, introduction to a complex subject matter.
The graphic novel format is something that I was completely new to, and I was apprehensive, but the illustrations gave a real emotional pull to the accounts. Often with such difficult subject matter it can be easy to emotionally detach, but balanced with displays of camaraderie, hospitality, and Sacco’s dark humour, I was kept engaged throughout. Palestine is a difficult read, and the sheer volume of interviews makes for an overwhelming realisation of the gravity of the conflict. One of the great achievements of this work is that it reminds the reader of our luxury in being able to turn our backs on current events; Palestinians, however, must face the terror and brutality of their situation every day.
As with all non-fiction texts, it is important to go into this with further reading in mind, but I do think that this is an outstanding introduction
Sacco’s graphic journalism covers his time spent visiting the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early ’90s, telling the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a collection of interviews. This makes for an impacting, but approachable, introduction to a complex subject matter.
The graphic novel format is something that I was completely new to, and I was apprehensive, but the illustrations gave a real emotional pull to the accounts. Often with such difficult subject matter it can be easy to emotionally detach, but balanced with displays of camaraderie, hospitality, and Sacco’s dark humour, I was kept engaged throughout. Palestine is a difficult read, and the sheer volume of interviews makes for an overwhelming realisation of the gravity of the conflict. One of the great achievements of this work is that it reminds the reader of our luxury in being able to turn our backs on current events; Palestinians, however, must face the terror and brutality of their situation every day.
As with all non-fiction texts, it is important to go into this with further reading in mind, but I do think that this is an outstanding introduction