A review by poorlywordedbookreviews
Paying the Land by Joe Sacco

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

“𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘴?”

  

Still working my way through Sacco’s works, and still really appreciating his graphic illustration take on journalistic essaying. Here he’s exploring the complicated realties facing the indigenous Dene in Canada’s North West Territories as they battle to save their culture and assert greater independence. The legacy of colonialism looms large, and its inter-generational legacy is illustrated well - just stopping some of the worse offences doesn’t resolve the impact. But how do you embrace the positives modern Canada can bring, without the negatives when the two are so entwined? When capitalism is so insidious? When Canada is a petro-state? When isolation is now a fiction, as human driven climate change impacts land never stepped upon?

   

I much preferred his slightly evolved drawing style her too, a little less cartoonish than Palestine.