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A review by saidtheraina
Comment Comprendre Israël En 60 Jours, Ou Moins by Sarah Glidden
3.0
Everyone does their graphic novel travelogue differently. That's one of the things I love about them. Some do a moment in time capture in a comic a day as they travel. Some combine short stories and collages and sketches from their trip after the fact. In [a:Glidden|2817217|Sarah Glidden|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1238446413p2/2817217.jpg]'s case, she has created a more-or-less play-by-play retelling of her trip to Israel, including her own personal struggles on the journey.
I enjoyed watching [a:Glidden|2817217|Sarah Glidden|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1238446413p2/2817217.jpg] struggle through finding perspective on the Israel vs. Palestine conflict during her journey, but something about it kept me from personally identifying or being affected emotionally. I've been to Israel (granted, about half my life ago), and I spent most of the book trying to recognize places. Of course, things have changed a bit and I wasn't very successful most of the time. I found the maps slightly confusing, since special locations were pulled out but didn't have any meaning yet. Maybe footsteps showing her route might have helped with that particular issue? Also, my own niggling annoyance was that the photo of Glidden at the beginning of the book makes her looks extremely brunette, but in her illustrations she's distinctly light brown/blondeish. Not that it should matter, but it annoyed. I really appreciated her attempt to be even handed on the debate and expose her true feelings to this extent. It really did help me get a better more well rounded perspective on the conflict.
I'm trying to put my finger on what stopped me from going over the top into loving this book. Maybe it was the anticlimactic nature of her journey itself? Maybe it was the illustration style, which felt a touch utilitarian (particularly when depicting people) to me? I really did appreciate seeing Israel through secular Jewish eyes, since my exposure has been distinctly Christian. Maybe it was the lack of cultural details? Glidden is so focused on her mission of reconciling her brain to a particular perspective on the conflict, that the joy of the journey kind of gets lost on the way. Granted, Israel is definitionally a pretty darn westernized country, so it's not a place where you get a page of weird toilets (cf. [b:Comics Trips|1672070|Comics Trips|Peter Kuper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186642607s/1672070.jpg|2405890]). But in the earnestness, there's a loss of whimsy, excitement, and wanderlust that I really missed. Yeah, I think that's it.
I enjoyed watching [a:Glidden|2817217|Sarah Glidden|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1238446413p2/2817217.jpg] struggle through finding perspective on the Israel vs. Palestine conflict during her journey, but something about it kept me from personally identifying or being affected emotionally. I've been to Israel (granted, about half my life ago), and I spent most of the book trying to recognize places. Of course, things have changed a bit and I wasn't very successful most of the time. I found the maps slightly confusing, since special locations were pulled out but didn't have any meaning yet. Maybe footsteps showing her route might have helped with that particular issue? Also, my own niggling annoyance was that the photo of Glidden at the beginning of the book makes her looks extremely brunette, but in her illustrations she's distinctly light brown/blondeish. Not that it should matter, but it annoyed. I really appreciated her attempt to be even handed on the debate and expose her true feelings to this extent. It really did help me get a better more well rounded perspective on the conflict.
I'm trying to put my finger on what stopped me from going over the top into loving this book. Maybe it was the anticlimactic nature of her journey itself? Maybe it was the illustration style, which felt a touch utilitarian (particularly when depicting people) to me? I really did appreciate seeing Israel through secular Jewish eyes, since my exposure has been distinctly Christian. Maybe it was the lack of cultural details? Glidden is so focused on her mission of reconciling her brain to a particular perspective on the conflict, that the joy of the journey kind of gets lost on the way. Granted, Israel is definitionally a pretty darn westernized country, so it's not a place where you get a page of weird toilets (cf. [b:Comics Trips|1672070|Comics Trips|Peter Kuper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186642607s/1672070.jpg|2405890]). But in the earnestness, there's a loss of whimsy, excitement, and wanderlust that I really missed. Yeah, I think that's it.