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A review by thisotherbookaccount
Hostage by Guy Delisle
4.0
Is it possible to label a book as being 'mostly boring' and still score a four- or five-star rating? In the case of Guy Delisle's latest work, Hostage, that may very well be the case.
You have to admit: reading a book that's mostly about a man who is chained to a corner of a room is not exactly the most exciting thing in the world. The protagonist, who is a real-life humanitarian worker called Christophe Andre, does not experience much variety in routines during his four-month captivity, either, which further nudges the book into the 'mostly boring' rating.
But why does it have four stars by my books?
Sometimes, boredom IS the point. This is the true story of how Andre was kidnapped and abducted for four months in 1997, without any explanation given to him throughout his captivity. About 99.9% of his time follows the same exact routine: meals are served by one of three men; he gets one bathroom break; his handcuff is removed for 15 minutes every day; he is left alone in the room without any information given. That was his life for four straight months.
But what Delisle, the author and artist, achieves here is to bring us into that room with Andre. Even though I finished the book in a day, I am able to sympathise and empathise with his predicament. Through your boredom as a reader, you can almost imagine what it must have been like for him, trapped in an unknown room in an unknown village for days on end. And, like Andre, you become fixated with every little shift in the daily routines. Maybe someone leaves the handcuffs off for longer than usual, or if he is woken up in the middle of the night and ushered into a car for no apparent reason. You get excited just like Andre, and you become disappointed just like Andre. If a book can make you feel like that, then, I feel, it is a book worth reading.
Of course, it is not a spoiler to say that Andre eventually makes his way out of his prison. I found myself rooting for him, wanting him to succeed and not get captured again. I think, to be able to relate to a character on the page the way I did for Andre, is the true triumph of this book. A highly recommended read.
You have to admit: reading a book that's mostly about a man who is chained to a corner of a room is not exactly the most exciting thing in the world. The protagonist, who is a real-life humanitarian worker called Christophe Andre, does not experience much variety in routines during his four-month captivity, either, which further nudges the book into the 'mostly boring' rating.
But why does it have four stars by my books?
Sometimes, boredom IS the point. This is the true story of how Andre was kidnapped and abducted for four months in 1997, without any explanation given to him throughout his captivity. About 99.9% of his time follows the same exact routine: meals are served by one of three men; he gets one bathroom break; his handcuff is removed for 15 minutes every day; he is left alone in the room without any information given. That was his life for four straight months.
But what Delisle, the author and artist, achieves here is to bring us into that room with Andre. Even though I finished the book in a day, I am able to sympathise and empathise with his predicament. Through your boredom as a reader, you can almost imagine what it must have been like for him, trapped in an unknown room in an unknown village for days on end. And, like Andre, you become fixated with every little shift in the daily routines. Maybe someone leaves the handcuffs off for longer than usual, or if he is woken up in the middle of the night and ushered into a car for no apparent reason. You get excited just like Andre, and you become disappointed just like Andre. If a book can make you feel like that, then, I feel, it is a book worth reading.
Of course, it is not a spoiler to say that Andre eventually makes his way out of his prison. I found myself rooting for him, wanting him to succeed and not get captured again. I think, to be able to relate to a character on the page the way I did for Andre, is the true triumph of this book. A highly recommended read.