Did you know that Boneshaker Books (conveniently located just off Franklin Avenue in the Seward Neighborhood) has an extensive collection of extremely well-executed, overwhelmingly bleak graphic novels? It's true, and many titles by the eminent Joe Sacco are among them. Sacco excels at showing up in war-torn places and just kind of embedding himself in the daily lives of ordinary folks who have suffered through all sorts of unthinkable shit. I read most if not all of his volume on the former Yugoslav countries a couple of years ago, and it was of a piece with this one.
On this one, Sacco takes taxicabs around Gaza and drinks tea with all sorts of locals whom he genuinely empathizes with and also feels guilty about exploiting for their stories. I read this one over the course of a month on my shift, which was probably the way to do it. I think any larger chunks closer together would have been too overwhelming and sad. As it was, the stories started running together anyway. I want to have a larger capacity for empathy. Sacco is a brilliant chronicler (is that a word) of oppression, and I can appreciate his work even if I can't enjoy it much.
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