Safe Area Gorazde

Rating:
Summary: Graphical journalism on the war in Bosnia
Review: Joe Sacco has produced a gripping account of the war in Bosnia through the eyes of the people who lived it. He tells the story of Gorazde and by extraploation of the war in general by drawing up and commenting on personal encounters he has had during his stay in Bosnia. His account remains very much a journalist's account in remaining objective, regardless of a natural feeling of indignation for the atrocious crimes the people he interviews have suffered. He also displays appropriate criticism towards his own priviliged position as a UN protected journalist. The sometimes black humor in the book further helps to sharpen the focus on the situation.

The drawing style, in pure Black-and-white, is detailed and dynamic. There is a clear Robert Crumb influence in how the characters are drawn, especially in how Sacco draws himself. As far as format and story-telling go, I think Art Spiegelman's Maus has been an undeniable influence. The visual story-telling through the changing layout of each page is very functional. It helps the book to deliver its viewpoint in a very compact and efficient way.

All this of course is post-reading-analysis. I read the book cover to cover in one go. If I was teaching history to 16, 17-year olds, this would be a mandatory read on my reading list. I'm sure no one would complain.

I bought this one together with 'Palestine', which is of the same high quality, and immediately put in an Amazon-alert to notify me when anything new from Joe Sacco comes out.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Shocking
Review: Sacco shows the human side of the Yugoslavian war through a brilliant and effective combination of prose and comic book illustration. Not only does he provide a history and time line of the conflict, but also what it meant to the people who lived through it - and those who didn't. Sacco portrays aspects of the war that the press seemed to miss. Shocking, but a must-read!

Rating:
Summary: Truly outstanding
Review: Someone once strongly recommended that I read this, although I have to admit I wasn't expecting much at first. I was really unsure how the Bosnian war could be rendered in comic strip fashion. However, "Safe Area Gorazde" is incredible: this is one of the best journalistic accounts to come out of the Bosnian war in any format. Sacco recounts the horrific war stories told to him by his friends and acquaintances in Bosnia with a great deal of honesty. He very effectively incorporates his own wit and the dry humor of the Bosnians into his narrative without turning it into a satire. I also like the fact that he was quite critical of the role of foreign reporters and correspondents (including himself) in Bosnia, i.e. their frequent insensitivity or their effective eavesdropping on the suffering of others. His illustrations also speak for themselves as he very accurately recreates the wartime destruction of property and the rag-tag appearance of the people; he has a unique talent for re-creating facial expressions that reflect a range of emotions. Hats off to Mr. Sacco, he deserves every praise for this informative and moving portrayal of wartime and immediate postwar Gorazde.

Rating:
Summary: A personal side of the war in Bosnia
Review: This is a very brave book that takes an unflinching look at the personal affects of the war in Eastern Bosnia in the 1990's. Sacco is not attempting to tell about the battles, victories defeats of this war but rather the affects the war had on the civilians trying to live through it. This novel is important and should not be dismissed or overlooked due to the choice by the author of making this a graphic novel.

If you are looking for a detailed accounting of the war this is not the book for you. Instead this is the book for any reader that wants to learn the personal affects of war upon the civilians trying to live through it. Sacco uses personal interviews with people who lived in Bosnia to give the reader an intimate feeling of how life is like for the people who had to live through the war, rather than being able to see "highlights" on CNN every few days.

The graphic novel form works well for Sacco. Sacco's art work is graphic and raw yet has a beauty to it that the reader should enjoy, even while reeling from some of the war images. The intimacy of the medium, illustrating events versus describing them, hits the reader with a great deal of impact and shows the severity of the environment and events in the novel.

This book is a great example of the possibilities of the graphic novel medium. Hopefully there will be more works from Sacco soon.