Customer Reviews

Fax From Sarajevo

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I heard about this book when it first came out and I simply had to check it out.

Why would a well-known artist like Joe Kubert abandon the hum-drum of fictional comics to produce a full-length journalistic book...? How could he expect it to even sell?

When the Cranberries wrote a song about Sarajevo, comparing the hatred there to that of Northern Ireland, the topic of Joe's book made me sit up and listen. And I am so glad I did. Joe's connection to the subject matter is personal, and I think that this one fact makes this book a classic work of literature in its own time. Despite his bias because of his closeness to the situation, Joe takes the time to present the complexity of the situation in Bosnia with his art and editorial commentary. And for this I am very thankful.

When I traveled to Croatia in 1997, this book gave me an emotional "frame of reference" from which to speak to the people I met, and I was met with passionate affirmations of the fear, frustration, and outrage that the people there were feeling, being threatened by people who hated them, not for political reasons, but for their ancestry or religion.

Imagine: You walk outside one day and suddenly people on the street are drawing lines between people where they never drew them before. They taunt, persecute, even shoot at people who look just like them, went to school with them, and live across the street from them. This is not a phenomenon limited to Bosnians. It's a human phenomenon, and it's happening right now, in the U.S. between narrow-minded Americans and people who they fear for illegitimate reasons.

Kubert succeeds in framing, accurately, how, given the right chain of events, the seeming tight knot of trust and brotherhood in society can quickly unravel.

This is a sad story and I applaud Kubert for putting the effort into making this and trying to relay what happened in Sarajevo to people. However the style doesn't suit the story. The drawing and thought bubbles are just too reminiscent of a super her comic. If you compare the book to Sacco's "Safe Area", the stories are very similiar and equally heart breaking, but the presentation lends to the horror in Sacco's book. That being said, Sacco was there, while Kubert is basically translating from communications. He does a good job of relating from the faxes, but you come away feeling that this could have been so much better.

I think you should read it if interested, but Sacco's I think should be taught in schools. So make sure to get that one.

Joe Kubert has brought to the graphic novel genre a tale which has become relevant again because of current events. The war on Sarajevo was largely ignored by the American citizenry, with the exception of some special ops troops and our NATO allotments. Because of the recent arrest of the mass murderer Mladivic, who orchestrated the massacres in Sarajevo, Americans are once again being warned about their isolationist mentality.

The art is classic Kubert. The scripting is tight and well done. The story is relevant. This is one of the texts I use when teaching the Literature of the Graphic Word at the college level because of its high quality and social relevance.

Outstanding work by an outstanding team.

I'm Italian, I live very close to where all this happened. Yet, as it was happening, tons and tons of media coverage were not able to communicate the scope and the size of this unbelievably tragic war. But after I read this book I felt my stomach wrenching at the mere thought of what happened just a few hours from my home. This book is a great testimoniance of an horrible massacre that happened under our very eyes.

While the books deserves 5 stars for its documentaristic merits, as far as its "literary merits" go there are some flaws. Joe Kubert's art is too "heroic", as if the author was not able to "get rid of his ability" of making a war story or a super hero story so powerful and involving. But this is no war fantasy, this is the reality and I feel like Joe Kubert, despite the tremendous work, is not really able to convey all the emotions and his storytelling feels, overall, a little bit cold.

What really puts the book on its tracks are the protagonist's numerous faxes (remember! this is a true biographical story) which are enclosed in the book just following or preceding Joe Kubert's renditions of the same fact. The effect of the comic art and the faxes combinated is truly devastating making this book, as a whole, a true emotional experience and a great lesson in modern history (and humanity).

An important and enriching read. I'm now anxiously waiting for Joe Sacco's "Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995"

In the pages of this book are probably the most heart-gripping images ever put to print. Joe Kubert, a 50 year veteran of the comic book industry and one of the finest graphic storytellers alive, has brought to the world the harrowing tale of cartoonist and publisher Ervin Rustemagic and his family, trapped in Sarajevo during the 1992-93 seige. The plight of short supplies, unseen snipers, an impotent worldwide bureaucracy, the ever-present threat of violent death, the deceptively euphemistic horror of "ethnic cleansing", and no means of escape would have brought weaker people to their knees. Rustemagic's true story of survival, in the purest sense, is a nightmarish, but necessary read, to understand what the Sarajevans endured on a daily basis. Told in a combination of painstakingly detailed panels (some of Joe Kubert's finest work ever), segments of fax transmissions (Rustemagic's only means of contact with the outside world), and a collection of photographs taken during the seige. This is a story that must be told, so the world will not dare forget.

After reading all of the praise that has been heaped on this book, I finally bought a copy, eagerly anticipating a moving historical witness on par with Barefoot Gen, Will Eisner's work on the Depression, or even Maus. Given these high expectations, I was thoroughly disappointed. Somehow, Kubert managed to create a story of human triumph that is utterly uninspiring. Even after looking through the photos in the back, I cared less about these characters and their real-life survival story than a whole host of well-developed super-heros. I understand that Kubert, by drawing a story about a close friend and his family, was in a sensitive position and may have been reluctant to depict any sort of vulnerability in his protagonist, but the comic suffers from this lack of courage. Not only does the main character show no weakness, but his wife and children have no personalities. Halfway through the story, after many frustrated, failed attempts to become emotionally involved, I decided that this comic was not intended for me, nor for anyone else whose love of others stems from an appreciation for individual quirks and flaws. Instead, it was intended for patriotic macho men who are somehow able to find nuance in the words "I miss my wife and kids" repeated over and over and over. For those who want to know more about what went on in Sarejevo, by all means read this book. Like a colorful textbook, it is informative and interesting. But do not be fooled into thinking that tales of human endurance and survival will automatically be stirring and insightful. This book, unfotruantely, proves otherwise.

Unlike Safe Area Goradze, this story isn't drawn by someone who was there. This book is Kubert's gift to a friend and colleague - yes it's done in the same artistic style as Kubert used in his superhero and war books, but this isn't Sgt Rock, or even Enemy Ace.
Unlike some of the others who have reviewed this book, I found that the story works well as told in an American comic style. This is the story of the Rustemagic family, but it's also the story of the horror felt by their friends around the world once they realized what was happening.
This is a book about Americans awakening to a horror happening halfway around the world, as well as a book about the horrors of ethnic cleansing and civil war.

As a University student who is currently studying the topic of genocide, I had my first lesson of what genocide really is after reading Joe Kubert's book "Fax From Sarajevo". Joe Kubert, the author, really opened my eyes to this international problem of war crimes when he explicitly described the atrocious conditions and slaughterous events of the 18 month siege in Bosnia. The story brought me to my knees and put tears in my eyes when I finished reading the documented true life story of a family.

I have such admiration for the Rustemagic family, the author and also my professor for educating me some more on a topic that I was once ignorant on and thought it was a foreign enigma. I was impressed by the families strong will to survive during this murderous event, and leave Bosnia in the middle of an ethnic cleansing campaign by the Serb Army, which could have easily taken their lives.

I highly suggest that future readers of the book take into account that victims and survivors of all genocides are the ones who are the "True Hero's" of war.

Brilliantly executed `graphic novel' that has won a raft of prizes for its story of the author's friend Ervin Rustemagic, as he and his family struggle to preserve their lives and dignity during the siege of Sarajevo - a story communicated in hundreds of faxes to friends outside.

Joe Kubert is a terrifically talented artist. His graphic style is obvious. He renders Tarzan, Sgt Rock with the kind of rawness that is necessary for those characters.

His style does not work for documentary comics of this nature. This is a cartoony depiction to what were obviously real and tragic events that occurred during the last Balkans conflict. The narrative does not blend in with the pictures. There are obviously too many panels depicting too many action scenes that distract from the obvious storyline.

This comic is a complete disappointment.