Customer Reviews

Joe & Azat

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Joe & Azat has stunned the large community of returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Turkmenistan, most of whom have never met Jesse, with its accurate and empathetic portrayal of life there. Jesse breathes vitality into his Turkmen characters, for each of whom he provides mini-portraits in simple, almost minimal relief. The frames are drawn beautifully. For anybody who is interested in what life is actually like in Turkmenistan, this book will give you a better idea than any book or academic article you could get your hands on. It also stands alone as a story, a narrative about the clash of tradition and modernity, young and old, and the choices that we make and are made for us.

Lonergan spent time in the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan; the "Joe" of this graphic novel is a young man in the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan. (And "Azat" is his driver/guide/best friend there, the usual super-energetic, vaguely entrepreneurial young man in backward or developing countries, always on the hunt for the next big thing, cheerfully forward-looking, and hugely outgoing.) But Joe and Azat is not autobiographical; it's only based loosely on Lonergan's own experiences.

That means, I suppose, that life didn't neatly turn itself into a story for Lonergan during his time in Turkmenistan, but, then, it never does. The story here is episodic and without much overall shape; the episodes are individually interesting, but they tend to turn into "look at these colorful people, so unlike bland American Joe! My, aren't people in the less-known parts of the world so much more ethnic than we are!" in the aggregate.

Lonergan does have a great eye for black; he has huge areas of inky black throughout Joe and Azat. His faces are also very expressive; his people really come to life on the page. (His body language is equally good; the cover is a good example of that.)

Joe and Azat is very enjoyable, but it's a pretty standard me-and-my-wacky-ethnic-friend comedy (crossed with here-I-am-in-this-weird-foreign-country). I have to think that Lonergan could have put together a stronger piece if he'd kept closer to his own actual experiences; I doubt there was a "real" Azat -- and the people that he put together to make Azat would probably have been more interesting in their separate complexities.

Joe & Azat has stunned the large community of returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Turkmenistan, most of whom have never met Jesse, with its accurate and empathetic portrayal of life there.

This is a great comic of Turkmenistan. As a RPCV myself, the author really captured some of the funnies that are only understandable if you have been there. Fun, easy read.

Joe And Azat by Jesse Lonergan is an unusually touching and funny graphic novel based on the author's own experiences spent in the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan. Lonergan fits a lot of his terrific story into approximately 100 pages, and the artwork is great - a zen balance of hilarity and sadness.

I agree with the previous reviewer. This book is more informative than a Lonely Planet guide book. It is a must read not only for anyone thinking of joining the Peace Corps, but for anyone interested in travel in any foreign land - even if only from the comfort of their own living room.