Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like Being There..., March 26, 2000
This review is from: Palestine Book 1: 'A Nation Occupied' (Bk. 1) (Paperback)
One can save oneself the trouble of actually visiting the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip for Sacco gives the reader a sense of what it is like to be there. Implicit in his superb work is a light-hearted satire of those who comb Palestine looking for atrocities and looking to experience the grit of the occupation. For Sacco's cartoons remind us that when the traveler leaves, goes back to his climate-controlled hotel room or his affluent democratic country, and reads academic Edward Said, the real life existential travailes of the Palestinian Arabs there continue insufferably on..... The youth budget travel scene of Jerusalem's Old City is well and accurately documented. The suffering of the Palestinians comes to be understood as an humanistic issue divorced from whatever politics might be in play.... Mr. Sacco documents it all for us without any complexes, predjudices, or agendas......
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Balanced, humane view of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, August 26, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Palestine Book 1: 'A Nation Occupied' (Bk. 1) (Paperback)
from Maltese reviewer: "Sacco draws pictures that are worth more than the proverbial thousand words. He combines solid historical analysis with a distinctly human view of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. While he clearly is sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and devotes some of his most dramatic pages to the alleged brutal methods used by Israeli security forces, he also casts his sharp eye at some of the issues that divide the Palestinian community. What Sacco's work provides is a gritty feel and insight into life in towns and villages that flit across our TV screens on the evening news but are no more than names quickly forgotten. Sacco makes them live. His images and his personal voyage of discovery takes us through the back alleys of refugee camps, through security check-points, and into places that most will never see or understand. It is no wonder that several universities in America have asked Sacco to lecture on Middle Eastern politics."
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read for those wishing to understand the Palestinians, November 8, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Palestine Book 1: 'A Nation Occupied' (Bk. 1) (Paperback)
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand the daily experience of Palestinians living in the West Bank. This book is refreshing because it is neither an academic work, nor a lengthy description of historic claims. Using an unusual comic book format, journalist Joe Sacco simply describes what he sees among Palestinians from all walks of life. Although I am not a comic book reader, I found the format highly successful: it is colorful, it is a quick read and Sacco is able to elicit a chuckle (albeit black humor) even when describing experiences that most Americans would find shocking. Like Sacco, I have spent many months in the West Bank. I found Sacco's report -- which includes fact-rich vignettes about everything from life in the city, to life in the refugee camps, to life in prison (including a disturbing report on torture) -- to be accurate in both the facts and in capturing the subtleties of the local culture. If you want to understand why the Palestinians are pressing for change, Sacco's book provides rare and important insights.
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