Customer Reviews

Palestine Book 1: 'A Nation Occupied' (Bk. 1)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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......

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."

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.

Joe Sacco's book -- describing "an innocent's walk" through the occupied Palestinian territories during 1991 and 1992 -- reminds me of my first trip there during the Intifada in 1989.

Palestine Book 1: 'A Nation Occupied' faithfully evokes the realities of daily life for the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, the latter area in which I lived from 1994-1998.

Sacco accurately captures the striking images of the region and conflict in this powerful graphic novel/comic book format, a fabulous medium to introduce a reader to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestine Book 1: 'A Nation Occupied' is distinguished as a humble and honest account of one man's attempt to make sense of it all, as well as a premier work of art.

Particularly chilling (and representative of the testimonies collected by human rights organisations and the testimonies of people I have personally known and interviewed) is the account of a Palestinian father's torture experience.

Be sure and also check out the second book, "Palestine Book 2: 'In the Gaza Strip'" by Joe Sacco.

Both books together cover a wide variety of other topics, including life for refugees, Israeli attitudes to the conflict, daily life inside prison, and more.

A faithful representation of the atmosphere of a visit to Palestine, and a well-conceived articulation of the conflict. Highly recommended.

Sacco is great at comic-book journalism; he in fact has a degree in journalism and can really draw. It's a shame that this terrific book is so little known while its precursor Maus--which is similar only in basic format--was out winning awards and hitting the bestseller lists. Maus is subjective, culturally and racially biased, far too personal and badly written and drawn where Palestine is objective, intelligent and well-drawn, but Maus came first (and also had the benefit of appealing to the prejudices of many book reviewers) and so still gets all the attention. Perhaps some readers were stung by the overhype that surrounded Maus and judge the infinitely better works of Sacco by it; if so that's a shame. Sacco succeeds where Maus failed, that is, everywhere.

It was a pleasure to read, informative and ingeniously presented. It took you to the human side of the Palestinians, something you never see on TV, at least not in the United States. Reading it showes us something we wouldn't be able to grasp from the TV anyway, the humanity, the people, the frustration and anger at the occupation that leads to the fighting. The Palestinians are real human beings just like you or me though they usually get branded "terrorists" by the world we see how hard it would be to live like them through Joe's eyes. It's a great book, find it, buy it, read it.

Bravo Joe Sacco. This book is one of the very very rare instances in which the Palestinian side of the story is told. Unfortunately a drop in the ocean as compared to the 50+ years of Israeli propaganda and revisionist history (not to mention its on going brutal & illegal occupation). If this changes the opinion of a hand full of people, Joe can raise his head high. It is fairly unique piece of work.

This is a wonderful book, check it out if you can. It shows what is really happening to the Palestinian people, and the Israeli people.

While the art takes a bit of getting used to, you'll find yourself immediately immersed in the story. A wonderful way to discover the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

While Mr. Sacco's abilities as a journalist are excellent, speaking as someone who has lived in Israel, I must protest that the view he offers of the Arab-Israeli conflict is extremely one-sided. He speaks of the woudned Palestinians, the hospitals, but never mentions the dead Jews and the graveyards. He speaks about groups of settlers coming into camps and beating people, causing problems, yet never once does he speak at any length about the many times Jewish communities in Arab towns were -massacred-. Killed. Completely.

One scene which caught my attention was when he interviews a youth who threw a molotov cocktail, and then the police hassled him. Sacco completely fails to note that this molotov cocktail could have /killed/ someone, or (as is more frequent) given them severe burns that will scar /permanently/-- I've seen burn victims, it's not pretty. Instead, Sacco is preoccupied with the notion that one molotov cocktail (and noone even saw where it landed, so it must not have been important, right?) is met by a brutal crackdown.

Yes, there is a lot of brutality on the Israeli side. Yes, they overreact. Yes, the situation of the Palestinian people is unjust. But Sacco seems to forget that for decades, Israelis lived in fear of something as simple as going to a public market, or taking a public bus-- because they never knew when such a trip might prove fatal, due to Palestinian terrorists.

Despite these major flaws, it was still a worthwhile read, merely because it is rare to hear the views of the opressed so vividly in their own words. I just wish Sacco had provided a context so we could understand /both/ sides of the conflict.

Yes, the Israelis are paranoid. But don't you think they have good reason, Mr. Sacco?