The Last Book I Read

Joe Sacco may just be the most accomplished graphic novelist working today, almost certainly the best working the non-fiction vein since Harvey Pekar died. But unlike Pekar, Sacco's work is not introspective. Instead he uses his talents to uncover basic, human-level truths in some of the most heavily covered, newsworthy areas of the world. Past works focused on Palestine and Bosnia, and he returns to the former with Footnotes in Gaza. Ostensibly the story of how he tried to track down information related to a couple of massacres back in the 1950s, Sacco inevitably reveals much about the present situation in that troubled area, and demonstrates how history (formal or otherwise) continues to shape not just the big geo-political issues of the region, but also the day-to-day lives of those unfortunate enough to have been caught in the middle of it all. Of course, history on that level means something different than what's likely to be found in text books, and Sacco does a great job of laying out that distinction as part of his story. The reference to footnotes in the title kind of makes his point: these stories have been consigned to the margins, but their value, whether just retrieving something important that was forgotten or demonstrating key factors in how Gaza evolved to its present state, is undeniable. One could argue that Sacco's objectivity is compromised by the close relationship he develops with those who help him uncover these stories, but in the end I think that fact emerges as part of his message, namely that we are all inevitably biased by our unique experiences and recognizing as much may be the critical starting point for working out any sort of resolution of what are ultimately mutual problems. This is truly a great work, and I hope somehow its lessons sink in for those who read it.