Jerusalem Cartooned

I just read Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle; it’s a “graphic novel” which would be a comic book if it weren’t a hardcover and weren’t about one of the world’s Great Big Problems. I recommend it totally.

Delisle spent a year in Jerusalem, tagging along with his wife (an employee of Médecins Sans Frontières) and taking care of his kids. There’s no real storyline, just a diary full of small stories and smiles, what it’s like to be a househusband/artist in a neighborhood where tremendously sad things happen every day.

I don’t think this is going to change anyone’s mind about big Middle-East issues, and probably won’t offend anyone except sympathizers with the inexcusable settlers’ movement. What it does offer is you-are-there sensations of what it feels like and smells like and looks like at the heart of the tornado.

I’ve also read Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea; once again, an entertaining tour of a strange place, by a storyteller with an admirably light touch. Also recommended.

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