By Guy
Delisle
Delisle
has done this before (Burma, Pyongyang).
He accompanies his Doctors Without Borders spouse to an area of conflict, and
wanders around as a stranger-in-a-strange-land, an illustrator-guide to the
history and politics of a region or culture. I think he’s brilliant. His
little, strangely shaped humans elicit enough pathos that there is a
journalistic near-impartiality to his comics. Even his straightforward,
slightly squiggled linework is non-judgmental. He makes direct reflections
about culture and conflict and their ramifications in tense settings.
In Jerusalem, Delisle pokes his nose into
the lives of Muslims, Christians, and Jews living on both sides of the wall of
this holiest of cities. What he finds is plainness beneath the violence:
traffic jams, groceries, vacations that get held up at geographical
checkpoints. It’s a complex city, and I appreciate the tour free of an
authorial agenda to solve complex problems. This is a very good travelogue, and
a subtle argument for magnifying the common moments of being human.
- Dan
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