Exit Wounds

In early '00s Tel Aviv, a taxi driver called Koby is approached by a wealthy young woman called Numi, who believes that Koby's estranged father is the one unidentified victim of a recent suicide bombing. Initially reluctant, Koby ends up travelling around with Numi to try to solve the mystery of what happened to his father.

I didn't love the art style here—there were some panels where, between expression and colouring choices, character faces were unnerving in ways that I don't think were intentional. There are some interesting moments as we see just how much Koby, Numi, and the people around them struggle to emotionally engage with one another. However, Rutu Modan disagrees with me about what was the most interesting potential path show more to go down/questions to explore with these characters, and ended up going in the direction I saw coming but was dreading. Numi had been in a sexual relationship with Koby's father and then begins one with Koby, and Koby is framed as being kind of a jerk for not wanting Numi to reference that during sex. show less

Although Modan doesn't have the most refined of drawing styles, I still enjoyed the art in the book. There is so much human drama in the story that it's really calming that the drawings are so uncomplicated. The "mystery" of Koby's father is solved little by little through the book, and although I have a logistics (or maybe just - dare I admit it? - moral) problem with Koby and Numi's relationship, it's still quite heartfelt. I honestly didn't think much of the book while I read it, but the story has really stayed with me and, with the amount of books I read, I have to give it a lot of credit for that - this is a book I will re-read more than once.

It's the kind of narrative that takes you on a ride, you're never quite sure where you're going, but somehow it pulls it off and remains compelling from beginning to end. Don't read it expecting some neat ending with all the loose ends having been tied. Elusive and evocative through and through.

In the graphic novel Exit Wounds nothing is what it seems. Set in modern day Israel it follows Numi as she convinces Koby, a taxi driver, to help her discover if her lover, Koby's father, was the unidentified victim in a recent suicide bombing. The more I think about it, the more interesting it becomes. The confusion starts with Numi who looks like a man, plain, even butch though her mother and sister are gorgeous and stylish. The location of the killing confuses everyone who thinks it was in Haifa, the most recent disaster, and has to be reminded of the lesser one in Hadera just before. Numi has delicate and fond feelings about Gabriel, the lost father whom Koby doesn't respect at all seeing him as an unreliable, self-centered lier. show more Gabriel, the tender lover, seems to have been a total womanizer, and the women he conquers are the dejected ones no one else wants. You can see why no one wanted them, they're old, the most disposable of humans, and Numi, though young is inappropriate in so many ways she was an easy target. Perception is everything. It's a quick and surprisingly stimulating read. show less

33. Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan (2007, 176 pages, read June 21)
(translated from Hebrew by Noah Stollman)

I picked this up partially because it takes place in Israel, and partially because it was assigned to my wife in a graphic novel class that she took. The later left me with the impression that it must be pretty good.

It opens as a taxi driver in Tel Aviv is taken aside by a young, awkwardly tall female soldier, who informs him that the unidentified body in a café bombing is probably his estranged father. How does she know this? What should he do about it? How can he find out for real?

It is a bit tough to pin down just what Modan is doing here. Just as she walks around this ghastly bomb without hardly touching on any gore, Modan seems show more to try to walk around the edge of some other disturbing aspects of humanity, without ever really getting dirty. What evolves out of this is a touching story, marked by strikingly elegant illustration.

2012
http://www.librarything.com/topic/138560#3482359 show less

Both the art and the Israeli setting interested me. I thought the book did a good job if introducing the perspective of people who live in a place where bombings happen every day. That being said, I didn't really care for the story, and I thought the portrayal of the female characters was callous and shallow.

I will admit to putting this book down on several occasions after being bored by the first several pages. Give this book a chance though, the subdued nonchalant dialog is mirrored perfectly in the artwork and goes a long way in developing and expressing a lot of the themes of the book. At times slow, this one will grow on you as the depth and gravity of the books events set in.