Baddawi

There's a powerful story in here, and I appreciate learning more about Palestinian history. However, I found a lot of the art and the narrative difficult to follow -- it's not always easy to tell what's going on, or why she's telling a particular story -- the narrative just doesn't hold together as well as I would like it to.

There have been a lot of graphic novels recently about the Middle East and the strife there. And here is yet another. This one focuses in so closely on the day-to-day life of a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon that the larger forces buffeting his life and causing misery are left a bit vague. With little insight offered into what makes the Palestinian situation unique, this reader is simply left with the very obvious conclusion that living in a war zone sucks and a smart person gets the hell out of there.