Hostage

In the late 1990s, a French NGO administrator called Christophe André was kidnapped from his posting in Ingushetia, a breakaway region in the Caucasus. Guy Delisle's art conveys André's experiences during his three months of captivity—the dim gloom of being chained up indoors, the monotony of repeated panels, the feeling of being unmoored in time and place. André is resilient, but not an action hero—he's one person with no weapons surrounded by a number of people with many of them, with no knowledge of Chechen or where he is. Delisle's recreation of his experiences are a meditative act of empathy, asking what you, as an ordinary person, would do if you too found yourself in such extraordinary circumstances.

I suspect a lot of reviews of this book to come will be decided by whether they consider the book's authentic depiction of repetition and boredom to be worth reading through or not. Spoiler alert: it absolutely is, partly to explore the humdrum existence and perseverance methods of hostage life, but also because that pattern eventually makes any deviation from the cycle utterly electrifying.

Publisher review:
"HOW DOES ONE SURVIVE WHEN ALL HOPE IS LOST?

In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders administrator Christophe Andre was kidnapped by armed men and taken away to an unknown destination in the Caucasus region. For three months, Andre was kept handcuffed in solitary confinement, with little to survive on and almost no contact with the outside world. Close to twenty years later, award-winning cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Jerusalem, Shenzhen, Burma Chronicles) recounts Andre's harrowing experience in Hostage, a book that attests to the power of one man's determination in the face of a hopeless situation.
Marking a departure from the author's celebrated first-person travelogues, Delisle tells the show more story through the perspective of the titular captive, who strives to keep his mind alert as desperation starts to set in. Working in a pared down style with muted colour washes, Delisle conveys the psychological effects of solitary confinement, compelling us to ask ourselves some difficult questions regarding the repercussions of negotiating with kidnappers and what it really means to be free. Thoughtful, intense, and moving, Hostage takes a profound look at what drives our will to survive in the darkest of moments."

My comments:
Excellent, gripping graphic novel from start to finish. For older readers due to the swearing but understandable in the context of what is happening to him. Loved the illustrator's use of angles and repetitive frames to show how monotonous and soul destroying it was for Christophe after he was captured. The interval where he imagines battles and generals in the various wars throughout history is a welcome change from the monotonous grey tones of his cell, as it would have been to him as well. Great use of a graphic novel to tell a true story. show less

Major kudos to Guy Delisle for making this story, which is essentially a man sitting alone in the corner of a room for hundreds of pages, so compelling and dramatic. I stayed up way too late in order to finish this ASAP. I have nothing but admiration for the endurance and courage of Christophe Andre.

El libro tiene un arranque potente y un final bien contado, pero decae bastante entremedias. Entiendo que Delisle quiere retratar con fidelidad el tedio y el aislamiento de la vida del rehén, pero termina transmitiéndolo al lector. Probablemente hubiera ganado con menos páginas.

Hostage highlights Delisle's deft visual storytelling and care for the story of Christophe. The majority of that book is set in rooms and reading I quickly felt that I too was trapped, isolated, but also deeply moved by Christophe's resilience and the stark picture of his psychological struggle. By providing a variety of different panels and focusing on Christophe's hope, Delisle kept the story from feeling flat and for such a paucity of settings this story is eminently compelling.

It's huge, and most of its pages are repetitive, yet I was never bored with Hostage. The gray color palette and repetition work well to make the reader really feel the boredom and isolation hostage Christophe Andre felt. I was surprised by the anti-climactic resolution.