Category 4: A comic written and illustrated by the same person
Hostage
Author: Guy Delisle
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
Published: April 25 2017 (first published September 16 2016)
Page count: 436
Genres: biography, nonfiction, historical, comic/graphic novel
Page count: 436
Genres: biography, nonfiction, historical, comic/graphic novel
Date read: January 9, 2018
Number of times read: 1
Format: hardcoverSource: Chapters/Indigo
Summary
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 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 color 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. -- via Goodreads
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 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 color 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. -- via Goodreads
Review
Having discovered Guy Delisle through the graphic novel collection at the library I work in I quickly devoured everything of his we had in our collection. I loved his travelogue graphic novels and his style. I wanted more. And then I found out about Hostage. It's a graphic novel biography which I haven't seen many of so I was really interested. I had never heard of Christophe Andre or what happened to him. Delisle told his story in an incredibly powerful way though. Obviously Delisle didn't write the story himself because it's a biography, so of course, Andre helped write it. But I don't think that that in any way precludes it from counting towards the category I've chosen it for.
There's an incredibly interesting juxtaposition in this comic. It's between Delisle's art style and the story that he is telling. Delisle has a very clean, simple art style that's almost got a sweet edge to it if you get my meaning? But he uses that really light and bright style of art to tell very punchy stories. In his travelogues, it was used effectively to show what life is really like in places like North Korea or Burma. Here he's telling the story of a man who was kidnapped and held against his will for months on end. He really puts us into Andre's mind and experience, the reader goes through it with him. I feel like Delisle's light style lends a thread of hope to what seems to be an utterly hopeless situation.
I don't really have anything bad to say about this book. I really enjoyed it and it moved me. That makes for a really short review though so I do feel a bit bad about that haha.
If you're interested in graphic novel biographies I highly recommend this one. Delisle has a fantastic art style and a real sense of how to tell a good story in pictures. Andre's story is moving and suspenseful. You will get invested and stay invested from cover to cover.
Having discovered Guy Delisle through the graphic novel collection at the library I work in I quickly devoured everything of his we had in our collection. I loved his travelogue graphic novels and his style. I wanted more. And then I found out about Hostage. It's a graphic novel biography which I haven't seen many of so I was really interested. I had never heard of Christophe Andre or what happened to him. Delisle told his story in an incredibly powerful way though. Obviously Delisle didn't write the story himself because it's a biography, so of course, Andre helped write it. But I don't think that that in any way precludes it from counting towards the category I've chosen it for.
There's an incredibly interesting juxtaposition in this comic. It's between Delisle's art style and the story that he is telling. Delisle has a very clean, simple art style that's almost got a sweet edge to it if you get my meaning? But he uses that really light and bright style of art to tell very punchy stories. In his travelogues, it was used effectively to show what life is really like in places like North Korea or Burma. Here he's telling the story of a man who was kidnapped and held against his will for months on end. He really puts us into Andre's mind and experience, the reader goes through it with him. I feel like Delisle's light style lends a thread of hope to what seems to be an utterly hopeless situation.
I don't really have anything bad to say about this book. I really enjoyed it and it moved me. That makes for a really short review though so I do feel a bit bad about that haha.
If you're interested in graphic novel biographies I highly recommend this one. Delisle has a fantastic art style and a real sense of how to tell a good story in pictures. Andre's story is moving and suspenseful. You will get invested and stay invested from cover to cover.
Overall Rating
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| 4 bolts |
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