Zahra's Paradise

Zahra's Paradise takes place in Tehran in 2009. The author and illustrator have chosen to remain anonymous for political reasons and are known only as Amir and Khalil. This is a graphic novel.

The story is about a mother, Zahra, searching for her son, Mehdi, after one of the biggest street protests that took place in Tehran after an election. Mehdi has disappeared.  His mother and his brother Hassan, a blogger and the book's narrator, search for him at all of the city's hospitals, prisons and at the morgue.  They plead with corrupt politicians for information on an almost daily occasion, showing them all a copy of Mehdi's photograph. Hassan even hacks into one of the regime's most notorious prison's computer system with the hope that he will find him there.

This story primarily shows that a mother's love has no boundaries. However, it also shows how Iranians engaged with each other at that time period, which was not so long ago, just 9 years ago.  We westerners have been taught by the media that Iran is solely Muslim yet Zahra's best friend since the 3rd grade is Miriam, a chain smoking, drinking Armenian Christian. The title of this book "Zahra's Paradise" is also the English translation of the name of the largest cemetery in Iran, located in Tehran. Those interred there include people who both supported and opposed the Iranian Revolution as well as the current regime. Also, the regime buried Jews there that they caught and murdered. This story is showing a more diverse Iran than I am accustomed to hearing about with Jews and Christians living there alongside Muslims.

The artwork is composed of black and white drawings with varying degrees of grey shading which I assume reflects the desperation felt by Medhi's family. The comic is formatted in a traditional comic book page spread.

This story is an important one to tell. It shows what life is like in Iran at this time period. While this is a book of fiction, real life events took place in its pages. The election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 as President of Iran resulted in days of protests. The arrest, torture and murder of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi is part of the story. Also, the hanging of 2 gay men was mentioned. I remember reading about this in the newspaper. What surprised me was what the Iranians in the book thought about the execution of these 2 men. They wondered why their leaders could not wait for God's judgment on them and why they felt that they had to be the judge and executioner.

Highly recommended!

Plum Tea Crazy

Plum Tea Crazy is Laura Childs' 19th Tea Shop Mystery.  The series takes place in historic Charleston, South Carolina.  I have read all of the books in the series and have loved them.

The story opens with Indigo Tea Shop owner and amateur sleuth Theodosia Browning viewing a Gaslight and Galleons Parade from friend Timothy Neville's mansion.  A local banker, Carson Lanier, falls from a rooftop and impales himself on an iron fence. Some observers thought they heard a shot before he fell. However, it is later discovered that Lanier was shot with a bolt from a  medieval crossbow before he fell.  At the request of her friend Timothy Neville, Theodosia becomes involved in the investigation into Lanier's death.

I think this series needs a shot in the arm.  The same events happen in the same order in every book.  While I applaud the author for always having the crime committed in the first chapter so that the entire book is devoted to the whodunnit, after that the book is stale.  We series readers know that secondary character Delaine Dish will host a fashion show where 2 women will have an argument and Delaine will then have a tantrum that can only be soothed by Theodosia. We know there will be 2 extravagant tea events in her shop, although those tend to be rather interesting. We also know that the Heritage Society, chaired by Timothy Neville, will be the place where the crime or a crime will be committed. Usually it is where the crime to be solved in the book occurred. The murder place should be varied.

The main characters are great. Theodosia, her tea blender Drayton Connelley, her cook Haley and police detective Bert Tidwell are awesome. Some of the regular secondary characters are no longer interesting, especially Delaine, and the author should create some new ones. Theodosia has some eccentric relatives that maybe should become more prominent characters. Theo uses her secondary characters to help her solve murders so it is crucial that they not only be interesting but grow as characters.

I was disappointed with this installment of the series. I will give the series one more chance but if the author doesn't mix things up a bit I will stop reading it.

Rosalie Lightning

Tom Hart's story of his 2 year old  daughter Rosalie's death is memorialized in his graphic novel Rosalie Lightning.

He talks about the things she loved, her favorite sayings and activities.  He also goes into great detail describing the grieving process he and his wife shared after her unexpected death just days before her 2nd birthday.  All of his best memories became nightmares after she was gone.  He asks the question "what do you do after your child dies?"

This is a sorrowful book. Anyone who has suffered a loss will appreciate this book.

Brazen

Penelope Bagieu's graphic novel Brazen is subtitled Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World. It contains 30 short biographies of women who challenged the norms of their eras and made changes to society.  As a feminist, I could not help but love this book.

With the exception of Wu Zetian, Nellie Bly, Josephine Baker, Hedy Lamarr and Mae Jamison I had not heard of any of  these women. One in particular surprised me. Agnodice was a female gynecologist in the B. C. era. I didn't know there were gynecologists back then let alone women gynecologists.  She had to masquerade as a man to practice because prior women gynecologists were accused of performing abortions and women were then outlawed from working in that profession. Some things never change do they?

Be prepared to be inspired to dream big and learn how to persevere to reach those dreams of you read Brazen. I recommend this book as a must read for all girls for this reason.  Us older gals like myself could use a good dose of inspiration to either keep us on track or be inspired to find another path as a few of the rebel ladies did.

The artwork is done in a traditional comic book page layout using primarily colored layouts but occasionally black and white drawings. What strikes me about the drawings is how well the author captures women's emotions on their faces.  When a rebel lady gets treated badly or gets bad news, the author has drawn the perfect expression on her face.

Highly, highly recommended!

Public Library Haul

I just came home from the Chicago Public Library with 9 books which is all my briefcase would hold.  There were 5 additional graphic novels concerning the Jews and the Holocaust in a special display area that I wanted to check out but there was no room for them and I probably couldn't carry them all home on the bus anyway.

So, what did I get? I got one cozy mystery: Laura Childs' "Plum Tea Crazy." I also got 3 graphic novels: "Brazen," "Rosalie Lightning" and "Zahra's Paradise." There is one art book in the bunch by Kaffe Fassett who designs quilt fabric and textile patterns. A newly published religious book on being a disabled Christian by Shane Clifton titled "Crippled Grace" caught my eye as I, too, am a disabled Christian. Dan Brown's new mystery "Origin" and a historical fiction novel titled "The Essex Serpent" by Sarah Perry was checked out.  Finally, Ken Follett's latest novel "A Column of Fire" was also checked out.

I have 3 weeks to read all of these books and do not know how I will ever have the time. I felt compelled to bring them home with me just the same.

Palestine

Journalist Joe Sacco wrote Palestine in 1991 and 1992 as a 9 issue comic book series.  He wrote it after spending two months in the Occupied Territories and it is about the first intifada against the Israeli occupation which he says in the Foreward was running out of steam at the time of his visit. The edition that I have read is the 2015 Fantagraphics Books edition. The original comic book series won the 1996 American Book Award.

Sacco interviewed many Palestinian families but heard the same stories over and over. People were run out of their homes by Israeli policemen or soldiers, were arrested and jailed for offenses that they did not commit, lived in squalor, were not allowed to work, and had their businesses razed among other things. That said, he did present their hatred of Jews. The book opened with a discussion he had with a Palestinian about Jewish American tourist Leon Klinghoffer being thrown over the ledge of a cruise ship in his wheelchair by the PLO. The Palestinian only cared about the international news coverage that he felt the Jews were getting over the murder.

The artwork is a little different from what I am accustomed to seeing.  The author used black line drawings and text in full page and double page spreads as well as an occasional traditional comic book page layout.

Had I read this when he wrote it, it would have been newsworthy for me.  However, I have heard these stories from several different news sources and have read one or two books on the Palestinian/Israeli issue. I am aware that Sacco's book was groundbreaking for it's time, particularly for a graphic novel and therein lies it's value.

The Photographer

The Photographer, Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders is a reportage comic written by Didier Lefevre. In July, 1986 he traveled to Afghanistan with the French Doctors Without Borders during the height of the Soviet war to photograph their mission. The artwork of Emmanuel Guibert also helps to tell the story of their 3 months in Afghanistan. The book was published in three sections in France between 2003 and 2006. It was translated into English by Alexis Siegel who also wrote the Introduction and was published in English in 2009.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section is the month long trek to the mission location. The second section deals with the provision of medical treatment to the Afghans and the third section is the month long walk out of the country.

The graphic novel begins with the photographer leaving France for Pakistan where he meets up with other members of the mission and helps them prepare to enter Afghanistan. The first glimpse of local flavor is here.  The MSF (French name of Doctors Without Borders) packs up their supplies in boxes so that there is no room inside due to the battering that the boxes will go through during the expedition through the mountains to their post in Badakhshan. I was quite surprised to discover that the contents of a pack of pills could be crushed to a fine powder if they were to shift within the boxes. The boxes then must be covered in waterproof tarp in case they fall into a river. Negotiations over the purchase of animals for the expedition take place, where else, in a refugee camp.

The medical mission itself was pretty straightforward. Most of the harrowing stories dealt with how the group got into Afghanistan and how they got out.
The book ended with an update on what each member of the mission is currently doing with their life.

The artwork is colored in the browns of the region. While some of the drawings are detailed, many are not. They were drawn first in a black outline and later colored in by Frederic Lemercier. The photographs are all in black and white. A few of them are out of focus and I cannot understand why they were used in the book. Most of the photos are dark and I am not sure why.  Lefevre had good cameras with him. I wonder if the brown terrain made everything dark. However, in some places he said he was in beautiful terrain and the photos were still dark. His photos of the wounded and the surgeries were very clear. The comic print style of putting a page together is used regardless of whether there are photographs on the page, drawings or a combination of the two.

The story told here is an important one. It not only is an MSF story and an Afghanistan story, but a story of how the American war on terror began. The Introduction discusses the people involved in Afghanistan at the time of this mission who were also involved in the September 11 attacks in the U. S. The role of the CIA in Afghanistan is also discussed.

I highly recommend this book.