TITLE: Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda
AUTHOR: Jean-Philippe Stassen
STARTED: April 9, 2011
FINISHED: April 9, 2011
PAGES: 80
GENRE: Graphic Novel
FIRST SENTENCE: [From the Introduction] Deogratias, a Tale of Rwanda is Jean-Philippe Stassen's beautiful, moving and at times harrowing account of an individual's descent into hell, caused by his country's plunge into madness and genocide.
SUMMARY: [From Amazon.com
] his harrowing fictionalized account of the Rwandan genocide, readers meet Deogratias, a teenaged Hutu. His friends Benina and Apollinaria are Tutsi–a race that is being ethnically cleansed by Hutu extremists. As the conflict escalates, Deogratias witnesses murders and is forced to become involved in brutal acts of violence. He suffers a mental breakdown. The story is told through a series of flashbacks while he skates the line between rational and insane. Stassen spares his readers none of the brutality and visceral cruelties of this atrocity. THOUGHTS: This book was disturbing. I've read a lot about genocide and the Rwanda genocide in particular(I wrote my thesis and senior papers on the subject), but this was the first book that made my uncomfortable. The reason for my unease can be tracked, I believe, to the fact that this book shows the emotional and psychological toll these atrocities played on one person. There was no compassion fatigue in this book because the story was about one person. And that one person is not shown in the way you may think from the outset. The stark, bold, and exaggerated art style helps to show how horrifying these events were. Of all the books I read in read-a-thon, this one has stuck with me the most. It had the most impact even if I didn't like how the book made me feel.
RATING: 4/10 [An "Okay" Book]
Comments