Literally Graphic reviewed Rolling blackouts by Sarah Glidden
Review of 'Rolling blackouts' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
For good or ill, not what I was expecting at all.
Going into this with her Israel memoir in mind, I can't help but feel like Glidden is writing around something. Namely, her opinion about Israel. That said, to say that Israel is a HOT POTATO sort of topic is probably an extremely privileged and naive perspective, so I can't really say I blame her.
Turning the first pages in this book, I was expecting it to be more along the lines of what her friends ended up writing. The fact that Glidden was instead looking more at the behind the scenes angle was a bit disappointing at first, but it has certainly grown on me. While I still don't think this is a universally important book to read, I do think that Glidden has created the best book she could given her aims.
To try and put things as …
For good or ill, not what I was expecting at all.
Going into this with her Israel memoir in mind, I can't help but feel like Glidden is writing around something. Namely, her opinion about Israel. That said, to say that Israel is a HOT POTATO sort of topic is probably an extremely privileged and naive perspective, so I can't really say I blame her.
Turning the first pages in this book, I was expecting it to be more along the lines of what her friends ended up writing. The fact that Glidden was instead looking more at the behind the scenes angle was a bit disappointing at first, but it has certainly grown on me. While I still don't think this is a universally important book to read, I do think that Glidden has created the best book she could given her aims.
To try and put things as concisely as possible, this book is about privilege. As such, as I said, I do not think that it is something that everyone needs to read, but I do think it was good for me to read and I think others could benefit from it as well. The mirror that Glidden holds up to herself and her peers (including myself), while it has limitations, is honest to a fault. Particularly, the struggle in how to relate to and depict the veteran her friend brought along, was particularly hard hitting for me as someone who loves dearly many extremely flawed people who I do not 100% agree with.
But that is pretty subjective.
Technically I do feel like this was a very skillful book as well. There are a number of different narratives going on, mostly to do with different questions. Things are always progressing enough in one question or another to keep things diverse and interesting, but the fact that the timeline is pretty straight forward always kept things well under control.
As far as the art goes I'm not sure it added that much to the story. It would certainly be easier for comics noobs to digest (then say War in the Neighborhood) but it's mostly going to come down to whether you like earthy toned water colours or not. I do think Glidden's style does perhaps help the characters seem more relateble, but I feel like I would have to ask other people their opinion to really say that objectively...