Year of the Rabbit is Tian Veasna's graphic memoir about life growing up under the bloody reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. He was born three days after the Khmer Rouge came into power and escaped with his family into a Thai refugee camp at age figrve. They eventually settled in France. The story covers the experiences of his mother Lina, father Khim, the baby Chan and their extended families. After he became an adult the author interviewed his relatives to obtain information for the book.
The book opens with the families leaving their homes in Phnom Penh for safety. They expected to return in a few days but along their route they learned that the city was being permanently evacuated by the Khmer Rouge. The author, Chan, was born while his parents walked for months seeking safety. A bad decision to use forged travel permits gets them sent to a re-education camp where, for the next five years, they witness firsthand the regime's brutality.
Year of the Rabbit is first and foremost a well told story. The artwork enhances it by bringing passion into the pages. The overwhelming fear and hopelessness felt by the refugees is drawn on each page. What was interesting to me was that as Chan's family ran into old friends during these years, these friends did not stop being their friends. They offered spare food or helpful information. I expected that people would behave the opposite. The capacity of the Cambodian people for good is the amazing part of this story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Art Club
Art Club Dare to Create was published on February 6, 2024. The story was inspired by the author’s own childhood and paints a picture of an a...
-
This comic is a graphic biography of Nikola Tesla that was originally published in Italy in 2021. Tesla was a contemporary of Thomas Edison ...
-
Kate Evans' Red Rosa is a graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg. I was not familiar with Luxemburg before reading this biography but I fo...
-
Penelope Bagieu's graphic novel Brazen is subtitled Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World. It contains 30 short biographies of women who cha...
No comments:
Post a Comment