Book Review: The Photographer
The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
by Emmanuel Guibert, Frederic Lemercier and Didier Lefevre
267 Pages
Memoir Graphic Novel/Photography
Published by First Second
My Rating of The Photographer: 90/100
Didier Lefevre, a photographer from France joins in with the physicians working through Doctors Without Borders. He left his home, Paris, after packing up his apartment and settling everything before heading out on this expedition. Once in Afghanistan his mission has begun, he follows the MSF (or Doctors Without Borders) taking pictures of their journeys through the rural villages setting up clinics and working on patients. When he sets out, it is obvious that he has no idea what toll this expedition will take on him emotionally and physically. He is very naive at times, he gets bored easy, and when he hears the MSF are going to take a different route back in order to treat some other villages, he can't handle the extra wait in getting back to the city, and essentially back home. When Didier decides to leave the comforts and safety of the MSF group and head back on schedule, it is 
not until they are gone that he begins to understand what is so important about having a good understanding of the native language and established relationships- he has neither. Death is more likely the outcome of this choice than survival.
This is an outstanding graphic novel, filled with photos taken while Didier Lefevre paired with the art excellence of Emmanuel Guibert. The Photographer continues to recieve notice around the world, for an inside view of a desperate war-related experience. What most amazed me was how naive Didier was when he got on the plane leaving Paris, and the growth that is shown by the end of the book. He is a fighter, and when in the beginning he thinks he is setting out for an adventure, in the end that same adventure is what is making him fight for his life.
I have never read a book like this one, since I love photography and I love art it was sure to be a hit. What I enjoyed even more was the honesty, the way Lefevre displays his stupidity, and how he chooses to place himself in circumstances that are really bad. It is through just this honesty that he is more real, more alive and just more human. I could relate to his feelings of desperation, loneliness and sadness, it was easy to follow him on this journey and somehow know that it would have been possible for me to make those same choices. He is driven to get the best shots possible, even if it does mean a risk. If you like graphic novels, this is a great one, the photos making it even more interesting- it is photo journalism at its best along with a desperation for life, and to life to tell the tale. I highly recommend this book, it is still making me think.
What is the cost of adventure?
If a story is not fought for with your very life, is it much of a story to tell?
Guest Post and Author Chat: Paul Harris, Author of The Secret Keeper
Yesterday I reviewed The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris, a novel that brings the conflict in Sierra Leone to a whole new level, one of the personal and human side to the chaos. I don't know if it is this way for you, but for me I love the novels that take me along to a place where I can feel the pain, and the anxiety of those citizens, even though it is only a fraction of the true feeling they experience, it is still a human bond, The Secret Keeper holds that gift for Sierra Leone.
Child Soldiers
By Paul Harris
The element of The Secret Keeper that many readers find most disturbing is
the child soldiers. Tragically they are not a fictional invention. The use
of child soldiers was a key feature of the civil war in Sierra Leone, as it
was in many conflicts in West Africa during the 1980s and 1990s. The
problem isn’t limited to that corner of the world during that time,
however. When I was emailing with Bethany about a possible topic she
mentioned that she had done research into the use of child soldiers by the
Colombian narco-guerrillas known as FARC. So neither Sierra Leone, nor
Africa, has a monopoly on using children as a weapon of war.
I do not pretend to know how to solve the problem of child soldiers. I wish
I did and I wish The Secret Keeper held the answers. But in the book I
sought only to reflect my own experience and my own emotional response to
encounters with them. That usually came from meetings at roadblocks, often
manned by rag tag soldiers, some of whom were barely taller than the rifles
they carried. To get past them was usually a careful negotiation, complete
with bribes of cigarettes, bread and booze. Alcohol, much demanded by the
soldiers, always made a return trip more unnerving as by then those manning
the roadblocks would be drunk. That they should have sought escape in
alcohol should be no surprise. They were caught up in wars not of their own
making. Their parents were likely dead. The rebels in Sierra Leone were so
brutal that they even stooped to forcing children to kill members of their
own families. The traumatised children then had no choice but to then join
their ranks.
The government side, and the various rag tag militia that lurked everywhere
were better than that. But not by too much. It was all brutish and nasty.
You prayed never to run into a rebel roadblock (I never did, thank God).
But government ones could be terrifying too, with guns pointed through
windows and, behind the trigger, the drugged-up stares of ten-year-olds.
But I do remember that these boys and youths, despite the horrors of their
situation, would sometimes respond to a simple smile and a joke. Just in
the same way any child or youth would. They would grin back and laugh at
some gesture or friendly shake of the hand. It was a reminder that no
matter what they had seen or done or endured, these children and teenage
boys were still somehow just that: children and boys. If a reader could
look through some of the horrors that The Secret Keeper describes and still
see those truths, then writing the book would have been more than worth it.
Chat with the Author: Paul Harris, The Secret Keeper
He won't be keeping too many secrets today!
Paul Harris has agreed to "lurk" around Dreadlock Girl today and respond to questions or comments about this guest post and his new book, The Secret Keeper. I can't wait to ask some myself. I hope you will take this opportunity as well!
Paul Harris will respond to comments/questions on both Dreadlock Girl and Dreadlock Girl Reads . If you want to follow the conversation along, make sure to check them both out!
Read more about The Secret Keeper:
Dreadlock Girl's book review of The Secret Keeper
The official book website: The Secret Keeper
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The Secret Keeper
The Secret Keeper
by Paul Harris
321 Pages
Fiction/Mystery Thriller
Dutton Books
April 2009
To Danny Sierra Leone used to be a distant land, one filled with unknown plights and faceless bodies, but after his first trip there those bodies have faces, and the plights have a scene. He is a journalist and is sent on assignment to the war zone of Sierra Leone to be the eyes and ears of his newspaper for the world. While there Danny is captivated by an American woman, Maria. She lives in Sierra Leone working with the child soldiers from the RUF giving them what no one else dares, a second chance.
He fell hard for Maria while he was there, but that was four years ago. Life has taken him back to his homeland now, London. There he has a wonderful girlfriend, Rachel, he has a job, and while he has every intention of getting on with life and forgetting all the events of Sierra Leone. This resolve crumbles when he gets a distressed letter from Maria telling him that she needs him. What does it take to leave life behind in order to sort out ones past? A letter, a feeling, a desire?
Sierra Leone is far from being at peace. Upon his arrival Danny sees through the intentions of painted facades and slightly spruced up neighborhoods to the core of reality. While he searches for answers to his own questions, he uncovers dirt that was meant to hide. The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris is a mystery, a thriller, a murder mystery, but more than that it is about a nation of people who are learning to live together again and about one man who's heart is stretched between two nations.
I completely enjoyed my time with The Secret Keeper. The mystery and thrill took me along for the ride easily and the descriptions and perspectives made the conflict in the book come alive completely to me. I have high expectations of international fiction since is that is what I read most often, and The Secret Keeper did not disappoint! Paul Harris captivated my heart and my mind in this great read, I enjoyed it all out. I found myself biting my nails and forgetting to stop to eat!
Dreadlock Girl rating: 89/100
Make sure you check back tomorrow! I will have a guest post by the author of The Secret Keeper, Paul Harris. He was a correspondent for four years in Africa where he covered the conflict of Sierra Leone. Paul is currently the US corespondent for The Observer and lives in New York City. He will be writing about child soldiers,worldwide. I can't wait, but I will and I'll post the guest post tomorrow.
For more information on this book, and the Paul Harris: The Secret Keeper
Moment of Truth
Title: Moment of Truth in Iraq
Author: Michael Yon
Pages: 256
Genre: Memoir, War
Yearly Count: 5
Michael Yon is a journalist, who since 2004 has chosen to report on the situation in Iraq first hand, yep over in Iraq. He isn't allowed to carry a gun, but goes out on missions, watches, encourages, and reports about what is going on, what he is seeing and does so with such excellence that after finishing the novel I was left speechless. I have started and deleted my review for this book almost ten times.
This is the only book I have purchased for myself in over a year. Does that say enough? I don't think it does. I have dreads, I am a vegetarian, I go hiking for fun and I live in Oregon and I loved this book, maybe that is what I am trying to make sure is understood. My brother is in the Army, he has been an enlisted man for almost 10 years. He has a family, a wife and two kids, he was in Iraq for over 16 months recently. He was injured in Iraq, he received a purple heart, he doesn't like to be called a hero, he says he isn't one, he is a guy doing his job.
I have cried when I think about what he has given up, the time that has lost with his family the worry his wife has endured, but he has told me before that he doesn't think of it that way. He saw the Iraqis, he saw the people there he saw changes, he saw what most journalists aren't there to report on, the victories.
Michael Yon is there, he is side by side with these heroes who are too humble to think of themselves that way. For them that word, hero conjures up images, images of a men they admire but not themselves. Yon was out there when my little brother was fighting with Operation Arrowhead Ripper.Unknowingly I picked up a copy of this book and asked my brother if he had heard of this guy, he said he didn't know but then I jokingly said, "look at the picture, you might recognize him!" he looked at the jacket flap and did!
I have come to admire Michael Yon in many ways, but the most important to me right now are that he is an insane brave man, and his objectiveness, sure he is over there with these guys, but I saw that he didn't speak all about the good things, he covered the losses and the wrong choices being made. Yes, even if they were being made by the leadership of the army, even if it didn't make the army look good, his honest voice was what I admired the most. Tell me what it was like, what you saw, that is what I want to know!!!
This review could go on for a day and a half, and I have quotes underlined that could go on for longer, but I'll stop. It was good, I loved it. More than anything I have heard, read or seen has given me a much fuller perception of the current situation in Iraq. I would recommend Moment of Truth in Iraq to everyone, but in a big way to those who just want to know what is going on over there. I have never felt a portrayal to be more ballanced than this one by Michael Yon. I recommend this book with no reservations, and in case you were wondering....yes of course it got my happy chicken award!
Michael Yon's Online Magazine (blog)
Book Review: Beasts of No Nation
Author Photo by Seth Wening
Title: Beasts of No Nation
Author: Uzodinma Iweala
Pages: 176
Yearly Count: 70
Awards:
- The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
- Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- First-Place Winner of the 2005 2005 Discover Award, Fiction
- The Best Book of the Year by Time, People and Slate Entertainment Weekly New York Magazine
A boy soldier, Agu, a child of a nondescript age (between 9 and 12) and from an unnamed West African Nation, speaks forth of the reality of child soldiers everywhere. Written as a novel, Iweala has taken bits and pieces of child solders worldwide, and formed a conglomerate child soldier in his character Agu. Beasts of No Nation is filled with their inner thoughts, their heartbreaks, and what they are asked to do. Agu's own morals, ethics and survival take a backseat to the desires of his leaders, who all in all are only different degrees of jaded and violent in this war of confusion.
I read this during the read-a-thon, and I was impressed with the writing, the detail and the thoughts it stirred, but it was really hard to read about. I have become even more impressed with this novel after I read it and it settled in and I realized that the author wrote it when he was 23 years old. Inner war of the conscience plays a large part in Beasts of No Nation, of what Agu was taught, and what he is now forced to live. He was brought up going to church, reading the Bible, and now he feels nothing could be further from the beast he has become. This approach of conscience that Iweala used brought me inside Agu, to the thoughts and debates going on inside this child soldier, and really helped me feel a connection to him. Despite his outward actions of war and savage acts forced upon him, inside the war was just as strong, a battle of will, conscience and ultimately survival.
Commandant is shouting, but I am hearing him like he is speaking through one big bag of cotton. He is saying, let us pray, let us pray and then he is asking the Lord to be guiding us in everything we are about to be doing. I am thinking that we should not even be asking God for anything because it is like he is forgetting us. I am trying to forget Him anyway even if my mother would not be happying with me. She is always saying to fear God and to always be going to church on Sunday, but now I am not even knowing what day is Sunday (p. 44).
Author information I found interesting:
Stop Trying to 'Save' Africa article in the Washington Post by Uzodinma Iweala
Uzodinma Iweala Article in The Morning News
Galley Girl Catches up With Uzodinma Iweala Article in Time
I Don't Ever Want to Sit Back, Michelle Pauli, of Guardian interviews Uzodinma Iweala
