Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

If Guy Delisle had just taken it easy on the “hubba hubba” machismo/sexist jokes - which are very rare, but they do appear and are jarring - this would have easily been a 5-star graphic novel.

A memoir of Guy Delisle's year in Jerusalem, where he accompanies his wife - a Medicins Sans Frontieres administrator - and their two young children. Guy arrives in Israel as I would: a non-Judeo-Christian agnostic/atheist, almost totally ignorant of the history and context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike many (MANY) graphic novel memoirs, the center of attention is not Delisle himself - but rather his surroundings. He is a wry, relatively open-minded observer: he is upfront about his misgivings, prejudices, and feelings, and he is - for me, at least - relatable. I knew very little about how severely the Israeli-Palestinian conflict infringes on daily life there, especially for Palestinians. This was really a transporting and illuminating travelogue.

This graphic novel is a collection of vignettes (comic strips 2-4 pages in length) that cover the experiences during author's one year in Israel. He resides in East Jerusalem, but makes an effort to visit different parts of Israel/Palestine, with different companions. Many of the frames are not part of a specific story, but are scenes he sketched on site. A few are wonderful, typically grayscale landscapes. I found this to be a good overview of the region from an outsider's perspective.