Jerusalem is Guy Delisle’s third graphic nonfiction book depicting daily life in a city “few are able to travel to.” Delisle’s line drawings, in gray or beige shades with welcome rare splashes of color, are divided into twelve sections, beginning with the author’s arrival with his wife and children in August, proceeding through the months of the year and ending with July when the family departs.
Although the observations depicted in the drawings are personal, they are meant to be somewhat objective, a “stranger in a strange land” commenting on what he sees day-to-day. Delisle’s wife works for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Border), a humanitarian organization which claims to be politically neutral. Delisle and his family are housed in an apartment in Beit Hanina, in East Jerusalem, an area tagged on his map as “annexed since 1967.”
Through his drawings, Delisle describes his explorations of Jerusalem and other places in Israel as he cares for his children and experiences the complexities of daily life in this land. He writes about the traffic, the border checkpoints and the security barrier, the holidays and the sights. Delisle, who is neither Jewish nor Arab, engages with different sects of Jews, Christians, and Moslems, secular and observant. He seems to be open-minded as he asks questions and gains insight. Yet the people he meets with are not shy about strongly voicing their own political stances, and there is no explanation of how past history has created the current-day political situation.
The drawings are simple yet detailed and enjoyable to read, with a maximum of eight panels per page. I found this to be a cool way to present a travelogue. Chronicles from the Holy City is a picture album of one family’s year in a specific place. Although I don’t agree with the publisher’s broad claim that this book is “sensitive and fair, assuming nothing and drawing everything,” I recommend it as a unique read.
Miriam Bradman Abrahams, mom, grandmom, avid reader, sometime writer, born in Havana, raised in Brooklyn, residing in Long Beach on Long Island. Longtime former One Region One Book chair and JBC liaison for Nassau Hadassah, currently presenting Incident at San Miguel with author AJ Sidransky who wrote the historical fiction based on her Cuban Jewish refugee family’s experiences during the revolution. Fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, certified hatha yoga instructor.
