Graphic memoirs are in a real danger of becoming an old hat. The genre seemed so groundbreaking in the early 90’s when Art Spiegelman finished Maus, or even in 2000 with Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and there are still some interesting work published under the umbrella “graphic memoir.” And it’s a good thing that the new comic book releases shelve in our local library calls to me like heroin calls to Iggy Pop, or I might have missed one of them, namely Ulli Lust’s
It’s a very very mad world
Hassan Blasim was born in Iraq, but has lived in Finland since 2004. He has directed movies in both countries. He writes in Arabic, and the English translation of this short story collection won him some acclaim in Britain in 2010. In a way it could be said that he embodies the fears of some Europeans at the moment: multicultural, Muslim, The Other. But in terms of reviewing the book, that’s probably neither here nor there. What’s important is that