Review (PDF) Bye Bye Babylon: Beirut 1975-1979
Tragedy and innocence coexist in this delicate reconstruction of the author s childhood during Lebanon s civil war In 1975 I was seven years old, and loved the Bazooka bubble-gums my mother would buy for Walid and me in Spinney s supermarket...Beirut in the 1970s is a paradise. Wealthy families ride escalators and fill shopping carts with imported food and luxury products from Paris and New York. Lamia Ziadé, seven years old, dreams of banana splits, American candy, flying on Pan Am Airways and visiting the local cinema. Considered by the elite the Paris, Las Vegas or Monaco of the Middle East, Beirut was in reality a powder-keg, waiting for a spark. On April 13, 1975 Lamia and her family returned from lunch in the countryside to find a city in flames.Looking back on the golden days before the war, and its immediate, devastating effects, Bye Bye Babylon positions an elegiac and shocking narrative next to a child s perspective of the years 1975 79: of consumer icons next to burning buildings, scenes of violence and sparkling new weapons painted in vivid Technicolor war as pop.It is both a lament for a home transformed by a destructive madness, and an inventory of the concrete objects of her childhood: the objects, details and fragments of memory which combine to capture the impossible reality of war. Part artist s sketchbook, part travel notebook and part family album, Bye Bye Babylon is a unique graphic memoir, and an important visual record of a terrible war.
Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: Interlink Pub Group (November 9, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781566568777
ISBN-13: 978-1566568777
ASIN: 1566568773
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #570,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #46 in Books > History > Middle East > Lebanon #170 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Mesopotamia #303 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Educational & Nonfiction
This is a fine autobiographical graphic novel. It showed me at last what happened to Lebanon and to Beirut and why. Illustrations are truly remarkable and add to the understanding of the heartbreak of long sieges and widespread destruction.
Gives a different perspective of the Civil War in Lebanon. Detail accounts of incident that happened during the war and the different groups/parties that were involved in the war. Good book with a different style of storytelling. Parts of the book could make you think back if you where a child growing up in these events.
fun to look through
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