Publisher's Weekly Review
Following her well-received How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, Glidden does a brilliant job in chronicling a two-month journey with journalist friends through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq to report stories about the impact of the Iraq War on Middle Eastern inhabitants. Traveling with them is Dan O'Brien, a U.S. veteran of the Iraq War, whose story is of significant journalistic interest. Whether he is able to tell the kind of story that people want to hear is another matter. The power of Glidden's narrative is in how it asks fundamental questions about what journalism is, what kinds of stories it tells, and what purpose these stories serve. She also manages to crystallize hours of recorded interviews with the locals into insightful discussions of complex situations. Hand-drawn panels, word balloons, and text combine with gorgeous watercolors to keep the story visually interesting, with many small storytelling touches-an interpreter's balloon printed over one from the person being interpreted-that help tell a complicated story with no pat answers. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Splitting the difference between comics journalism and graphic autobiography, cartoonist Glidden joins two friends, members of a nonprofit journalism collective, on a reporting trip to the Middle East. They're accompanied by Dan, a childhood friend and ex-marine whose return to Iraq will be part of their story. There's much merit in Glidden's re-creations of the pair's interviews with refugees particularly an Iraqi refugee deported from the U.S. for alleged terrorist ties and in her depictions of the hard work of gathering background and lining up interview sources. But even more revealing are the insights into the journalistic process itself. At every turn, the group faces professional and ethical considerations, from the need as freelancers to market their stories to potential publishers to the awkwardness of questioning Dan about his role in the war. Glidden's simple illustrations are more functional than flamboyant but enhanced by graceful pastel watercoloring, they effectively convey the text-heavy story. At a time when the value of journalism is widely dismissed, her sympathetic portrayal of these idealistic practitioners makes a strong case for the profession's necessity.--Flagg, Gordon Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Award-winning Glidden's second full-length work (after How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less) is an intricate investigation of how the reality of conflict gets filtered through personal, political, and journalistic narrative. In Israel, leaders of the author's Birthright tour informed her experience, and she was both critical and thoughtful about the views presented to her. Here, the storytellers are her journalist friends seeking accounts of displaced Iraqis, the refugees themselves, and ex-marine Dan, who has served in Iraq and has his own understanding of war and its aftermath. Glidden spends most of the book documenting the trip but also parses the nature of journalism in our society of ephemeral online connectivity and polarized politics. As more involved works in this genre generate less popular buy-in and exposure, how are the crises of the world in conflict shared? To what end? Glidden's understated, face-focused illustration style gets under your skin-by removing her own personality from the writing, the author sucks readers in so deeply that you really feel present, seeing her journey through her eyes. Verdict Glidden puts great care into everything she does, and this work-quiet but challenging, plain yet beautiful-exemplifies her skillful, sensitive reportage.-Emilia Packard, Austin, TX © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.