5/5 Review of "Waltz with Bashir"
  by Edward H. Thomas (Dallas, U.S.A.)
This is a moving story related in the graphic format that is best known in comic books but has recently come into increasing use for serious novels and novelettes. The subject is an important one, based on real events in Lebanon in 1982. The principal protagonist and many of the other charactrs are Israelis who were performing their required military service at a time when Israel invaded Lebanon. Sent into Lebanon with little or no understanding of why, they soon found themselves ordered to shoot blindly in various directions, which at first they did with careless abandon. Gradually, however, they became aware that they were killing unarmed women, children and others. Many of these young Israelis suffered afterward from serious psychological problems. For the lead character, the result was complete loss of memory of what he was doing during that period, and the story is developed around his efforts, many years later, to recover that memory by talking with others who were in Lebanon at that time. That is the unfolding story of this graphic book, and it is not appropriate for me to disclose more of it here, or to say who Bashir is except that Bashir is not the protagonist's name.

This work is powerful. For those not familiar with the events in Lebanon at that time, it is an intense way to gain some understanding of them, perhaps leading to more traditional book reading to get a broader historical picture. For those who do know the history quite well already, it is a vivid reminder of what is behind more recent happenings involving Israel and Lebanon. The story makes no mention of the U.S. role at the time, which was quite significant.

5/5 Beautifully done!
  by S. Duke (Placerville, CA)
Reading Waltz With Bashir has been an interesting experience. Initially I was under the impression that it was a graphic novel based on a live-action movie, but as I came to learn more of the graphic novel's history I realized that this is a direct film-to-book translation of an animated piece. Each panel is captured from the film and given English dialogue. Despite my general dislike for book adaptations of movies, Waltz With Bashir actually works, because as a graphic novel it is as visually stimulating as a film might be and had an immense impact on me as a reader.

Waltz With Bashir follows a man named Folman, one of the authors, actually, who has begun having strange and terrible dreams related to his involvement in the 1982 Lebanon War. But he can't remember anything from the war beyond vague details and sets out to unravel the pieces to finally achieve some semblance of piece in his sleep. In doing so, however,
he begins to discover things about himself and the war that he would much rather forget.

Waltz With Bashir is clearly an emotional piece, and it successfully strikes home the feeling of regret and terror that comes with war, and especially with particularly bloody ones. While the story never fully completes itself--Folman never recalls his past in its entirety--Waltz With Bashir does give us a detailed glimpse into the world of a modern day soldier in the Middle East.

Particularly touching, for me, were the last few pages of the book, which showed real pictures from the events described by Folman in his memories. These are, to say the least, disturbing precisely because they are real images, not doctored or staged photos--at least, I assume they're not staged. The vast majority of us in the U.S. and other Western countries have not experienced the darker aspects of war, and probably never will. Waltz With Bashir, however, is a graphic novel that wants us to see these things; it wants to pull us out of our comfort zones to relay reality.

Already I am a fan of this piece. While the artwork has a tendency to be a tad simplistic, the merger of real backgrounds with drawn figures is a welcome change from the more typical styles of comic art. And while Waltz With Bashir may not be science fiction or fantasy, I think readers here will enjoy not only the movie, but this graphic novel, because it manages to do what few graphic novels have done successfully: tell a self-contained, deep, and detailed story that is aware of the psychological conditions of its characters. This one is definitely worth picking up!

5/5 A history lesson on the 1982 Lebanon War
  by Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA)
In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and Ari Folman was a soldier with the Israel Defense Forces. Many years later, Folman is talking with a friend, a fellow soldier who is now having nightmares about the war. Folman realizes that he has very few memories about that time period, and he goes on a mission to discover what he can't remember. Waltz With Bashir, based on an animated movie of the same name, chronicles that mission and all the troubling things the author finds long the way. The book culminates with the recollection of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Although Folman did not actively take part in the killings, he was there, and the aftermath of those days still haunts him.

I have not seen the animated film, but the graphic novel stands alone as a great read. The artwork was stark and brutally clear, although the edges were blurred on some of the scenes as the author remembered them, which was a nice effect. The massacre is obviously not a topic that readily inspires sympathy for the soldiers involved. Folman was simply a soldier carrying out his duties, and I cannot fault him for that. A good take on a dark piece of history.

Reviewed by: Holly Scudero


5/5 My inhumanity to you debases even me...
  by Steve Reina (Troy Michigan)
Waltz with Bashir, the story of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres is more than just another tale (among way too many) of carnage and death in the mid-east.

Rather it's the story of how inhumanity debases us all, regardless of our proxmity to it.

In many ways, this book reminded me of its earlier cousin, Maus, also by a Jewish author, Art Spiegelman, and also told in the graphic novel format, a format uniquely conducive to conveying the nightmare aspects of the story...the dead and living made themselves dead for having taken life.

In particular it reminded of an exchange between Speigelman and his wife in Maus as they reflected on the significance of the Holocaust.

When asked who should mourn the Holocaust and how long they should mourn it, Spiegelman responded by saying, "I don't maybe everyone...forever."

Whatever our politics, our common humanity sooner or later reminds us of the value of human life. Waltz with Bashir beats with the fervent hope that that realization comes sooner.

5/5 My thoughts on...
  by Eva Rosander
What do you do when you find yourself in a situation which will potentially drive you out of your mind? What will your brain do? How will your brain rescue your sanity if you realize that you are enabling the carrying out of a horrible crime? Basically, this is what Ari Folman's story is about.

For Folman, it comes as quite a shock when a friend mentions horrible nightmares, spawning from his time in Lebanon and it makes Folman wonder, "Why don't I remember any of this?" But then, suddenly, he gets a flash, an image of himself emerging from the sea and walking through the Sabra and Shatila camps. So, he sets off to talk to other people who were in Lebanon with him in order to find some clarity, or truth, of what really happened. Folman uses a friend who is a psychologist as a sounding board for his discoveries, and this friend will partially explain the holes in Folman's memory - if they are indeed holes.

As a story of this particular war, it'll break your heart. More importantly though, as a story of what happens to those individuals who are a part of the atrocities that the lucky ones of us only have to experience through TV, it's a criticism that should shake you to the core. A war, any war, does not only take people's lives, it destroys the very soul of mankind.

This graphic novel is made in conjunction with Folman's animated documentary of the same name.