Grass
Appeared on best of the year lists from The New York Times, The Guardian, and more! Winner of The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year!
Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War--a disputed chapter in twentieth-century Asian history. Beginning in Lee's childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child's vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee's strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors of Lee's memories. The cartoonist Gendry-Kim's interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful nonfiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee's wartime suffering changed her. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace.BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Sadly, I was disappointed in this one. The subject matter is incredibly important, of course, and the actual story of it isn’t badly told. The author explains in her afterword that she explicitly tried to keep a flat, unemotional tone. I can’t say whether that’s the best strategy, but it was apparent throughout and it did actually seem to give a lot of space for Granny to tell her own story. Which is, of course, a powerful one.
Unfortunately, it’s the artwork that really doesn’t do it justice. I’m not bothered by the primitive, harsh aspect of most of it—quite the opposite, actually. I think that works well, fits the story being told, and definitely adds something to it. What bothered me were the cartoonish drawings of individual characters—including the author, Granny, and others. These renderings don’t at all match the tone or effect of the rest of the work; they really diminish it. It needed either more consistency, or a more purposeful contrast.
Then too, I don’t see why the author herself is so present in the book. There might be some value in framing the story with the modern-day interview, but I didn’t get much from hearing about her own reactions to Granny herself. And I didn’t get anything at all from the coda, where she visits China. She literally explains how they found a hotel for the night: Why? She is a constant distraction throughout the book, and I have to wonder how much better it would have been if she’d had more restraint (or a more ruthless editor).
Unfortunately, it’s the artwork that really doesn’t do it justice. I’m not bothered by the primitive, harsh aspect of most of it—quite the opposite, actually. I think that works well, fits the story being told, and definitely adds something to it. What bothered me were the cartoonish drawings of individual characters—including the author, Granny, and others. These renderings don’t at all match the tone or effect of the rest of the work; they really diminish it. It needed either more consistency, or a more purposeful contrast.
Then too, I don’t see why the author herself is so present in the book. There might be some value in framing the story with the modern-day interview, but I didn’t get much from hearing about her own reactions to Granny herself. And I didn’t get anything at all from the coda, where she visits China. She literally explains how they found a hotel for the night: Why? She is a constant distraction throughout the book, and I have to wonder how much better it would have been if she’d had more restraint (or a more ruthless editor).
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