I read this weeks ago, but it has stayed with me because it feels like a desperate attempt to bear witness; to register what is happening amid rapid changes and the apparently utter indifference of the rest of the world. Evans documented the conditions in refugee camps in Northern France in 2015 and 2016 (they were bulldozed not long after). It’s heartbreaking to read about how she is trying to do these various things to help people — bringing clothing, food, creating a space for people to draw. You feel this sense of powerlessness, confronted with the enormity of the suffering, and how heartless these various systems are that perpetuate it. It’s maddening how these very minor acts of assistance are simultaneously quite meaningful on a day-to-day level and yet totally inadequate to the larger problem. But the book isn’t a polemic. There are some particularly biting pages where she layers in some anti-migrant media material or comments about ‘bleeding-heart liberals,’ but for the most part, she sticks to just describing (and illustrating) what she sees. It’s effective in part because it’s restrained — not totally lacking in emotion, but also not dwelling on it.
Of course I couldn’t help but think about it in relation to a longer history of graphic novel reportage. When I teach Palestine, I really try to help the students see how Sacco positions himself within the book, both centering and relentlessly problematizing himself as a protagonist, wrestling with idea of the heroic reporter. Kate Evans doesn’t feel nearly so central in this story, perhaps because there is less narration of her thoughts and reactions, and less of a sense of story. There’s less of the overall historical context, too — it’s very much in medias res, and the reader needs to do the work to learn more. And I don’t think that’s a detriment. It’s an uncomfortable aspect of the situation that often as not, the people in countries migrants are trying to reach (or passing through) have little understanding of the global forces that have led them to move. But on the other hand: why should they have to, in order to treat those in need with the hospitality that any person experiencing hardship deserves?
Kasia Reads 