Grass
Ratings6
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings6
Average rating4.3
Grass is a powerful anti-war graphic novel, offering up firsthand 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 20th century Asian history. Beginning in Lee's childhood, Grass shows the leadup to World War II from a child's vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Korean folk. 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.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is a heartbreaking biographical graphic novel about one woman's experience as a comfort woman during ww2. The artwork is very brushlike and emotive. I learned a lot about a conflict I admittedly don't know much about it. Really hard to read in some places.
A heartbreaking tale. Learning about history's atrocities through graphic novels. And then it's maddening to learn that Japan still tries to deny “comfort women” by opposing monuments and attempting to delete them from their history books.
The story of one of the Korean “comfort women” and her experiences. Hard but important.
