Book Review: Poppies of Iraq (OT) (hardback comic book, a graphic novel)

Poppies of Iraq, by Brigitte Findakly (Drawn & Quarterly, 120pp, 2017, ages 14 and up, $21.95) Review by Skye Anderson

I never thought I would read a comic book that wasn't for kids (shades of Dennis the Menace) but this was a lovely experience with pages of photographs interspersed among pages and pages of story-text with each sentence illustrated by the author's husband and colored by the author.

A story about growing up in Iraq (before moving to France to live [and marry]), written in and translated from French, Poppies of Iraq is a quick read but one you can put down and pick up again, easily. 

Brigitte spends her childhood in Mosul, Iraq, and comes from a very large Christian family. Her story begins before she was born: her father went to France for his degree in dentistry and married his French wife there before returning to Iraq. The author takes us through the next few decades and episodes of being a minority, of visiting relatives in France for the summers, living in a 'war' torn country (civil wars) but as a child, so we learn how she sees and is shielded from politics and discrimination. 

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When Brigitte then spends the rest of her childhood in France, she is also a minority - someone who speaks French but doesn't read or write it and is therefore 'put back' in school. After a few trips back to Iraq over the years she finally comes to the realization that she may never fit in, in either country.

The story weaves back and forth and touches upon Saddam Hussein and some of his acts, as well as being a pretty good history text book of a few decades.

What is it really like to be a child in turbulent times? What is one aware of and what does one remember - perhaps the pet you had to leave behind, perhaps playing with the little girl next door after months of the families ignoring each other because they are 'different.'

And the drawings are fun!