Exploring 'Poppies of Iraq'
Welcome to Student Review, a space dedicated to the exploration of the exciting world of graphic novels. Today, I would like to talk about "Poppies of Iraq" by B. Findakly and L. Trondheim. As per usual, I'll talk about the authors and the book iself before delving into its themes. Afterward, we'll explore a more personal note of how the book impacted me.
The Authors
Brigitte Findakly
Brigitte Findakly, was born in 1959 in Mosul, Iraq. She lived through a rough time period, marred by the scars of multiple revolutions and dictatorial regimes. When she was 14, her family fled Iraq to her mother's homeland of France.
In 1980 she discovered comics and dipped her toes into illistrations, which quickly overtook her life. She published her first comic book in 1982.
She married acclaimed cartoonist Lewis Trondheim in 1993, and worked with him on almost every publication after. While Findakly never took the spotlight for her work, the two co-published "Poppies of Iraq" in 2016, before Findakly quickly stepped away from the public view once again.
Her most recent work (at time of writing) is "Women, Life, Freedom" published in 2022, a piece contributed to by over 20 writers, artists, and journalists to tell the story of the current Iranian revolution.
Lewis Trondheim
Lewis Trondheim was born in in France in 1964. He is an acclaimed French cartoonist and writer with over 20 awards and nominations internationally.
His debut to the comic industry was quite the splash, as his first publication, "Lapinot et les carottes de Patagonie" was over 500 pages! In 1990 he was one of the founders of the independent publisher L'Association.
Trondheim is accredited with contributions to over 150 books of multiple genres, including fantasy, biographies, and children's books.
Synopsis
"Poppies of Iraq" tells the story of Brigitte Findakly's childhood in Iraq, and early adulthood in France. Presented as a series of six-pannel comics, Findakly bounces between the past and present.
In the past comics, she tells short anecdotes about the schools she went to, the neighbors she had, and the struggled of her parents. Her father was a military dentist, and walked the fine line of loyalty and independance, due to the constant upheaval and changing of regimes. Her mother was French, and struggled to adapt to the eccentricities of Iraqi culture.
In the present comics, Findankly reflects on how the culture of Iraq changed every time she returned there, and the growing weariness of her many cousins who remained. She remarks on the increasing pressure of Saddam Hussein's regime on every facet of life. Portraits of Hussein had to be hung in every home. Children were asked at school how their parents felt about Hussein. Fruit and vegetables grew ever more scarce from consecutive wars.
Findakly tells the story of a little girl who slowly learned about the ugly side of the world. A girl who's family perseveres through the pressures of a hostile culture. A girl who struggles to adapt after moving away from the land she was born. A girl who feels such loss and distance as every visit to the home she once new reveals how it has twisted into something unrecognizable, something incompatable. A girl who is strong enough to look back on her life with the hindsight of a woman. A woman brave enough to tell the story of themselves, and how the world shaped her into who she is today.
The Imact
I would considder myself someone who is well-informed. I keep up-to-date with global issues. I participate in political movements I support. I read, a lot. After many years, I started to feel like I've seen everything before. I've read the tragic tales of Japanese persecuted during WWII, veterains of the Vietnam War, North Korean defectors, Holocaust survivors, Central-American revolutionaries. I've read about the opression of women in Islamic cultures before as well, but "Poppies of Iraq" tells the story quite differently.
Most historical auto/biographies frame their stories as tragedies. They recount the daily struggles and the horrors they must endure to survive. "Poppies of Iraq" takes a different approach being almost melancholic in tone. While still treading over the same ground of opression under dicators and constrained by religion, Findakly puts the emphasis on the mostly unaffected aspects of life. She leaves the awful as implications. A single line of horrible text atop an exceedingly plain picture.
Through the simplicity of the art style and the six-panel format, Findakly is able to broach several very heavy topics in an approachable manner. Many pages follow what I would like to dub the "2-2-2 format."
The first two panels set some historical background for the scene, helping us understand the where and when the page takes place.
The second two panels begin to tell a small personal anecdote. Often, a seemingly meaningless or even wholesome event.
The last two panels strike you with the depressing reality of what the actions of the previous two panels mean for the state of Iraqi culture and quality of life.
I've consumed many personal narratives of oppression and conflict, not just in novel format. (Schindler's List is one of my favorite movies.) But, after a time these stories begin to feel repetitive. I'm not shocked by graphic descriptions of the horrors of tortured POWs. I'm not broken hearted as a revolution fails. I'm desensitized. What I look for now in these kinds of stories, is something unique. "Poppies of Iraq" is that unique I've been looking for. The simple art style and the matter-of-fact writing makes the book more of a reflective piece than a sensational one, which is a refreshing spin on the trauma memoir. This book is by no means perfect. The six-panel structure often leads to abrupt conclusions to scenes, often making me feel that I missed a page or that a topic was not fully explored. However, more often than not, Findakly is able to utilize the six-panel format to its fullest.
Overall, I would recommend "Poppies of Iraq." Being a graphic novel, it's a fast read (it took me just over an hour). The simplistic visual style puts a greater emphasis on the impact of the writing. At least twice I found my self audibly exhaling quickly as the last panel of a page hit me unexpectedly hard.
I rate "Poppies of Iraq" seven dropped poppy petals, out of ten.
